Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2020 film) (Johnsonverse)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (also known as Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) is a 2020 American-British traditionally animated fantasy film directed by James C. Kelly, based on the 1964 book of the same name by Roald Dahl. It stars Eric Idle, Karen Davies, and Earl Cameron, with Nastassja Kinski, Arsseni Bultmann, Tenma Shibuya, Mana Ashida, Erica Luttrell, Malia Baker, Jaime Camil, Iñaki Godoy, Nina Baden-Semper, Paul Barber, Doña Croll, Femi Taylor, John Boyega, Sophie Aldred, and John Cleese in supporting roles, and is narrated by Tom Baker. The film is the third film adaptation of the book after the 2005 film of the same name and the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Production began in 2015 after Johnson Studios acquired the rights to the novel from Dahl's estate. It was the final film role for Earl Cameron, who played Grandpa Joe, before his death in July 2020. The film premiered in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2020, and was released on Netflix worldwide on December 17 (having originally been intended for a theatrical release but being moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic), receiving acclaim for its performances, animation, and story. In September 2022, the film received a limited theatrical release. A sequel, which adapts Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, was released in 2023.
== Plot ==
Many children, including a poverty-ridden girl named Charlie Bucket and her friends, James and Matilda, gather inside Hirsch's Sweet Shop as its shopkeeper, Arthur Hirsch, gives them candy ("The Candy Man"). Charlie runs back to the Bucket house, a small, decrepit cottage located near a junkyard not far from the factory of Willy Wonka, a mysterious chocolatier. When she walks in, Charlie greets her mother Diane, who works in a low-paying job at a toothpaste factory, and grandparents Joe, Jospehine, George, and Georgina, who are all eating cabbage soup, over the age of 90 and have been bedridden since before Charlie was born, and shows her family a sculpture of Wonka's factory that she made from junk salvaged from the junkyard. Joe relates a story to Charlie about Wonka, whom he had worked for 40 years before. He explains that Wonka has created many different sweets and a large chocolate mansion for a Texan that melted on a hot day, but that his rivals, Frederic Fickelgruber, Peter Prodnose, and Samuel Slugworth, grew jealous of Wonka and sent spies to steal his recipes, forcing him to shut down the factory and costing Joe his job. He also explains that the factory reopened some time later, but that strange, mysterious people now work there.
The next day, Charlie and other citizens look at a note issued by Wonka stating that five Golden Tickets have been hidden inside five Wonka bars, and their finders would be invited to his factory for a tour; once the tour was over, the guests would receive a lifetime supply of chocolate. Immediately, people from all over the world start buying many Wonka bars (shown are Chicago, Beijing, Sydney, and Monterrey). Back at the Bucket household, Grandpa Joe is hopeful for Charlie's odds of getting a Golden Ticket, but Grandma Josephine, his wife, believes that only those who buy plenty of sweets every day have a chance, as Charlie only gets one Wonka bar a year for her birthday. The next day, Augustus Gloop, a morbidly obese, gluttonous, disgustingly slobbish and very unintelligent boy from Zurich, Switzerland and the son of a renowned restaurant owner, is revealed to be the first Golden Ticket finder.
With the first ticket found, the Golden Ticket hunt starts ramping up, with people ranging from citizens to world leaders (including U.S. President Lancelot Gilligrass, the Pope, and Queen Elizabeth II) trying to find a Golden Ticket. Meanwhile, the Buckets celebrate Charlie's birthday, and she gets her favorite bar, a Wonka Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight. She opens the bar, but it doesn't have a ticket, much to the others' disappointment. She offers her family a piece, but they all refuse and let her eat the bar herself.
In Kashiwa, Kantō, United States, the second ticket is revealed to have been found by Veruca Salt, heiress to the Salt nut fortune and star of the reality TV show Catching Up With Veruca. Her father, Koji Salt, reveals that she had wanted a Golden Ticket, so he began ordering his employees to sotp shelling peanuts and start removing wrappers from Wonka bars instead; as the days passed, Veruca got increasingly upset, throwing tantrums, emotionally manipulating her father and even telling him to mortgage the factory, as well as strangling one of her teddy bears. Finally, when the ticket was found, he took it off the employee's hands and gave it to Veruca, who asked for North China in return. The Buckets, who watch it on TV, are unamused, with Charlie pointing out that Veruca didn't find the ticket herself.
At school, Mr. Smart, the teacher, is told by James that the third Golden Ticket has been found. Everyone in the room leaves, except for Miranda Mary Piker, and watches from a television screen at a TV shop, revealing that the third Golden Ticket was found by Violet Beauregarde of St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, an extremely athletic and haughty world record gum-chewer obsessed with keeping thin. Diane, meanwhile, loses her job after the toothpaste factory moves overseas and goes automated.
The Golden Ticket hunt ramps up even more, with entire cases of Wonka bars being auctioned, slot machines at casinos now giving out Wonka bars instead of coins, game shows now offering Wonka bars instead of money or prizes, sporting events offering Wonka bars as prizes instead of trophies, and stores needing to keep Wonka bars in safes. A professor named Foulbody presents a machine that grabs any gold object it detects, hoping it would become useful in the Golden Ticket search, only for it to grab the gold tooth off a duchess. Meanwhile, a woman is disappointed to get a mink coat from her date instead of a case of Wonka bars.
In Cuenca, Ecuador, the fourth Golden Ticket finder, Mike Teavee, is being interviewed, but he is busy watching mature television shows and playing graphic Western video games simultaneously. His toxic attitude, extremely unchildlike behavior, dislike of chocolate and especially his admission to hacking Wonka's computers to find the Golden Ticket without having to buy any bars disgust the Buckets. Grandpa Joe encourages Charlie to purchase a Wonka bar using a one-pound coin that was meant for his funeral, remarking that he would gladly be buried in a garbage bag so Charlie can find the Ticket. After the two argue over who should open it, Charlie opens the bar, which doesn't have a Golden Ticket inside. The Buckets try to console a dejected Charlie ("Cheer Up, Charlie").
With one Golden Ticket left, the hunt escalates even further to the point where crimes related to cases of Wonka bars instead of money have become commonplace. The Buckets watch a news report on their TV revealing that the fifth Golden Ticket had been found by Charlotte Russe, the daughter of a wealthy media magnate from Russia. Charlie cries in her sleep and becomes despondent for the next few days. Meanwhile, Veruca gets a phone call from Eustace O'Connor, the producer for her show, and agrees to sell him Wonka's secrets for a hefty price.
The next day, as she sadly walks back from school, Charlie spots a ten-pound bill in the snow. She grabs it and goes to Hirsch's Sweet Shop to buy a Wonka bar. After she eats it, she overhears a news report mentioning that the fifth ticket Russe "found" was a fake, meaning the real fifth ticket is still out there. Charlie buys a second Wonka bar, and finds the fifth Golden Ticket. Arthur is ecstatic that Charlie found the ticket in his store, as are James and Matilda, and several people hound Charlie and offer to buy the ticket from her. Arthur, however, tells Charlie to run back home and show her family the ticket ("(I've Got a) Golden Ticket"). When she arrives, Charlie shows Grandpa Joe the ticket, prompting him to immediately leap out of bed for the first time in 20 years ("(I've Got a) Golden Ticket" (final verse)). They read the ticket, revealing that 12:00 p.m. the next day (February 1) is when the factory tour takes place, and Grandpa Joe agrees to go with Charlie, having worked for Wonka in the past. Suddenly, several reporters and cameramen burst into the house to interview Charlie, but Diane shoos them all out. Charlie tells her family that she had received offers to sell the Golden Ticket, but her family (especially Grandpa George) encourages her not to sell it.
On the day of the tour, Augustus, Veruca, Violet, Mike, and Charlie, along with their respective guardians (Augustus and Violet's mothers Marlene and Rose, Veruca and Mike's fathers Koji and Bruno, and Grandpa Joe), are outside the factory gates as a large crowd gathers around; Augustus eats some sausages with his mother telling him to save his appetite for when they come in, Veruca vows to come in first, Violet signs autogtaphs, Mike gives shout-outs to his family and friends on TV, and James and Matilda support Charlie. As the clock strikes 12:00, Willy Wonka himself walks out the gates to greet the Golden Ticket finders. When they all enter the factory, Wonka tells the guests to hang their coats, as his workers are used to an extremely hot climate, and tells Augustus to drop his sausages (which he reluctantly does); the Salts hide their respective cameras in their pockets.
After walking through many hallways underground ("In This Room Here"), the party arrives at a door, and enter the Chocolate Room. All the guests run off to enjoy the many candies inside with Veruca and Koji taking pictures where nobody can see them ("Pure Imagination"), before Wonka tells them about the chocolate waterfall and river, which he uses to mix the chocolate. Suddenly, they spot several people, who Wonka explains that they are Oompa-Loompas, cocoa bean-powered robot employees he invented after shutting down his factory to human workers; Bruno, a high school robotics teacher, reacts in disbelief at how advanced they are. Veruca demands her father get her an Oompa-Loompa before Violet angrily tells her to shut up. Suddenly, Augustus starts drinking from the chocolate river as Wonka and Marlene warn him, only for him to get sucked in by a pipe. Once he goes up, Wonka explains that the pipe goes to a room where he makes strawberry-flavored, chocolate-coated fudge. The head Oompa-Loompa, Rusty, is sent to escort Marlene away as the Oompa-Loompas sing a song about Augustus warning of the dangers of eating too much ("Augustus Gloop"). Wonka presents a Viking-style boat to the remaining guests, and when they get on and the Oompa-Loompas begin sailing, he gives Charlie and Grandpa Joe a drink of chocolate from his river. When they enter a tunnel, the Oompa-Loompas speed up, and as the guests panic, Wonka sings a song, terrifying the guests even more ("There's No Knowing"). After he finishes, he orders the lights turned on, revealing doors to rooms labeled "Hair Cream", "Whipped Cream", and "Has Beans", among others. They stop at a door labeled "Inventing Room".
When they come in, the guests spot a variety of machines and inventions with Oompa-Loompas operating or testing. Wonka shows them some inventions in the room, such as Hair Toffee (which has left an Oompa-Loompa covered in long hair) and Everlasting Gobstoppers, before he directs them to a machine; a stick of gum comes out of it. Wonka explains that the gum is a three-course dinner consisting of tomato soup, roast beef, and blueberry pie. Rose tells Violet to take the gum and chew it in another opportunity for fame (against Wonka's orders), which she does. Suddenly, Violet's nose begins turning purple, before her face and clothes turn purple as well, and she starts inflating into a giant blueberry, much to the horror of everyone (except Veruca, who grins). Rose blames Wonka for creating the gum in the first place as Wonka notes that he's tried it on 20 Oompa-Loompas and each one ended up as a blueberry; a group of Oompa-Loompas perform another song for Violet warning about the dangers of chewing gum and becoming too thin as they roll her out and escort Rose from the room ("Violet Beauregarde").
The group enters into the Great Glass Elevator, and Mike, with Wonka's permission, picks a button marked "Television Chocolate". Once they arrive, Wonka grabs several pairs of goggles for the group to try on, and when they enter, Wonka shows the Oompa-Loompas placing a giant Wonka bar in front of a giant camera, and when it vanishes, they run to a television monitor with the normal-sized Wonka bar inside. When Mike refuses to grab it, Wonka asks Charlie to grab it. He eats it, and Mike asks if it could be used on people as well. Against Wonka's warnings, Mike leaps to the device, and is teleported to the screen where he reappears much smaller and, in a high-pitched voice, he expresses his delight in becoming the first person in the world sent by television. After Mike is unwillingly put in a horrified Bruno's shirt pocket, Wonka offers to use the taffy puller to make Mike long again and prescribe him "Supervitamin Candy" to fatten him up once he's stretched back, but Bruno, having had enough of Mike's destructive behavior, opts to keep him shrunken against his will. After another Oompa-Loompa song warning about the perils of television watching and suggesting reading books instead, Mike and Bruno are escorted away ("Mike Teavee").
As the remaining group walks past another corridor, they look at rooms labeled "Lickable Wallpaper for Nurseries" and "Square Sweets That Look Round", before entering into a room marked "Nut Room", which contains hundreds of squirrels removing shells from nuts; any bad nuts they see are thrown into a rubbish chute at the center of the room. Veruca starts demanding that Koji buy her a trained squirrel to add to her pet collection. Wonka says the squirrels aren't for sale, but Veruca decides to steal one anyway, against Wonka's warnings ("I Want It Now"). When she tries grabbing one, all the squirrels run off and tackle her, with her camera falling out of her pocket. They knock on Veruca's head and, deciding she was a bad nut, throw her down the chute. Koji decides to walk inside the room, prompting the Oompa-Loompas to sing another song chewing Koji out for spoiling her before knocking him down the chute as well ("Veruca Salt"). Wonka states that the chute leads to a furnace, which is only open every other day.
With only Charlie remaining, Wonka ushers her and Grandpa Joe into the Idea Room next door, where Wonka writes ideas in a notebook. When Grandpa Joe inquires about the lifetime supply of chocolate, Wonka gives Charlie an Everlasting Gobstopper. Grandpa Joe chews Wonka out on it, and the two nearly fight until Charlie tells Grandpa Joe that she thinks the Gobstopper is a great present and that the trip to the factory was enough. Wonka then invites Grandpa Joe into his office to work out legal paperwork and advises Charlie not to touch anything. Charlie, however, breaks the rules and adds her own inventions to the blank pages, only for Wonka to notice. While he seems angry at first, he commends Charlie for being unable to stop inventing, even if she's breaking the rules. Wonka tells her she's won, and leads her, Grandpa Joe and Rusty to the Great Glass Elevator. Wonka allows Charlie to press the "Up and Out" button, and the elevator flies out the factory and across town.
The group sees a skinny Augustus and Marlene, a stretchy, blue Violet and Rose (Wonka assures Charlie that the blue would wear off in six to twelve months), a garbage-covered Veruca and Koji, and a tiny Mike and Bruno, all walking out of the factory and into the trucks with the lifetime supply of chocolate. Wonka tells Charlie that he's giving her the chocolate factory, and that he was seeking out a child who would carry on his work when he was gone; he offers to give Grandpa Joe his job back, which he happily accepts, and the elevator flies to the Buckets' home, crashing through the roof. Grandma Josephine says there's "someone at the door", and Charlie introduces them to Wonka, who invites Charlie's family to move into his factory as well. Diane graciously accepts, but the other grandparents protest, as they don't want to leave their bed; Charlie, Joe, Wonka, Rusty and Diane carry the bed with the grandparents in it and move it inside the elevator, with Diane only bringing a photo of her late husband with her. The elevator then flies outside the cottage and into the sky, as Charlie begins her new life as Wonka's candy-making apprentice ("Pure Imagination" (reprise)).
An epilogue shows Augustus, Veruca, Violet and Mike all being disciplined by their parents, having learned the error of their ways, while Fickelgruber, Prodnose, and Slugworth are imprisoned for corporate espionage.
== Cast ==
* Eric Idle as Willy Wonka, the eccentric yet successful owner of the chocolate factory. Similar to the 2013 West End musical adaptation, Wonka is portrayed as a frosty yet sensitive artist capable of being kind.
* Karen Davies as Charlotte "Charlie" Bucket, the kindhearted, creative and sometimes mischievous protagonist who lives in poverty with her parents and grandparents, and the fifth Golden Ticket finder. Unlike other adaptations, Charlie is a Black British girl.
* Earl Cameron as Grandpa Joe, Charlie's fun-loving and optimistic paternal grandfather.
** Brian Bovell as Grandpa Joe's singing voice
* Nastassja Kinski as Marlene Gloop, Augustus' mother who encourages his poor eating habits and eats just as badly as he does.
* Arsseni Bultmann as Augustus Gloop, the first Golden Ticket finder who is known for overeating and lacking table manners or smarts, as well as indulging in dirty habits such as belching and farting freely and picking his nose, and being selfish enough to taunt Charlie for not being able to afford candy. In this adaptation, he hails from Switzerland.
* Tenma Shibuya as Koji Salt, Veruca's father and ruthless owner of the Salt Peanut Company who constantly spoils his daughter with very expensive items such as a genuine mink coat. 
* Mana Ashida as Veruca Salt, the extremely spoiled, bratty, narcissistic and despicable daughter of Koji Salt and the second Golden Ticket finder. She's the heiress to the Salt family fortune who stars in the reality TV show Catching Up With Veruca, practices ballet, is mentioned to own a country and various pets, and intends to sell out Wonka's secrets for even more money. Veruca is Japanese in this adaptation.
* Erica Luttrell as Rose Beauregarde, Violet's mother who heavily encourages her daughter's obsession with weight loss and being competitive, giving her exercise equipment, healthy foods and drinks, and chewing gum. It's implied that she's molded Violet into who she was to compensate for her own failed dreams of being an athlete, as she is shown to only have a handful of participation awards compared to Violet's hundreds of trophies and medals.
* Malia Baker as Violet Beauregarde, the athletic, prideful, over-competitive and extremely tomboyish third Golden Ticket finder who is known for constantly chewing gum and her obsession with being thin. She is the only bratty kid who chews Veruca out, and constantly mocks Augustus for his weight. In this version, Violet is Black Canadian.
* Jaime Camil as Bruno Teavee, Mike's hapless father and high school robotics teacher who constantly tries but fails to control Mike's attitude.
* Iñaki Godoy as Mike Teavee, the extremely rude, unimaginative and destructive fourth Golden Ticket finder who spends his days watching violent television shows and playing violent video games, which are the only things that can keep him in line, and has a very disrespectful attitude towards both Wonka and his own father (who he even calls by his first name). He found his Golden Ticket by hacking into Wonka's computers, meaning he didn't need to buy any Wonka Bars. In this adaptation, Mike is Latino.
* Nina Baden-Semper as Grandma Josephine, Charlie's sweet, demure paternal grandfather.
* Paul Barber as Grandpa George, Charlie's cynical, grouchy maternal grandfather.
* Doña Croll as Grandma Georgina, Charlie's feisty and dirty maternal grandmother.
* Femi Taylor as Diane Bucket, Charlie's widowed, down-to-earth mother who takes care of the house and works at a toothpaste factory until it moves overseas.
*John Boyega as Arthur Hirsch, the owner of the sweet shop Charlie finds the fifth Golden Ticket in, Hirsch's Sweet Shop.
* Sophie Aldred as Phoebe Trout, a news reporter who reports on the Golden Ticket hunt, interviews the Golden Ticket finders, and later reports from Wonka's factory.
* John Cleese as Rusty, the head Oompa-Loompa and Wonka's personal assistant whom Wonka sends to escort the eliminated kids' parents out of the rooms. He is named after Rusty Goffe, who played an Oompa-Loompa in the 1971 film.
* Tom Baker as the narrator
Dee Bradley Baker, Laura Bailey, Judith Barsi, Nancy Cartwright, Cam Clarke, Robbie Daymond, Debi Derryberry, Bill Farmer, Tom Kenny, Phil LaMarr, Jim Meskimen, Daniel Ross, Cree Summer, Lauren Tom, and Tru Valentino voice the Oompa-Loompas, Willy Wonka's cocoa bean-powered robot employees. Baker also voices Kobold Gloop, Augustus' father, while Augustus' siblings are voiced by Cartwright, Kath Soucie, and Kari Wahlgren. Soucie also voices President Gilligrass' secretary who gorges on Wonka bars. Charlie's teacher, Mr. Smart, is voiced by Keith Wickham, who also voices Peter Prodnose. The British news anchor is voiced by Teresa Gallagher, who also voices the Queen. Janice Kawaye voices the Salt Peanut Company employee who finds Veruca's Golden Ticket. The American president, Lancelot R. Gilligrass, is voiced by Clancy Brown, who also voices Professor Foulbody. The Pope is voiced by John Hasler. Chris Tarrant voices the game show host, and Milwaukee Brewers announcer Bob Uecker voices the American baseball announcer. Johnny Hardwick voices Walter Cattle, a Texan who ordered a mansion from Wonka built out of chocolate, only for it to melt on a hot day. Kristina Pimenova voices Charlotte Russe, the fake fifth Golden Ticket finder from Russia.
Matthew Lloyd Davies, Kate Harbour, Jules de Jongh, Nigel Pilkington, and Rob Rackstraw voice the adult customers in Arthur's shop, while the child customers are voiced by Alexander Aze, Frankie Corio, Kieron L. Dyer, Josie Griffiths, Billy Jenkins, Noah Jupe, Maya Kelly, Kaylen Luke, and Max Mackintosh. Kenyah Sandy voices the student who tells Mr. Smart that the third Golden Ticket has been found, while Krish Misra and Ivy Wong voice Charlie's friends, James and Matilda. Harriet Turnbull voices Miranda Mary Piker, one of Charlie's classmates and the only student who doesn't care about finding Golden Tickets. Tabitha St. Germain voices the woman who gets a mink coat from her date instead of Wonka bars, and Noam Zylberman voices her date. Jessica Puente voices Alejandra Teavee, Mike's long-suffering sister. Kerry Shale voices Samuel Berry, the news anchor who introduces Phoebe Trout and announces that Charlotte Russe's Golden Ticket was a fake. Frederic Fickelgruber is voiced by Tom Kane, while Samuel Slugworth is voiced by Jess Harnell. Marc Silk voices the Square Sweets That Look Round and a spy for Fickelgruber. Jerry Springer voices the judge who apprehends Fickelgruber, Prodnose and Slugworth during the closing credits.
Several surviving cast members of the 1971 film make cameos, including Peter Ostrum (Charlie) as a baseball player, Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca) as a British auctioneer, Denise Nickerson (Violet) as the Chicago shop owner (Nickerson recorded her lines two months prior to her passing, and the film was dedicated to her, as well as Gene Wilder and Earl Cameron), Paris Themmen (Mike) as Mr. Beauregarde, and Michael Böllner (Augustus) as the Swiss reporter who interviews the Gloops. In addition, Freddie Highmore, who played Charlie in the 2005 film, cameos as another baseball player.
== Production ==
Category:Johnsonverse