Revealing mistake: When Charlie and Grandpa Joe drink the fizzy lifting drink and are floating in the air you can see the hook that is connected to the wire that Charlie is being held up by.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Directed by: Mel Stuart
Starring: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole, Peter Ostrum
Revealing mistake: When Violet turns into the blueberry you can see the reflection of the blue light in her hair. But in the same scenes where blue make-up is used instead of the light, you can see the regular flesh-tone under her hair and in her parting.
Revealing mistake: After Violet has chewed the gum and is blowing up, if you look near the bottom of her right leg, you can see the air hose that is blowing her up. Visible on full screen only.
Trivia: In the beginning of the movie, when the candy store owner is singing the candy man song, there's a spot towards the end of the song where he lifts up his counter to let all the kids in. Watch the little blonde girl as she gets walloped in the chin by the counter. (00:04:30)
Trivia: Of all the child actors who played main characters in this film, Julie Dawn Cole is the only one who continued to act into adulthood.
Trivia: Peter Ostrum won the role for Charlie while acting at the Cleveland Playhouse children's theater in 6th grade. He had no acting experience after that, and is now a veterinarian.
Willy Wonka: Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted.
Charlie Bucket: What happened?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after.
Mr. Salt: What is this, Wonka? Some kind of fun house?
Willy Wonka: Why? Having fun?
Willy Wonka: Invention, my dear friends, it's 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.
Mrs. Teevee: That's 105 percent.
Question: How did Willy Wonka know that Charlie and Grandpa Joe had stolen Fizzy Lifting Drinks? The entire time they were in the room they were completely alone and security cameras obviously didn't come into existence at the time.
Question: When Charlie goes into the candy shop and gets a Scrumdiddlyumptious bar, he gobbles it down and the man warns him he'll get a stomach ache. The fifth golden ticket had been found (or so Charlie thinks at this point), so he can't be digging for it. I've never understood: what was the point in eating it so fast?
Chosen answer: In the original book, Charlie has an obsession with chocolate that he only satiates once a year on his birthday. Also, at this point in the book, the Bucket family is going through an extremely hard time and Charlie has had less food than he usually would have, so he is EXTREMELY hungry.
Question: Why did the author of the book, that this movie is based on, hate this movie version so much?
Chosen answer: He felt that it took too many liberties with the story. In the original agreement, Dahl himself was to write the screenplay (he was, by that point, a not-unsuccessful screenwriter), only to find that his version of the script was subsequently heavily re-written, including what Dahl felt were a number of unnecessary gimmicks, such as Wonka's penchant for literary quotations. Even the title of the film was changed from the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", in order to tie into the launch of the "Wonka Bar", a new candy bar made by the Quaker Oats company, who co-financed the film. Annoyed at all the changes, he ultimately disowned the film and refused to sell the cinematic rights to the sequel, "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator".
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Answer: Closed circuit security was invented in 1942 and came into common use in the late 60s and early 70s. Beyond that, Wonka could have had Oompa Loompas monitoring the group or simply noticed that they were gone and guessed.
Greg Dwyer