I have yet to see the Johnny Depp version out this year, this question pertains to the first one.

Mr Wonka decides to hold a contest to get a selection of kids from around the world to come to his factory. The pretense is 'a lifetime supply of chocolate' but Mr Wonka was really looking for an heir, someone to take over for him.

I assume the golden tickets were magically dispersed to only children and probably specific children, yet Charlie is the ONLY possible candidate for the real prize. Every kid behaved terribly from the beginning. Mr Wonka had no real intention of letting them win. Charlie was the only logical choice (as long as he didnt steal the Everlasting Gobstopper).

So, my question is, were the other childern only allowed to go on the adventure with Charlie as a test for him alone? To see if he would become like them?

Wouldnt it have been better to select a number of GOOD children like Charlie (are there at least 5 in the world?) and test them some other way?

I don't think that Charlie was "predestined" to find the ticket. Wonka hoped that out of five random children, one would fit the bill. But based on his behavior, I don't think he really expected any of them to "pass the test" so to speak. Had Charlie turned out like the others, I suppose he could have just run the contest again.

As for the other children, is it really their fault that they behaved the way the did? All four of them were spoiled by their parents. Had they grown up in Charlie's household they might have had a bit more humility as well.

Were the kids really chosen at random, though--none of the ticket finders were adults. The way Charlie wins the ticket definitely suggests that theres some 'magic' involved.

Technically, Veruca Salt's ticket was found by an adult.

If they were random then Slugworth wouldn't have been there each time a kid found one.

You've got me there. But then again, they could have just been tracking the tickets and where they ended up.

If Wonka's magic is powerful enough to put tickets in the hands of five pre-destined children, sure it's powerful enough to see that Charlie is the eventual heir. Why not save yourself the trouble of the whole contest and tour...and just phone him up?

Yeah, I don't really know. I never read the book. Perhaps it explains it in there.

Slugworth found Charlie as he ran away. He HAD to have done that magically.

Wonka may have known Charlie would be a POSSIBLE heir, but thats why my theory those other kids were only being used as pawns to test Charlie. That, and Wonka loved to torture bad kids lol

There does not necessarily need to be magic involved.

First, the fact that kids are the ones who find the tickets. Read the rules of any contest and they might have restrictions. I always figured that Wonka made it clear when announcing the contest that only children would be eligible. Therefore, adults were free to buy Wonka bars as many did, but only children would technically be eligible to win.

Second, the fact that Sludgworth is there when the tickets are found. It seems obvious that Wonka would know exactly where each chocolate bar with a gold ticket would be going. He would make sure that they go to separate countries and would even know exactly which store it was being sold to. He could simply ship each ticket at different times so that Sludgworth would be around when that exact bar was opened. Wonka could have even had people who worked for him keeping survellance.

In the book, it is random. And there's no Slugworth subplot.

Maybe there were tracking devices inthe tickets that allowed Slugworth to be near them in any case.

Because he needed to test him.

-JP

And one of the most common criticisms of the movie. But what many don't understand is that the movie is a re-imagining of the book, and one that Dahl liked.

With everyone coming out of the woodwork recently to support Burton's film... I'm beginning to feel that I'm one of the few out there that think the existing movie works great. All of the deletions/changes make sense on film.

The book is great, but a lot of it would be a bit 'bumpy' on film. They streamlined the story very nicely I thought. I think it plays great and I have no issue with what they've done in the original. The jury's still out on Burton's version...

It was always my impression that Slugworth showed up because of the media coverage.

But in two of the cases (Charlie and Veruca Salt), he was there as they found them, before the media showed up.

Not according to the producers of the remake, or according to Dahl's widow. I've read at least two articles, one in Premeire and one in Newsweek, where they claim that Dahl had problems with the original, implying that he would've liked the remake more.

Of course, since Dahl's no longer with us, determining which he would've liked more is a futile excersize. Ultimately it will be the moviegoers who decide which they like more.

Geeeze, this is starting to look like the War of the Worlds thread

What is the test in the book? Certainly Charlie doesn't become successor by attrition.

Stephen King hated Stanley Kubrick's Shinning and thought that the atroucious ABC miniseries version was better.

All these years I figured a story like Willy Wonka would be more or less safe from over-analyzation.

Dahl never liked the "reimagining". For the most part, because the studio would not cast an actor he preferred as Wonka.

That's exactly it. He's the "last one standing," so he wins.

That's what I'm saying -- Charlie giving the Everlasting Gobstopper back may have been an addition to the 1970s film, and something that wasn't in the book. But it works. Especially when you only have 90-120 minutes to tell the entire story.

When does the Johnny Depp version come out?

During the whole movie Charlie gets treated like a lowly street boy.

When he meets Wonka, he's basically pushed inside the gate and Wonka is being sarcastic about even meeting him. Compare how he greets the other kids-- Sure sometimes hes sarcastic but hes genuinely more friendly and polite with them.

Then throughout the whole tour, Wonka acts pretty bland towards Charlie and Grandpa Joe, whereas he interacts more with the other kids. Charlie is basically snubbed during the whole tour, it has to be a test.