Rie G
Films are open to interpretation and speculation. You can’t just take them at face value. There’s so much subtext simmering beneath the surface and backstory infusing the action, you could probably over-analyze things to fit into any explanation you want. Here are a couple of fan-theories that improve the movies we all love but perhaps never really knew.
1. Willy Wonka’s secret ingredient
Roald Dahl has always been prone to wierdness and his book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was already quite bizarre, especially from an adult’s point of view. But when they came to make the 1970’s film version, yeah, the chicken beheading one, they really pushed the crazy-boat out.
So, let’s make it even more disturbing (Yay! That will be fun!). This little snippet of information turns an enchanting, though odd, tale into a chilling story of murder, cannibalism and questionable business ethics. There’s this little theory that the reason Willy Wonka’s chocolate is so good is the secret ingredient. What’s that, you ask?
Children.
“Whaaaat?!”, you cry. But think about it for a moment. In the film, the fate of many of the young golden ticket holders is more than a little dubious. We’re told Augustus will be found in the Fudge Cutting Room but they never say if he’s alive. Then there’s Violet, who was taken to the ominous Juicing Room and Veruca and her father, who disappear down a chute never to be seen again. But, you know, perhaps they’re fine.
Then again, in Dahl’s early draft they definitely weren’t. Two boys are lost to the Cutting Room, Augustus and a girl to the chocolate river and Miranda Piker and her father were ground into power to make sweets whilst the Oompa-loompas cheerfully serenaded them in the background.
‘Soon this child who is so vicious,
Will have gotten quite delicious.’
We’re on to you, Wonka!
