Willy Wonka is a fictional character appearing in British author Roald Dahl's 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its 1972 sequel Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
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Willy Wonka is the eccentric founder and proprietor of the Wonka Chocolate Factory.
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In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka has hidden five Golden Tickets inside his chocolate bars.
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At this point, Willy Wonka reveals that the real prize is the factory itself, as he needs someone to take it over and look after the Oompa-Loompas who work there once he retires.
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Willy Wonka is introduced as a "little man" with a goatee, wearing a purple coat, green trousers and a top hat.
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Willy Wonka then goes with Charlie and his family to the White House in the United States.
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Willy Wonka has hidden five Golden Tickets amongst his famous Wonka Bars.
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Willy Wonka informs Charlie that the tour is over, abruptly dismisses him and Grandpa Joe, and disappears into his office without mentioning the promised grand prize of a lifetime supply of chocolate.
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Grandpa Joe asks about the prize, but Willy Wonka tells him that Charlie will not receive it because he broke the rules, angrily referring to the forfeiture clause of the contract that the ticket holders signed at the start of the tour.
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Grandpa Joe vows to get revenge on Willy Wonka by selling the Everlasting Gobstopper to Slugworth, but in honest acknowledgement of his wrongdoing, Charlie decides to return the Gobstopper to Willy Wonka's desk before turning to leave.
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Willy Wonka joyfully tells Charlie that he passed his test and reinstates his prize.
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Willy Wonka then reveals that Slugworth, who had been spying on the kids, was actually his own employee in disguise.
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Trio enter the Great Glass Elevator, which goes high into the sky as Willy Wonka reveals that the grand prize is really the entire factory and business, which Charlie will get when Willy Wonka retires, and in the meantime Charlie and his whole family will move into the factory.
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Willy Wonka offers Charlie a chance to live and work with him in the factory, explaining that the purpose of the contest was to find a successor to take over as owner once he retires.
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However, Willy Wonka expects Charlie to leave his family behind forever, seeing family as a hindrance to a chocolatier's creative freedom.
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Willy Wonka secretly sampled some candy one day and was instantly enthralled, running away from home in order to pursue a career in making it.
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When he returned home, he found that Wilbur had moved the entire house to an unknown location, true to his word that if Willy Wonka ran away, Wilbur would not be there when he came back, albeit in a literal fashion.
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Charlie, who is not prepared to part with his family, rejects the offer, prompting Willy Wonka to fall into a deep depression that saps his creativity and causes his business to suffer.
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Willy Wonka later goes home and we see the Golden Ticket winners on an oversized television with actors inside it.
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Once all the tickets have been won, Willy Wonka invites the children into his factory, where he then tempts each of them with a weakness.
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The main storyline is largely taken verbatim from the 1971 film, and thus Willy Wonka is portrayed largely the same as in that adaptation.
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Willy Wonka signed on without reading the script, under the intention of going with a completely different approach than what Gene Wilder did in the 1971 film adaptation.
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Wilder's performance as Willy Wonka was well received and remains one of his best-known roles.
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Willy Wonka was perfect for the role, and it was his mixture of childlike wonder and bitter, deserved vengeance that made the character so compelling.
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Willy Wonka's Willy Wonka is an enigma in an otherwise mostly delightful movie from Tim Burton.
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Real-life versions of the Everlasting Gobstopper and the Willy Wonka Bar were produced, along with a line of other candies not directly related to the book or the film.
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Willy Wonka had originated as a tie-in with the 1971 film, originally by Quaker Oats before a series of sales led to the company being acquired by Nestle in 1988.
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The Willy Wonka brand was discontinued in 2015; its products have since been sold to Ferrero, which produces them under the Ferrara brand.
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