Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory/YMMV
- Adaptation Displacement: The 1971 film is more familiar to many people than the book, to the point that there were complaints about the 2005 film making stuff up when what it was actually doing was restoring things that were in the book but left out or changed for the 1971 film.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Wonka's infamous rant (under Memetic Mutation) an Out of Character moment, or a subconcious Berserk Button?
- Some people think Grandpa Joe is a selfish jerk. He says that he'd help Charlie support the family if he could get out of bed, but the only time we actually see him trying is so he can go to the chocolate factory. Him taking the fizzy lifting drinks and willingness to sell out to Slugworth after Wonka's rant are also sometimes held against him.
- Also Grandpa Joe accuses Wonka of being an inhuman monster for crushing Charlie's dream.
- Awesome Music: "Pure Imagination". Among other things, it was repurposed for an ad for some high-tech product recently...
- Non Sequitur Scene: The tunnel scene, which comes and then is never mentioned again, even though realistically such an event would likely cause the characters to demand to be let out of this factory. Ironically, it's probably the movie's most famous scene.
- Covered Up: "The Rowing Song", whose cover as "Prelude (The Family Trip)" was made a bit more disturbing by Marilyn Manson.
- Ear Worm: "Oompa-Loompa-Doopa-de-do, I've got another puzzle for you..."
- Genius Bonus: After Wonka plays the musical lock, Mrs. TeeVee says "Rachmaninoff" knowledgeably. The joke is that the music is actually from Mozart's "The Magic Flute", which makes this reference also a Stealth Pun, as he plays the "key" on a tiny flute.
- The man from Paraguay who gets caught counterfeiting a Golden Ticket is represented by a picture of Martin Bormann, the former chairman of the Nazi Party, who was never captured and at the time was widely believed to be living under an assumed name in South America.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Despite being known as "the amazing chocolatier", the most popular Defictionalized Wonka-brand candy is fruit flavored, like Runts and Nerds (especially the banana Runts -- fans apparently lobby Wonka all the time for a banana-only box). You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who's eaten a Wonka bar, and the other candy mentioned in the book, the Everlasting Gobstopper, seems to have seriously dipped in popularity since the 1990s.
- Hey, It's That Guy!: The computer technician trying to get the computer to tell him where to find a golden ticket? Tim Brooke-Taylor of The Goodies.
- Magnificent Bastard: Wonka takes sadistic delight in punishing children in his whimsical death-traps and then mocking parents afraid for their offspring's lives.
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Mrs. Gloop: (as her son drowns in a river of chocolate) He can't swim! |
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- "Slugworth"'s prompt appearance wherever the tickets were found seemed to imply that Wonka knew where said tickets were going to go in some form of Xanatos Gambit. Now true, the first four tickets were filmed, so time could have passed between the finding and the news report, but "Slugworth" appearing in Charlie's path stretches coincidence a bit far unless Wonka planned for the tickets to be placed in certain locations.
- The commentary even points out that there was already a news crew waiting for one of Mr. Salt's workers to find a ticket.
- "Slugworth"'s prompt appearance wherever the tickets were found seemed to imply that Wonka knew where said tickets were going to go in some form of Xanatos Gambit. Now true, the first four tickets were filmed, so time could have passed between the finding and the news report, but "Slugworth" appearing in Charlie's path stretches coincidence a bit far unless Wonka planned for the tickets to be placed in certain locations.
- Memetic Molester: The candyman...the candyman can? Seriously, kids, haven't you learned not to take candy from strangers? Why can't he just sell them and be done with it? No...he has to practically seduce these kids with sugar and dance around them very suspiciously.
- Memetic Mutation: "You get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!"
- Commonly used in the "You Must Be New Here" meme.
- Older Than They Think/"Weird Al" Effect: Many people attribute the literary quotes by Wonka to this film.
- Tough Act to Follow: One of the biggest reasons adaptations of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after this one flopped is because the lead is always going to be compared to Gene Wilder. Supposedly, Nicolas Cage was considered for a never-made adaptation in 1999, but lost interest. Not quite a bad thing, because many believe he'd have made the character even darker than Tim Burton's interpretation did.
- Values Dissonance: Charlie being upset by Grandpa Joe's vow to quit tobacco.
- Vindicated by History/Vindicated by Cable: A box-office disappointment when initially released, it found its audience through TV and home video, becoming the 1970s equivalent of The Wizard of Oz. (Curiously enough, Roger Ebert's original review outright praised it as being the best kids' film since Oz!)
- What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Augustus Gloop and the tunnel sequence.
- What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: The reason why it has earned a reputation as a Stoner Flick.
- The Woobie: A minor example in Mr. Salt. Did he and his wife spoil Veruca? You bet. Are they responsible for her monstrous personality? No doubt. Even knowing this, does the look on his face when she calls him a "rotten mean father" (As though he were about to burst into tears) make you feel legitimately bad for the guy? Absolutely.
