"Willy Wonka must have rigged the whole competition, since he knew where to send fake Slugworth!"

Princess Alice

Not necessarily, right?

I mean, if we presume he's able to do that, it also seems just as likely that he legitimately distributed the tickets at random but used detailed shipping records and stuff to track where they ended up.

Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teavee weren't contacted by "Slugworth" until their TV interviews. All Wonka had to know was the general area where the winning bar had been sold, then wait on the news media to do the rest.

Veruca Salt was contacted by Slugworth immediately after "finding" her ticket, but her father had bought hundreds of cases of Wonka bars so it seems likely that Wonka could have known a winning bar was among them and just sent Slugworth to wait it out.

Charlie...ok, that's a little harder to justify. But Charlie does live in the same town as Wonka's factory, so assuming Wonka knew the winning bar had been distributed to a local shop, Slugworth really wouldn't have to travel far...

Viani

Well to be fair McDonalds did the same thing with the Monopoly Boardwalk tickets so it's not so far to hard and might be what it is.

Tatterhood

there was a fake slug worth??

man I don't remember how cahrlie and the cholocate factory works at all

DYRE

Is it that I'm an unimaginative person (maybe)? Like... of course he knew where to send the fake Slugworth because it's a deliberately-unrealistic fictional story? Isn't that fine?

Princess Alice

Tatterhood said:

there was a fake slug worth??

man I don't remember how cahrlie and the cholocate factory works at all

In the 1971 movie (and only the 1971 movie) Slugworth, a rival chocolatier, tries to convince all the kids to steal industrial secrets from Wonka's factory in exchange for money. Charlie refuses to do so, and Wonka reveals that it was actually a test all along and "Slugworth" was one of his employees.

This subplot was basically added to address the fact that, in the original book, Charlie just kind of wins by default after the other kids destroy themselves, without actually doing anything to prove himself worthy of receiving the factory.

I could go on about this movie for hours if you'd let me.

DYRE said:

Is it that I'm an unimaginative person (maybe)? Like... of course he knew where to send the fake Slugworth because it's a deliberately-unrealistic fictional story? Isn't that fine?

See, that was always my assumption, because...it's a freakin' Roald Dahl story, what do you expect?

But then I got The Internet and saw people claiming it only makes sense if Wonka rigged the whole thing, so I tried to construct a counterargument.

Incidentally, I feel like the story as a whole makes less sense if you assume Wonka rigged the contest from the start, because that means he personally selected these five children as candidates for his successor, despite their behavior making it clear that most of them weren't suited for the job.

Klinotaxis

yeah, but he's also kind of crazy and enjoyed fucking with children

Alduin

The original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is so unlike the Wilder movie that it's kind of hilarious. Dahl wrote it to be, like, Se7en with kids.

Viani

What's in the box Wonka, what's in the boooooooooooox?

Alduin

It says something that "a chocolate bar" and "Veruca's severed head" are both plausible answers to that.

Viani

Veruca's severed head dipped in chocolate.

Alduin

Actually no, that's even more plausible.

Princess Alice

In the contract scene, Mike signs his name "Mike T.V."

In the end credits, his name is spelled "Mike Teevee"

And in the original book, his name is spelled "Mike Teavee"

I don't know why, but the inconsistency amuses me

Fossilmaiden

Okay, that's an interesting one. Because Charlie and Grandpa Joe bounced around the Fizzy Lifting Drinks ceiling prior to Mike's indiscretions in the TV room, it has been suggested that I should have won the contest (I was the last to go before Charlie). No one has ever pointed out to me before that I never had the opportunity to return the Gobstopper. The Gobstopper, by now, would have been a couple of microns tall. In my opinion, the whole thing was rigged from the beginning. Charlie even lives in Wonka's town! The fix was in.

- Paris Themmen

Princess Alice

Not only that, but Charlie and Grandpa Joe's escapades with the Fizzy Lifting Drinks happened before Veruca went down the garbage chute, too!

So if Charlie and Grandpa Joe had gotten caught in the fan and, well, either died or been eliminated from the running, depending on how you interpret the kids' demise...Veruca would have thrown a tantrum and gone down the chute, at which point all Mike would have to do is return the gobstopper and he'd have won.

...Like any good whimsical fantasy story, this falls apart the longer you think about it.

Tanya

glennmagusharvey

Was checking out some Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory clips just now and I realized how little I understood of the plot when I watched the movie.

Well, here's what I knew.
* Several kids were admitted to tour Wonka's candy factory.
* Wonka presented a candy factory that did strange things.  The "everlasting gobstopper" was a particularly important piece of candy.
* Misbehaving kids were removed one by one, but at the end the main character (whose name I had forgotten) is the only one left, and there is a happy ending of some sort, because he wins by being honest and not stealing anything or something like that.
* There is another movie called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I have no idea what its relation is to this movie.

Tatterhood said:

there was a fake slug worth??

man I don't remember how cahrlie and the cholocate factory works at all

basically my reaction

i think this movie just didn't really click for me as a kid

Princess Alice

It always annoyed me when people call the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie a "remake" because, like...it's not? It doesn't really draw anything from the 1971 movie; it's just another adaptation of the same source material.

glennmagusharvey

Wait, what was the prize anyway?  Was it just a lifetime supply of chocolate, or was it inheriting the factory, or what?

Also was the source material...*checks Wikipedia*

Oh, I see, it was first a novel, then a movie with real-life candy brand tie-ins.

For a while I wondered if the story was created to promote a real-life candy brand.  heh

Princess Alice

I could summarize for you, but it'd be funnier to tell you to read the goddamn book.

So, read the goddamn book, Glenn!

...

Fine.

Willy Wonka is a chocolate maker who is extremely secretive, to the point that he won't hire anyone from the nearby town to work in his factory, because he fears they're all industrial spies.

One day, Wonka announces that he's opening up his factory to a lucky few children. He's hidden 5 Golden Tickets in 5 Wonka bars and those who find them get to tour the factory. The grand prize is advertised as a lifetime supply of chocolate.

The five winners are Augustus Gloop, an unabashed glutton; Veruca Salt, a spoiled rich girl who is extremely greedy; Violet Bauregarde, who chews gum all day long; Mike Teavee, whose surname is not very subtle; and Charlie Bucket, the protagonist.

As the tour begins, Willy Wonka shows them this bizarre fantasy land he's built inside his factory. As the tour group progresses through the factory, the children are "eliminated" one-by-one, in ways ironically related to their vices, until only Charlie remains.

Then Wonka reveals to Charlie that the real purpose of the contest was to find an heir to his candymaking empire, and Charlie will inherit the factory, where his parents can move in as well. This leads into the sequel, which will never be adapted into a movie because Roald Dahl said so.

As for Slugworth: the makers of the 1971 movie found it somewhat unsatisfying that Charlie essentially won by default, so they introduced a subplot in which a rival candymaker, Slugworth, attempts to talk all the children into stealing Wonka's trade secrets--specifically, the Everlasting Gobstopper--in exchagne for money. Charlie proves his worthiness to Wonka by refusing Slugworth's offer, at which point Wonka reveals that "Slugworth" was actually his employee Mr. Wilkinson and the whole thing was a test.

Klinotaxis

Dahl didn't want me to see those aliens on the silver screen? Douche

Princess Alice

Klinotaxis said:

Dahl didn't want me to see those aliens on the silver screen? Douche

He was apparently pissed off enough at the rewrites to his original screenplay...that he specified in his will that Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator can never be adapted into a movie.