Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Theatrical poster for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).
Willy Wonka and the adaptation that sparked a franchise
What do The Simpsons, Saturday Night Live, Tom and Jerry, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, meme culture, Timothée Chalamet, Sammy Davis Jr., and the theatre industry all have in common?
The answer: They have all been involved in one way or another with an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Consistently ranked as one of the top must-reads of children’s literature, Dahl’s novel was first adapted to film in 1971 as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder (of The Producers fame) as the new title character. While reasonably well received by critics upon its release, the film was not initially a commercial success. To add insult to injury, it was condemned by Roald Dahl himself as a bastardization of his original work.
Book cover for the first American edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, originally released in 1964.
Still, this less-than-stellar initial performance eventually gave way to a sprawling and successful franchise of stories, games, movies, parodies, homages, memes, and musical renditions that remains relevant to this day (2023’s Wonka, anyone?).
So what about this film made it so lackluster upon its release yet makes it so enduring in our culture today? Let’s take a look!
What is Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory about?
Charlie Bucket buys a Wonka bar from the Candy Man.
Charlie Bucket is a poor young man who lives with his mother and all four of his grandparents. He learns that the Wonka chocolate factory, which has been shut off from the public for years, will be giving an exclusive tour to the five lucky finders of five golden tickets, in addition to a lifetime supply of chocolate. The tickets are hidden in five different Wonka chocolate bars, and Charlie sets his heart on this prize. After a few unlucky tries, he finds the fifth and final golden ticket. He is quickly approached by a man who introduces himself as Arthur Slugworth (what a great name), a rival chocolatier who offers Charlie, in precise terms, goo-gobs of money in exchange for one of Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstoppers (another great name).
Günter Meisner as Arthur Slugworth. Check that menacing stare!
Charlie returns home after this classic Stranger Danger encounter, where his Grandpa Joe, until that point unable to even rise from his bed, finds his walking legs again and offers to take Charlie to the Wonka factory for his tour (now there’s a good marketing campaign—“Wonka chocolate: It cures your inability to walk!”).
Charlie and Grandpa Joe arrive the next day at the factory, where they meet Charlie’s four fellow winners: gluttonous Augustus Gloop, rich and spoiled Veruca Salt, television-obsessed Mike Teavee, and arrogant, gum-chomping Violet Beauregarde. All five children are greeted by Wonka and made to sign what amounts to an NDA. They are then introduced to the Oompa Loompas, Wonka’s orange-and-green staff, and each one of them is given an Everlasting Gobstopper (*dramatic music plays faintly in the background*).
Willy Wonka with the five golden ticket winners (from left to right: Augustus Gloop, Violet Beautregarde, Charlie Bucket, Veruca Salt, Mike Teavee).
The grand tour commences! Most unfortunately, the children are not on their best behavior, and the tour group is slowly whittled down as the prize winners meet their confectionery fates: Augustus Gloop topples into the Chocolate River and is sucked up an enormous tube; Violet Beauregarde, upon choosing to beta test a gum that is still being developed, turns blue and swells rapidly, at which point she has to be rolled away; Veruca Salt falls down a garbage chute in her avaricious attempts to capture a magical goose; and Mike Teavee, deciding that a teleporter is child’s play, accidentally shrinks himself down into a television character (*dramatic music intensifies*). Even Charlie and Grandpa Joe stray off the beaten path at one point, sampling Wonka’s Fizzy Lifting Drinks—a soda that makes you fly until you burp your way back down to the ground. But they get out okay, and the tour continues.
Violet Beauregarde, post-inflation, being rolled away by the Oompa Loompas.
Eventually, only Charlie and Grandpa Joe (whose walking form is simply marvelous for a man who only recently stood up after years confined to his bed) are left at the end of the tour. But Wonka becomes brusque, informing them that they are disqualified from the lifetime supply of chocolate because of their fizzy burping adventure. Grandpa Joe is all for taking the Everlasting Gobstopper still in Charlie’s possession and delivering it to Slugworth for the aforementioned goo-gobs of money. But Charlie, that heart of gold, returns the Everlasting Gobstopper to Wonka and prepares his poor little broken heart to leave.
Willy Wonka holding the marvelous and mysterious Everlasting Gobstopper.
But surprise! The entire contest was a ruse, a way for Wonka to find his successor. He reveals Slugworth’s true identity as a Wonka employee, he invites Charlie and his family to come live in the factory, and everyone lives happily ever after, with the possible exception of the other four children and their families who will likely need years of trauma therapy to deal with the events of that day.
But anyway. The end!
A Wonka-fied adaptation: The role of Roald Dahl’s novel and Dahl’s involvement in the film
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was the product of a request from director Mel Stuart’s ten-year-old daughter Madeline. Having read Dahl’s book, young Madeline approached her father, recommending that he adapt the book into a film. Insightful child! Stuart took the suggestion to a producer friend, who at that time was in talks with Quaker Oats to promote its new chocolate bar, eventually named the Wonka Bar. The timing was perfect. It was decided that Dahl’s novel would be adapted as a promotional vehicle for Quaker’s new product, and all the pieces fell into place. But who would write the screenplay?
Roald Dahl, known for a publishing library that includes a stack of children’s classics such as Matilda, The Witches, and James and the Giant Peach, was not a stranger to screen writing when it was decided that a film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory should be made. He had already adapted two Ian Fleming works to the silver screen (You Only Live Twice—a James Bond story—and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) when he was approached to write the screenplay for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
Roald Dahl in 1954. He was approached first to write the screenplay for the film.
However, Dahl was unable to produce a finished script on time. By the time the deadline arrived, he had only an outline to show. Ultimately, Dahl severed his connection with the production, and another writer was brought in to complete the script, a man named David Seltzer. Seltzer remains uncredited in the finished film, but the script was almost entirely his work. This was a deal made in order to keep Dahl’s name credited in the film as a way to maintain credibility. This worked out fairly well, even after Dahl disowned the film as disrespecting his original novel via Seltzer’s changes to his story.
Wilder’s Wonka surrounded by his small but mighty force of Oompa Loompas.
What were these changes? One of Dahl’s biggest grievances was the new emphasis on Willy Wonka himself, which he felt overshadowed the focus on Charlie, the child protagonist from the novel. Dahl wrote many of his children’s stories from the perspectives of the children themselves, an element he felt was vitally important, so this change really got under his skin. Another major change included a rework of the Slugworth character—originally a Wonka competitor, he was rewritten in the film’s plot as a Wonka employee working as a spy posing as a Wonka rival.
Wilder’s Wonka next to Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) on the set of the film.
This was done because the filmmakers felt the movie needed a tangible villain. I find this interesting for two reasons. First, he’s not really a “villain” is he? He works for Wonka, and at no point is he actually a “bad guy,” we just think he is at first. Second, this decision begs the question of why the filmmakers thought that Dahl’s original choice of making the villains our vices was not appropriate. It’s not that the Slugworth character is handled poorly—he’s written, cast, and acted well, and the plot twistiness of the character is appropriate. But why make the change to begin with? I won’t presume to peek into Seltzer’s mind, but I can’t help but wonder: Did he think the original was too subtle? Not exciting enough? Because clearly getting sucked up into an enormous chocolate tube or blowing up into an enormous blueberry are not exciting developments. Heck, I’m always inflating into a giant blue balloon person. So last week.
In any event, no matter how well these changes worked in the adapted film, Dahl was not impressed, and the film and the book, despite their overarching similarities, were seen by Dahl as not being on the same tier.
So what makes Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory worthy of the National Film Registry?
However horrified Dahl was with the changes made to his beloved novel, they set in motion a cinematic classic that is still valued to this day. First came Stuart’s film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which languished in obscurity after its release and sale to Warner Bros, and despite mega-star Sammy Davis Jr.’s cover of the film’s most famous song, “The Candy Man.” And yet, much like It’s a Wonderful Life, the cheapness of television licensing for the film due to its unpopularity incentivized a score of TV broadcasts, leading to a surge in the film’s popularity a decade after its release. This led to VHS sales and rentals, a 25th anniversary theatrical re-release, and a cult status that has cemented Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’s position in American film culture.
A second adaptation of Dahl’s novel came in 2005. From the mind of Tim Burton, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stars a man who I think is the only actor Tim Burton is aware of, Johnny Depp, and continues Dahl’s legacy. Decades of adaptations in television shows (including The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry, and Saturday Night Live), theatrical productions, references in film and music, Condescending Wonka memes, and even a 2023 origin film simply called Wonka starring Timothée Chalamet, and the Wonka-verse has become an American favorite.
The Condescending Wonka meme template.
From an inauspicious start came a cultural sensation that still captures the imaginations of young and old alike. I’ll admit that this was never a favorite of mine growing up, primarily because the infamous tunnel scene gave me the heebie-jeebies (that’s a technical term), but I can appreciate its impact on American culture, which has so far lasted for over fifty years. So whether you have fond memories of this adaptation, another adaptation, or of the original Dahl novel, I think it’s fair to say that this story of pure imagination has had a lasting influence that I don’t see dimming any time soon.
Camille
