1 Wonka Chocolate Is A Callback To Violet’s Chewing Gum From The 1971 Version

Summary

• The 2023 prequel Wonka draws inspiration from the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, including the design of the Oompa-Loompa characters and the use of the song “Pure Imagination.”
• Director Paul King wanted Wonka to sit alongside the 1971 movie, using little gestures and references to show that Timothée Chalamet’s character would eventually become Gene Wilder’s version of Willy Wonka.
• The film includes a direct reference to Violet Beauregarde’s three-course chewing gum from the original, reinterpreting it as the Big Night Out Chocolate, a chocolate that represents a night on the town with 12 different drinks.

Wonka director Paul King reveals a direct reference to Violet Beauregarde’s chewing gum from 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The 2023 prequel to Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sees King drawing inspiration from the 1971 original as its main point of visual focus. This includes the design of the Oompa-Loompa (Hugh Grant) and the use of the song “Pure Imagination” as a recurring motif, and sung by Timothée Chalamet’s Willy Wonka near the end of the movie.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, King talks about some of the Wonka references from the 1971 movie that he wanted to flesh out. While initially discussing the classic Gene Wilder line “scratch that, reverse it” as a way to signal that Chalamet’s Wonka will eventually become Wilder’s version of the character, he also discussed how the Big Night Out Chocolate directly refers to Violet Beauregarde’s three-course chewing gum in the original. Check out what he said on the matter below:

It wasn’t so much about recontextualizing the [1971] movie, but I certainly wanted this to sit alongside that. So there’s loads of little gestures that we use. Willy says, “Scratch that, reverse it,” which is a line that Gene Wilder has in the movie and I don’t think it exists in the book. And a lot of the movements … Because it’s such a visual performance that Gene Wilder gives with the cane and suddenly hitting a banister when he’s walking down the steps at the beginning of “Pure Imagination,” we use all of that and lean into it. They’re just little senses of, “Oh yeah, don’t forget that he’s going to become that character.” So there’s probably a bunch of them. The Big Night Out Chocolate is a little bit like the three-course meal in a stick of chewing gum [that Violet Beauregarde consumes in the ‘71 film]. We were interested in the idea that a chocolate could be a night on the town with 12 different drinks.

Wonka Celebrates the Legacy of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

While Wonka is more concerned with drawing the origin of the titular chocolate maker’s prowess, the movie directly references Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory on many occasions. Aside from the Oompa-Loompa designs and the use of Pure Imagination, the film reinterprets many lines from the original movie, directly winking at it but also celebrating the enduring legacy the original has in the collective imagination of viewers. One of the more memorable lines in the original 1971 film happens near the movie’s end, where Wilder’s Wonka lashes out at Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe, saying: “You get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!”

The last part of the line is said by Grant’s Oompa Loompa after he escapes Wonka’s trap. Another clever reference to the movie happens when Willy Wonka is confronted by the Chief of Police (Keegan Michael-Key), who references the chocolatier as “the Candyman,” which calls back to the Candyman song occurring at the beginning of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. All of these moments, including the Big Night Out Chocolate, reinterpret and expand what was introduced in the 1971 film while also celebrating its timeless legacy.

Timothée Chalamet is the third actor to portray Willy Wonka on the big screen, with Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp also bringing the character to life in the 1971 and 2005 adaptations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, respectively.

While it’s unclear if there will be more Wonka installments after the prequel, its direct references to the 1971 original show King’s love for the source material that inspired the movie, including Dahl’s original book and the movie that is still being watched by millions of households worldwide each year. Should the franchise continue, there is still far more to explore beyond the book and the 1971 movie, including potentially exploring the lead up to his eventual introduction to Charlie and passing of his chocolate factory.

Source: THR