Factual error: In every version of the story, including the book, in the scene where Augustus Gloop is sucked into the chocolate pipe, there's no pressure below him (it's an open river, with the pipe sticking into it) so the pressure must come from a vacuum at the top of the pipe. Augustus would have had his lungs and innards sucked out until he was thin enough to pass through the pipe. He would not have survived.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
1 factual error
Directed by: Mel Stuart
Starring: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole, Peter Ostrum
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.
Mr. Salt: What is this, Wonka? Some kind of fun house?
Willy Wonka: Why? Having fun?
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.
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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Suggested correction: In the book Charlie ask Mr. Wonka if all the other kids would be all right and he tells him yes they will.
This isn't a valid correction because the point of the mistake is that he wouldn't survive, as shown. At best you're saying Wonka lied to Charlie.
Bishop73