Wonka Factory To Be Opened At Last to Lucky Few

November 12, 2010 at 7:34 am John Martz Leave a comment

Book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Posted by: John Martz

I, Willy Wonka, have decided to allow five children — just five, mind you, and no more — to visit my factory this year. These lucky five will be shown around personally by me, and they will be allowed to see all the secrets and the magic of my factory. Then, at the the end of the tour, as a special present, all of them will be given enough chocolates and candies to last them for the rest of their lives!

After missing last month, I’m back with another Charlie illustration. Here we meet the first four finders of Wonka’s Golden Tickets. I borrowed one detail from Tim Burton’s adaptation, and that was to turn Mike Teavee, the toy-gun-toting couch potato, into a gamer. I think it’s fair to say that if the story were written today, this violence-loving-brat would be addicted to shoot-em-up video games instead of gangster movies.

I also borrowed a visual gag from Gene Wilder’s Wonka — the type that gradually diminishes in size to the point of illegibility.

I won’t replicate the descriptions of every child, but oh the picture Roald Dahl paints of poor Augustus Gloop:

The picture showed a nine-year-old boy who was so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump. Great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body, and his face was like a monstrous ball of dough with two small greedy curranty eyes peering out upon the world.

Next month we will finally meet Mr. Wonka himself.