Willy Wonka


Willy Wonka is a fictional character appearing in British author Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its 1972 sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. He is the eccentric founder and proprietor of the Wonka Chocolate Factory.
Wonka has been depicted in film several times. In 1971, Willy Wonka was portrayed by Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Wilder's portrayal in the film is widely beloved and is considered one of his greatest roles. Johnny Depp played the character in 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which polarized critics and audiences. In 2023, Timothée Chalamet portrayed the character in a standalone film that tells his origin story titled Wonka. Chalamet's performance was both praised and criticized. Wilder, Depp, and Chalamet all received Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for their performances.

Appearances

''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka has hidden five Golden Tickets inside his chocolate bars. The finders are rewarded with a tour of his factory, each accompanied by an adult of their choice, and a lifetime supply of chocolate. The children are unaware, though, that the tour is also a competition to test their moral character. As the tour proceeds, four of the children are eliminated, leaving Charlie Bucket the winner. At this point, Wonka reveals that the real prize is the factory itself. He needs someone to take it over once he retires, and look after the Oompa-Loompas who work there.
Wonka is introduced as a "little man" with a goatee, wearing a purple coat, green trousers and a top hat. He is high-spirited and moves quickly like a squirrel, though he later tells Charlie that he is "much older than you think."

''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator''

Wonka goes aboard the Great Glass Elevator with Charlie and his family and links up with the Space Hotel USA. The Space Hotel tracks the Elevator down back to Wonka's factory. Wonka then goes with Charlie and his family to the White House in the United States.

Film adaptations

''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' (1971)

Willy Wonka has hidden five Golden Tickets among his famous Wonka Bars. The finders of these special tickets will be given a full tour of his tightly guarded candy factory, as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate. During the tour, Wonka tempts each of the bad children to disobey his orders with something related to their individual character flaws. One by one, each child disappears from the tour, until eventually Charlie Bucket is the only remaining child. However, Charlie and Grandpa Joe have also succumbed to temptation by this time and sampled Fizzy Lifting Drinks, Mr. Wonka's experimental line of beverages that gives the drinker the power to float temporarily. The drinks, still too strong, brought Charlie and Grandpa Joe close to death before burping saved them.
Wonka informs Charlie that the tour is over, abruptly dismisses him and Grandpa Joe, and disappears into his office without mentioning the promised grand prize of a lifetime supply of chocolate. They both go into Wonka's office to confront him. Grandpa Joe asks about the prize, but Wonka tells him that Charlie will not receive it because he broke the rules, angrily referring to the forfeiture clause of the contract that the ticket holders signed at the start of the tour. Charlie's drinking of the Fizzy Lifting Drinks amounted to theft, so he violated the contract and gets nothing. Wonka then dismisses them with a furious, "Good day, sir!" Grandpa Joe angrily berates him for destroying his grandson's hopes, but Wonka is unmoved and angrily dismisses him again.
Grandpa Joe vows revenge on Wonka by selling the Everlasting Gobstopper to Slugworth, but in honest acknowledgement of his wrongdoing, Charlie decides to return the Gobstopper to Wonka's desk before turning to leave. Seeing how Charlie did not resort to revenge, Wonka sees an honest character in him and decides to let the fizzy lifting drink incident pass. He joyfully tells Charlie that he passed his test and reinstates his prize. Wonka then reveals that Slugworth, who had been spying on the kids, was actually his own employee in disguise.
The trio enter the Great Glass Elevator, which goes high into the sky. Wonka reveals that the grand prize is really the entire factory and business, which Charlie will get when Wonka retires. In the meantime Charlie and his whole family will move into the factory. Wonka reminds Charlie not to forget what happened to the man who got everything that he ever wanted: "He lived happily ever after."

''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2005)

Willy Wonka is once again the owner of a famous chocolate factory. Due to problems concerning industrial espionage, he has laid off all his employees, among them Charlie's Grandpa Joe, and closed his factory for many years. Wonka announces a contest in which five Golden Tickets have been hidden under the wrappers of Wonka Bars throughout the world. The finders will each receive a tour of the factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate; in addition, one winner will receive a special prize at the end of the tour. Charlie is the last to find a Golden Ticket.
On the day of the tour, Wonka greets the winners and the adults accompanying them at the factory gates and leads them through the compound. Grandpa Joe, who accompanies Charlie, introduces himself to Wonka as a former employee, but Wonka is still suspicious of him. One by one, all of the children except Charlie succumb to temptations offered by Wonka and are removed from the tour. Wonka offers Charlie a chance to live and work with him in the factory, explaining that he is getting old, and that the purpose of the contest was to find a successor to take over as owner once he retires. However, Wonka expects Charlie to leave his family behind forever, seeing family as a hindrance to a chocolatier's creative freedom.
Wonka's position stems from a complicated relationship with his father, Wilbur, a prominent dentist, in which Wilbur forbade him to eat any candy and made him wear a large, cumbersome set of uncomfortable braces in order to keep his teeth in good condition. Wonka secretly sampled some candy one day and was instantly enthralled, running away from home and travelling to Switzerland and Bavaria in order to pursue a career in making it. When he returned home, he found that Wilbur had moved the entire house to an unknown location, true to his word that if Willy ran away, Wilbur would not be there when he came back.
Charlie, who is not prepared to part with his family, rejects the offer, prompting Wonka to fall into a deep depression that saps his creativity and causes his business to suffer. With Charlie's help, Wonka locates Wilbur. As Wilbur checks Wonka's teeth, from which he recognises his son, Charlie finds that Wilbur is genuinely proud of his son, having saved every news clipping of Wonka's success. The two reconcile, and Wonka invites the entire Bucket family to live in the factory.

''Wonka'' (2023)

In the 2023 film Wonka, he is portrayed by Timothée Chalamet. The film tells a standalone origin story of the character about his early days as a chocolatier. In this version, a new backstory was added which reveals his even more troubled upbringing: Willy Wonka's mother had died and the young Wonka traveled to Europe to open his own chocolate shop. At the end of the film, after exposing the crimes of the local Chocolate Cartel, Wonka opens the last chocolate bar his mother left him, which is revealed to contain a golden paper with a message telling him that chocolate is best shared with others. He and Lofty, an Oompa Loompa, would then acquire an abandoned castle to commence building a new factory.

Stage musical adaptations

''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2013)

In 2013, an adaptation of the novel was produced at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in the West End starting on 25 June 2013. Willy Wonka in this production was originated by Douglas Hodge. In the play, Wonka decides to open his factory to five children who can find one of five Golden Tickets hidden in the wrappers of Wonka Bars. The play begins with Charlie in a large trash pile looking for items that are "almost nearly perfect". He later goes home and we see the Golden Ticket winners on an oversized television with actors inside it. Once all the tickets have been won, Willy Wonka invites the children into his factory, where he then tempts each of them with a weakness. Finally, only Charlie is left. Willy Wonka and Charlie board Wonka's "Great Glass Elevator", which takes off over the audience.

''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' (2017)

A reworked version of the musical, featuring added songs from the 1971 film adaptation, premiered on Broadway in 2017. Wonka was portrayed this time by Christian Borle. While the Broadway version received mixed to negative reviews, Borle's performance was praised. A U.S. tour commenced in 2018, with Noah Weisberg playing Wonka, and the musical premiered in Australia in 2019.

Spin-offs

''Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'' (2017)

In 2017, a direct-to-DVD animated film featuring Tom and Jerry in an adaptation of the 1971 film was released. The main storyline is largely taken verbatim from the 1971 version. Wonka is portrayed mostly the same as in the 1971 film. During the tour, Wonka becomes suspicious that one of the guests has smuggled a cat into the factory after seeing bits of fur left by Tom, who along with Jerry had previously been adopted by Charlie, and snuck into the factory in an attempt to stop what they believe to be Slugworth plotting to steal Wonka's secrets. Wonka eventually notices Tom and Jerry's presence, and accuses Charlie of smuggling them into the factory. However this turns out to be part of a test for Charlie as Wonka had intended to make Charlie the next owner of the factory from the very start.