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1[[quoteright:235:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CharlieAndTheGlassElevator_1541.JPG]]
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3''Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator'' is a 1972 ScienceFantasy adventure children's book and a sequel to ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' by Creator/RoaldDahl, [[ImmediateSequel beginning directly where the previous book left off]]. Charlie, having just inherited ownership of Willy Wonka's factory, crashed through the roof of his home to pick up his family in Mr. Wonka's huge glass elevator (it can go in any direction, not just up and down). Having spent the past 20 years in bed, Charlie's grandparents (except for Grandpa Joe, who was already out) refused to get out of bed, so Mr. Wonka, Charlie, and Joe just pushed the bed into the Elevator.
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5Now, Wonka flies the Elevator ''really'' high, with the intention that they will then shoot straight down through the roof of the chocolate factory. However, panicky Grandma Josephine accidentally causes them to fly into space, where they end up in orbit around the Earth. What happens up there is just the ''first'' half of this novel, because Grandma Josephine and her fellow bedmates manage to get themselves in even more trouble once everyone's back at the factory and Mr. Wonka reveals that he's created a FountainOfYouth pill...
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7You'll probably be unsurprised to hear that this book was/is [[{{Sequelitis}} a lot less popular than the original]] ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', though it remains in print to this day. It has never had a film adaptation, since Dahl hated ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' enough to refuse all rights to make this book into a film. Most adaptations of ''Chocolate Factory'', including the 2005 Creator/TimBurton [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory film adaptation]] and [[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory the 2013 stage musical]], have complete closure, negating the circumstances of this book (and thus serving as AlternateContinuity). However, Richard George adapted it into a play, and there have been at least five different audiobook versions. On November 27, 2018, it was revealed that Netflix, as part of a deal that allowed them to make adaptations for other Roald Dahl books, will be allowed to make an adaptation of the book.
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9Dahl was working on a third book, ''Charlie in the White House'', [[WhatCouldHaveBeen but when he died, only one chapter was complete]], [[OrphanedSeries hence the lack of real closure at the end of this one]].
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11----
12!!This novel provides examples of (see also the [[Characters/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory character sheet]] for both books):
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14* AbsurdAltitude: The action proper begins with the elevator winding up in Earth's orbit.
15* AccidentalTruth: Willy Wonka tells the listening world a poem warning them about the approach of menacing monsters called "grobes". Soon afterwards, the space hotel comes under attack from alien creatures. Mr Wonka identifies the aliens as Vermicious Knids, and admits to Charlie he just made the grobes up.
16* ActionizedSequel: The first half is an outer space adventure, and even the second half, while more in line with the first book's events, has an OrpheanRescue.
17* AdultsAreUseless: Or in this case the U.S. government.
18* AnAesop: The Oompa-Loompas deliver a song about not "help[ing] yourself/To medicine from the medicine shelf" in the wake of the grandparents' de-aging themselves with too much Wonka-Vite. Also counts as a SpaceWhaleAesop where taking forbidden medicine and/or too much of it will either de-age you out of this plane of existence ''or'' confine you to the toilet for most of your waking hours for the rest of your life.
19* AliensAreBastards: The Vermicious Knids are a hostile race that travels the universe consuming all life they come in contact with.
20* AllIsWellThatEndsWell: For the Bucket family members besides Charlie and Grandpa Joe (who are cases of AngstWhatAngst throughout both books). They are effectively ''[[TheKindnapper kidnapped]]'' by Willy Wonka, Charlie, and Grandpa Joe to get everyone back to the factory after the elevator's landing destroyed their shack. Thanks to Grandma Josephine's panicking, everyone winds up in space, encountering human-eating aliens. Once back at the factory the reluctant grandparents overdose on FountainOfYouth pills and Mr. and Mrs. Bucket face the worries of their parents turning into babies or ''vanishing'', and then the vanished one reappears as a centuries-old crone. When Mr. Wonka restores everyone to their original ages, the parents are happy; when the news comes that everyone's been invited to the White House and a helicopter is waiting for them, the grousing grandparents are so overjoyed by the prospect that they voluntarily get out of bed for the first time in decades, and all is forgiven.
21* AlliterativeName: Aside from Willy Wonka himself, there's actress Helen Highwater, only mentioned in passing, and Space Hotel employee Walter Wall. The rocket that brings people from Earth to the hotel is the Commuter Capsule.
22* AlmightyJanitor: Despite being Vice President, former nanny Elvira Tibbs is universally regarded as the ''real'' power in the White House.
23* AndTheAdventureContinues: At the end, the gang is off to the White House to be hailed as heroes...
24* ArtificialGravity: The Space Hotel has artificial gravity, so the characters walk normally inside, but the Elevator does not have this, so they float around.
25* ArtisticLicenseGeology: On the journey down to Minusland, the factory is revealed to extend more than 200,000 feet underground. This depth is actually a good way into Earth's mantle. Where it's hot, pressure is incredible, and it's [[CaptainObvious hard to build]].
26* ArtisticLicenseSpace:
27** In the beginning, the elevator goes straight up into space, and then right into orbit, despite no forces parallel to the earth's surface being applied to the elevator during this time, which a rocket would need in order to orbit the earth. In reality, the elevator would have been pulled right back to Earth by the planet's gravity.
28** At one point, Mr. Wonka states that while in orbit, you can't just turn around and go the other way. This is actually possible; just turn your rocket 90 degrees to the direction it's currently going in, then fire the rockets and your orbit route will change accordingly.
29* AscendedExtra: Grandma Josephine, Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina have much larger roles here than in the first book, especially Grandma Georgina who becomes a {{Foil}} to Willy Wonka and takes on a TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong role.
30* AsianSpeekeeEngrish: The Premier of China and his assistant speak in this manner.
31* AssKicksYou: A Vermicious Knid attempts to ram the Great Glass Elevator with its tail. Gets inverted into a LiteralAssKicking when it bounces right off and is left with a large purple bruise on its rear.
32* AwesomeButImpractical: The President's fly-killing device is elaborate, but needs the fly to not fly away at any point in order to work.
33* {{Backstory}}: Mr. Wonka delivers several chunks of this -- first to explain what the Vermicious Knids are and what they ''do'', and later to explain how, in turn, Wonka-Vite and Vita-Wonk were created and perfected.
34* BiggerOnTheInside: Basically applies to the factory, although justified as Wonka had already told the children in the first book that he built a lot of the factory underground to give himself more space to work with than would be possible if he confined himself to the main building. At one point he tells Charlie that a full tour of the entire factory, as opposed to the glimpse Charlie had with the other children in the first book, would take up to three weeks.
35* BlackComedy: As in the first book, characters go through some awful transformations and experiences, but humor is never far away.
36* BlobMonster: The Vermicious Knids are capable of [[ShapeShifting changing their shape]], but most often resemble an upside-down egg with a pointed end.
37* BunglingInventor: The President considers himself a dab hand at inventions. When he sucks in his breath sharply, and accidentally sucks in a fly which happens to be passing, on the spot he invents a fly trap, consisting of a raised plank, with a ladder leading up to it at each end. From the plank is dangled a lump of sugar, above a bowl of water. His explanation of how it works is thus:
38--> The fly climbs up the ladder on the left. He stops, he sniffs, he smells something good. He peers over the edge and sees the sugar lump. He is just about to climb down the string to reach it, when he sees the basin of water below. "Ho, ho!" he says. "It's a trap! They want me to fall in!" So he walks on, thinking what a clever fly he is. But as you see, I have left out one of the rungs on the ladder he comes down by, so he falls and breaks his neck.
39* BunnyEarsLawyer: The US president still keeps his childhood nanny around, and even calls her 'Nanny', as well as a cat with a very frou-frou name.
40* BusFullOfInnocents: After the astronauts and crew of Space Hotel U.S.A. are ambushed by the Vermicious Knids, the survivors reboard the Commuter Capsule -- but the Knids manage to cripple it, so it's up to the passengers of the Great Glass Elevator to get it back to Earth safely.
41* CartoonBugSprayer: Mr. Wonka uses one to administer the Vita-Wonk to Grandma Georgina.
42* ChangingOfTheGuard: Downplayed as Willy Wonka becomes the protagonist, replacing Charlie Bucket, who is downgraded to a {{Sidekick}} role. (Notably, Mr. Wonka is not a PinballProtagonist, but actually does things that affect the plot.) Played straight as the bedridden grandparents take the place of the four bratty kids and their parents as the troublemaking characters who doubt Mr. Wonka.
43* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: As per the title of its predecessor.
44* ChestOfMedals: "The Chief of the Army was wearing so many medal-ribbons they covered the entire front of his tunic on both sides and spread down on to his trousers as well."
45* ChewToy: Grandma Georgina, making her the standout character among the grandparents this time around.
46* ColourCodedForYourConvenience:
47** Colours of the buttons in the Elevator are often mentioned: brown, green, black, white, silver, golden, yellow, pale blue.
48** On the President's desk, a bright red telephone links to Soviet Russia, and a porcelain telephone links to China.
49* ComedicSpanking:
50** The ten million children across the nation who repeated the President's rude word, and got smacked by their parents.
51** In "the nurse's song". Older editions of the book have this illustrated:
52---> Through happy childhood days he strayed,
53---> as all nice children should.
54---> I smacked him when he disobeyed,
55---> and stopped when he was good.
56* ComicFantasy: Though it shades more into science fiction than the first book did, especially in the first half.
57* TheComplainerIsAlwaysWrong: Grandma Georgina is the grouchiest and most vocal of the protagonists, and is never right about anything. [[TheChewToy And suffers more abuse than any of the other characters.]]
58* ContinuityNod:
59** As the elevator heads down to Minusland, Mr. Wonka notes that he hopes the ''other'' elevator that runs on the same track isn't headed in their direction. ("I've always been lucky before.") Much the same dialogue appeared in the first book when the tour group first rode the elevator.
60** Also, when Mr. Wonka trots out Wonka-Vite to get the other grandparents out of bed, Charlie is nervous about letting them anywhere near the stuff, remembering what happened with the ''last'' miracle invention Mr. Wonka showed off -- namely the imperfect three-course-meal gum that turned Violet into a blueberry. Wonka points out that Violet actually snatched the gum against his wishes and ignored him when he told her not to chew it, whereas this time he's actually handing the Wonka-Vite out himself. The pills do work as they're supposed to, but the grandparents foolishly overdose on them, and the chapter title "Good-bye Grandma Georgina" even calls back to the first book's "Good-by Violet"!
61** Vermicious Knids were first mentioned, though not seen, way back in ''Literature/{{James and the Giant Peach}}''
62* CoolStarship: The Great Glass Elevator. Sure, it doesn't ''look'' like what most people think of when they hear the term "cool starship"...arguably that actually makes it ''cooler''!
63* CreatorsCultureCarryover: The President of the United States says "Courteney one yet?" to a chief of police, which is meant to sound like "caught anyone yet". Being from England, Roald Dahl would have pronounced "Courteney" and "caught any" the same way, but in most American accents they sound very different so the President would likely not be able to make the pun.
64* CrowdSong: The Oompa-Loompas have a brief chorus welcoming Mr. Wonka back to the factory, one extolling the virtues of Wonka-Vite that even gets a reprise, and the above-mentioned MoralityBallad.
65* CulturalTranslation: The previous novel used the term ''lift'' in the U.K. edition. Like its predecessor, the U.S. edition of this book came out ''before'' the U.K. one, hence the title; the first chapter of the U.K. version includes additional dialogue to justify the use of the term ''elevator'' throughout (specifically, Wonka regards the lift as an elevator now that it's acting as an air/spacecraft and is thus ''extremely'' elevated).
66* CuteKitten: The president has a cat called Mrs Taubsypuss.
67* DeathByDeaging: Not exactly death, but similar-if someone takes more [[FountainOfYouth Wonka-Vite Pills]] than their age, they're reduced to strange negative ghosts in [[EldritchLocation Minusland]] who are hunted by the Gnoolies.
68* DeathByGluttony: Grandma Georgina barely avoids this when she is stopped from taking ''six'' Wonka-Vite pills, which would have made her minus 42 years old! (Not that four isn't too many for her anyway, but with six Georgina would have ''really'' been screwed.)
69* DoubleMeaningTitle: The first chapter is titled "Mr. Wonka Goes Too Far", referencing both his fearless -- and to the others, terrifying -- decision to send the elevator absurdly high ''and'' his inability to stop it from going further up than he planned thanks to Grandma Josephine.
70* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: In the backstory, the Vermicious Knids have ''tried'' to invade and conquer Earth the way they did several {{Sacrificial Planet}}s (see below) but Earth's atmosphere is too much for them -- what look to humans like shooting stars are actually Vermicious Knids burning up when they try to pass through.
71* EatenAlive: One chapter is called "Gobbled Up", in which several characters are gobbled up by the Vermicious Knids. It is not stated how they do this, as Knids do not have mouths, which makes it all the more frightening.
72* EldritchAbomination:
73** The Vermicious Knids. They ''look'' completely innocuous at first - just a furry egg-shaped blob with eyes. But them they reveal themselves as sadistic predators - those Michael Foreman illustrations are NightmareFuel incarnate - and ''[[ImAHumanitarian eat people]].'' Exactly ''how'' is apparently too awful to describe, but the radio feed from a Knid attack is just as horrifying as they are. ("They have other things to bite with.") They don't ''just'' eat people, either. They deliberately provoke their would-be prey to run (by spelling "SCRAM") so they can give chase and prolong their suffering. They've (apparently) wiped out all living things on three planets already and can't reach Earth only because they burn up in our atmosphere. Lovecraft would be proud.
74** The Gnoolies, the only native occupants of Minusland. Invisible negative-space bugs, you might wonder why they'd be considered either Eldritch OR Abomination. Wonka explains: '''''They bite''''', and once bitten, their venom will repeatedly divide your age by random numbers until you dissolve into a swarm of more Gnoolies. Fortunately, Wonka is prepared and uses a repellent to keep them (temporarily) at bay until he can rescue Grandma Georgina.
75* EldritchLocation: Minusland, a place of negative existence, where anyone that overdoses on Wonka-Vite ends up, and which the Great Glass Elevator can visit - but it's extremely dangerous for ordinary humans (see below).
76* ElevatorGag: The Book! It goes into space, it goes down to a hellish limbo...
77* EurekaMoment: Grandma Josephine wailing "Why can't we all go home?" triggers this for Willy Wonka when he can't figure out how to escape the chain of Vermicious Knids.
78* EverybodyHatesMathematics: The trope is the basis for a {{Pun}}. Explaining how the bite of a Gnoolie slowly divides the victim into more Gnoolies, Mr. Wonka notes that "it's long division, very painful".
79* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The action takes place over several hours at most, on the very same day that most of ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' takes place; note that Grandpa Joe tells Charlie at the end that -- between the tour of the factory in the first book and the events of this one -- they've had quite a ''day''.
80** Had Dahl finished his intended third entry in the series, ''Charlie in the White House,'' which the book's ending alludes to, their eventful day would have presumably stretched on even ''longer.''
81* EyeOfNewt: Wonka-Vite and Vita-Wonk consist primarily or entirely of such ingredients. The former needs such things as "the trunk (and the suitcase) of an elephant" and "the horn of a rhinoceros (it must be a loud horn)". The latter requires things that can specifically "create age" -- ancient trees and animals are the source of these.
82* EyeTake: When the Vermicious Knids are first seen in the Space Hotel, Mr Wonka is described as having his eyes stretched as large as two wheels, signifying this is the first moment Mr Wonka himself is terrified.
83* FooledByTheSound: Wonka tells a story about Goldie, a girl who mistook chocolate-flavored laxatives for candy. [[GrowlingGut Her stomach grumbles]] so loudly that the neighbors mistake it for thunder.
84* FormallyNamedPet: The president's cat is called Mrs Taubsypuss.
85* FountainOfYouth: One Wonka-Vite pill de-ages the taker 20 years.
86* FrictionlessReentry: While the book is full of ArtisticLicense in regards to physics, this Trope is nearly inverted completely, because reentry does cause friction here. The mistake made, however, is that Mr. Wonka claims it is the reason that the Knids cannot invade Earth (saying they would burn up in the atmosphere if they tried) but they were able to invade Mars and Venus without this problem. If anything, Venus would be an even bigger problem for this reason, and they wouldn't be able to invade Mars either.
87* GenreShift: The first book was a whimsical UrbanFantasy where the fantastical elements were confined to inside of Wonka’s factory. This book is a full blown adventure fantasy with elements of ScienceFiction and even {{Horror}} thrown in the mix.
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89* GravitySucks: Inverted. When the Elevator gets "too high", it spontaneously starts orbiting the Earth[[note]]In reality, they would just come straight back down again - "orbit" means you are moving ''sideways'', at the same rate that the Earth curves away from you, and the Elevator has only gone straight up. Not to mention, they wouldn't start floating just because they got very high, either, as there is plenty of gravity very high up, even as high as the ISS. They ''would'' float once they truly started orbiting[[/note]].
90* GrowlingGut: The little girl who overdoses on anti-constipation pills gets an ''extremely'' noisy case of this, to the point that neighbors think it's thunder!
91* HalfwayPlotSwitch: The first half deals with the elevator going into space and the encounter with the Vermicious Knids. The second half deals with the effects of Wonka-Vite on the grandparents, with the events and new characters of the first half forgotten until the final chapter.
92* {{Hammerspace}}: Mr. Wonka pulls a CartoonBugSprayer full of Vita-Wonk from beneath his tail coat! Moreover, he's apparently had that sprayer with him all along.
93* {{Handwave}}:
94** Mr. Wonka claims that Wonka-Vite is too valuable to waste on himself, which is why he needs an heir. That doesn't stop him from wasting a great deal on Charlie's grandparents!
95** Mr. Wonka explains that the elevator can fly because of "skyhooks". When someone asks what the skyhooks are ''attached'' to, he brushes off the question.
96* HarmfulHealing: Grandma Georgina's "Rescue in Minusland" leaves her 300+ years old! Luckily, a carefully administered dose of Wonka-Vite finally returns her to normal.
97* {{Hellevator}}: The Great Glass Elevator is able to travel to a subterranean land described as "Hell without heat" to facilitate an OrpheanRescue.
98* TheHeroSucksSong: Elvira's song about how she raised President Gilligrass, which he actually ''loves''.
99* HordeOfAlienLocusts: The Vermicious Knids.
100* HotLine: This novel was written as the UsefulNotes/ColdWar was going on, and the first thing the President does when he and his underlings suspect the Elevator's occupants are spies is to call up the Russian premier on a hot line. He also has a hot line to the Chinese premier, which uses a special porcelain phone.
101* HypocriticalHumor
102-->''[Everyone in the world is watching the Great Glass Elevator in space on a television camera.]''
103-->'''Showler:''' Looks like some kind of a war dance, Mr. President.
104-->'''President Gilligrass:''' You mean they're Indians!
105-->'''Showler:''' I didn't say that, sir.
106-->'''President Gilligrass:''' Oh, yes you did, Showler.
107-->'''Showler:''' Oh, no I didn't, Mr. President.
108-->'''President Gilligrass:''' Silence! You're muddling me up.
109* ImmediateSequel: Picks up right where the first book ended, with the elevator heading back to the factory.
110* InformedAbility: A humorous example: The three American astronauts transporting the staff to the Space Hotel are introduced as being "handsome, clever and brave", and proceed to do absolutely nothing, much less anything clever or brave, for the rest of the book. It's still possible they are handsome.
111* InstructionalTitle: The final chapter is called "How To Get a Person Out Of Bed". For those wondering how, it's...give them an invitation to the White House.
112* InsubstantialIngredients: Certain ingredients in Wonka-Vite are these -- "the hip (and the po and the pot) of a hippopotamus", for instance.
113* InsultBackfire: Vice President Elvira Tibbs (who was President Gilligrass's nanny when he was a boy) sings a song about how Gilligrass is doltish, semi-literate, and utterly incompetent. He loves the song.
114* InvisibleMonsters: The Gnoolies of Minusland are invisible, inaudible insects. The only sign of their presence a human can feel is their bite, and once bitten, the victim is doomed to slowly be divided into more Gnoolies.
115* InWhichATropeIsDescribed: As with its predecessor, many chapter titles spoil the events of said chapters, especially in the second half ("Good-bye Grandma Georgina", "Rescue in Minusland", etc.).
116* IWasQuiteALooker: While going through the Wonka Vite pill transformation, Mrs Bucket gets to see that her parents were quite beautiful in their youth.
117* KansasCityShuffle: The President of the United States, [[{{Pun}} on the fly]], invents a convoluted device for killing flies. It is basically a walkway mounted on two miniature ladders on each side, with a cube of sugar hanging from the center of the walkway. As the President explains, the fly would climb up the first ladder and would be traversing the walkway when it would catch sight of the sugar cube and become tempted by it; just before it decided to make its way down the hanging string to eat the sugar, however, it would realize that there is a bowl of water directly beneath the hanging cube, meaning that the fly would drown if it fell. As a result, the fly would continue walking over to the second ladder, feeling smug that it had avoided the water trap - until it started to descend the second ladder and fell to its death because the President had left off one of the ladder's rungs near the top. It's parodious, since flies obviously aren't smart enough for such an overelaborate trick to work, and they can't fall to their deaths because they can, y'know, ''fly''. And even then, they lack the mass to cause any damage to themselves by falling, regardless of the distance.
118* KarmaHoudini: In the Oompa-Loompas' song, Goldie Pinklesweet's grandmother faces no apparent repercussions for sneaking out for a double gin and leaving Goldie to her own devices.
119* KidSidekick: Charlie doesn't get to do a whole lot in this story other than occasionally play TheWatson -- a role he shares with all the other adults that aren't Willy Wonka, the real protagonist this time out.
120* KnockKnockJoke: The President inflicts a few of these on people, using them to open his phone calls to them.
121* LateArrivalSpoiler: Cover blurbs typically spoil the ending of ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory''.
122* LetterMotif: The astronauts are named Shuckworth, Shanks, and Showler.
123* MadeOfIndestructium: The Elevator is "shockproof, waterproof, bombproof, bulletproof, and Knidproof". Sure enough, the Elevator is undamaged when a huge Knid rams it at high speed.
124* {{Manchild}}: President Gilligrass spends most of his time coming up with utterly useless inventions and letting his former Nanny (who still acts as though she's his ''current'' nanny) run the country.
125* TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: A curious variant: When Grandma Georgina is aged to 300+ years old via Vita-Wonk, her memories change to reflect the times she would have been born in and lived through had she come to this point naturally. Her earliest memory is arriving in America on the ''Mayflower''. When she is returned to her natural age, these memories apparently disappear.
126* MiningForCookies: At one point, Charlie and Wonka pass a chocolate mine and, indeed, strike chocolate.
127* MinusWorld: Minus World is analogous to this trope for in-universe reality. It's the place you go if you take too much Wonka-Vite de-aging formula and end up before you were born (thereby neatly avoiding all the {{Squick}}-y implications of this you can't put in a kid's book, one presumes). It's a limbo-like place filled with bizarre InvisibleMonsters, and can be accessed (somehow) by the eponymous elevator; just as well for Grandma Georgina who has met the aforementioned fate and requires rescuing.
128* MistakenForAliens: Willy Wonka decides to invoke this trope when he is told to identify himself and his companions at the Space Hotel (there are no cameras in there, so he assumes a funny voice and basically ''trolls Earth'').
129* MistakenForSpies: The elevator's passengers are first regarded as spies by the rest of the world and the bed is believed to be a ''bomb''. Ultimately, after they help save the Space Hotel crew and guests from the actual aliens that turn out to be in the hotel, they are regarded as heroic astronauts rather than spies.
130* MythologyGag
131** Vermicious Knids were previously mentioned in passing in the author's ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'' and would later warrant mention in ''The Minpins''. Mr. Wonka also mentions them as a CrypticBackgroundReference in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', though they are apparently native to Loompaland in that continuity. This is the only book in which they actually appear.
132** Also in ''James and the Giant Peach'', the Centipede sarcastically mentions "skyhooks" as a possibility for hauling the peach out of the ocean, the answer Willy Wonka gives Grandma Josephine here when she asks what's keeping the Great Glass Elevator up.
133* NarrativeProfanityFilter: "The President said a very rude word into the microphone, and ten million children across the country began repeating it gleefully and got smacked by their parents."
134* NeverMyFault: The bed-ridden grandparents blame Mr. Wonka for the whole mess with the Wonka-Vite, never mind that he had flat-out warned them how powerful the pills were yet they proceeded to overdose on them.
135* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: The President of the United States was UsefulNotes/RichardNixon at the time of this book's writing, but here he is called "Lancelot Gilligrass".
136** In the 1986 edition illustrated by Michael Foreman, the President is drawn to resemble Ronald Reagan.
137* NoSeatBelts: Averted in the second half -- when Mr. Wonka and Charlie head for Minusland in the Elevator, it turns out to have seats that fold out from the walls, complete with belts. It's surprising because up to this point in both books everyone using the Elevator stands (unless they're the bedridden grandparents, of course!) as if they are on a subway. Perhaps there wasn't enough room in the Elevator to put the seats down with all the other occupants?
138* NotDrawnToScale: In the first book, the Elevator is large enough to hold a bed that sleeps four people plus several standing occupants, and the ceiling can't be much higher than the occupants because the buttons can be reached and pushed by Willy Wonka. This time out, it's large enough that everyone's floating freely about when it initially goes into orbit and Mr. Wonka, Grandpa Joe, and Charlie have to propel themselves through the air to reach each of the buttons that need to be pushed to stabilize it.
139** Additionally, during their first appearance, the knids are about four feet tall. During the climax where they're assaulting the elevator, they're drawn to be ''massive,'' each one far bigger than the elevator or the space capsule it's escorting.
140* {{Omnibus}}: ''The Complete Adventures of Charlie and Mr. Willy Wonka'' collects this book and its predecessor in one volume.
141* OurPresidentsAreDifferent: Lancelot R. Gilligrass may be the arch-typical President Buffoon. (In Quentin Blake's illustrations, he bears a strong resemblance to a similarly incompetent fictional president, [[Film/DrStrangelove Merkin Muffley]].[[note]]Interestingly, in the book's original illustrations by Joseph Schindelman, Gilligrass has a full head of hair, but still bears a resemblance to Muffley's portrayer Creator/PeterSellers.[[/note]])
142** Alternatively, the name "Gilligrass" might also be a reference to "Gilligan" of ''Series/GilligansIsland'', especially given the president's ManChild personality.
143* OutOfFocus:
144** Grandpa Joe -- the secondary adult lead of the previous book -- doesn't get much to do as the spotlight shifts to the other grandparents, effectively becoming DemotedToExtra. Charlie only avoids becoming this by becoming TheWatson / a KidSidekick to Mr. Wonka.
145** Charlie's parents are present, but it's very easy to forget they even exist.
146* OutsideContextProblem: The Vermicious Knids, whom most of humanity is completely unaware of; when the crew and guests of the space hotel are attacked by them, they have no choice but to flee. Luckily, Willy Wonka is this to the Knids -- he not only knows what they and their weaknesses are, but took the trouble to ensure that the Elevator is Knidproof.
147* PerfectlyCromulentWord: "Vermicious".
148** This could be the adjective denoting an inhabitant of Vermes, the Knids' home planet.
149* PhlebotinumOverdose: Happens twice: First when the three grandparents take the Wonka-Vite, and second when Wonka uses the Vita-Wonk to re-age Grandma Georgina. In the latter case, he doesn't have any choice, owing to an exact dose being tough to administer to what's essentially a ghost, but Charlie argues that he didn't have to spray her ''three'' times...
150* PhlebotinumPills: Wonka-Vite comes in pill form, whereas Vita-Wonk is a liquid.
151* PlotLeveling: As the first book ends with Mr. Wonka having found an heir in Charlie and the boy and his family destined to live the good life in the factory, thus leaving the characters without any real ''needs'', continuing their story requires throwing them into new adventures. So the Great Glass Elevator accidentally winds up in orbit, and they encounter killer aliens, and then the bedridden grandparents' stubborn refusal to get out of bed leads into the Wonka-Vite misadventure, which leads to the journey to Minusland...
152* PlotParallel: The MoralityBallad following on from the grandparents de-aging themselves is also about someone who helped themselves to too much medicine with disastrous results.
153* PsychoSupporter: The President's [[GeneralRipper chief general]] is a PsychopathicManchild. ("[[StuffBlowingUp Let's blow everybody up!]] [[SayingSoundEffectsOutLoud Bam bam boom blam blam!]]") The President and the Vice President have to constantly keep him from going rogue...and he does respectfully, if unhappily, defer to them, thus fitting this trope.
154* PunnyName:
155** Besides Helen Highwater (and her millionaire fiancé, Orson Cart) there's a Soviet premier named Yugetoff. There are also Chinese officials named "Chu on-Dat" and "How Yubin".
156** The President accidentally dials a grocer in Shanghai and a stationmaster in Chongqing. The Postmaster General explains that calling China is difficult as [[InsaneTrollLogic the country is so full of Wings and Wongs that every time you wing you get the wong number]].
157* RapidAging: Vita-Wonk, created as a counterpart to Wonka-Vite, causes this.
158* RedEyesTakeWarning: The carnivorous Vermicious Knids all have red eyes.
159* RememberedICouldFly: The elevator spends a long time in orbit being pursued by a Vermicious Knid, which eventually links up with the rest of its kind to form a huge chain and manages to capture it (and the rescued space capsule). As the chain begins to head to the aliens' home planet, Willy Wonka admits that he's "at a loss" for a way to solve this problem...then the despondent Grandma Josephine wails "Why can't we all go home?" This [[EurekaMoment reminds]] Mr. Wonka that they ''can'' just go home by directing the elevator to return to the factory, which will burn up the aliens in Earth's atmosphere in the bargain.
160* RescuedFromTheUnderworld: Willy Wonka and Charlie go deep down to rescue Grandma Georgina from Minus Land, where she went after having reduced her age to below zero.
161* RetCanon: Two of Mr. Wonka's lines -- the VerbalBackspace of "Strike that, reverse it" and "A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" -- are lifted near-verbatim from his dialogue in ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', which was released the year before this novel was published. ("Strike that, reverse it" later turns up in the Ride/AltonTowers ride and [[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory 2013 stage musical]] based on ''Factory''.)
162* {{Retcon}}: All of Charlie's grandparents were said to be over 90 years old in the first book. Here, they're all around the 80-year mark, in order for the Wonka-Vite plotline to work.
163* RummageFail: Mr. Wonka has to turn out his pockets -- which contain (according to him) all his most important possessions -- to find the recipe for Wonka-Vite, bringing up such items as a rubber fried egg, stink bomb, and "homemade catapult" along the way.
164* SacrificialPlanet: The Vermicious Knids are said to have eaten the former inhabitants of Venus, Mars, and the Earth's moon. The only reason why they haven't devoured Earth's dwellers yet is because they can't survive the friction heat from plummeting through the atmosphere.
165* ScareEmStraight: While this isn't the morality play the first book was, the "don't fool around with medicine" Aesop presented in the second half ''definitely'' has this vibe, particularly in the Goldie Pinklesweet ShowWithinAShow, which details how she had to be taken to the hospital and get her stomach pumped among other things.
166* ScratchyVoicedSenior: When Grandma Georgina becomes the oldest woman in the world, her voice becomes extremely croaky.
167* SecondaryCharacterTitle: Although Charlie remains an AudienceSurrogate, he's about as much of a [[PinballProtagonist pinball]] as he was in the first book. Mr. Wonka is the lead.
168* SequelEscalation: Regarding the ActionizedSequel events listed above, in both halves the stakes are life-and-death and the possibility of the latter is taken more seriously than it was in the first book with regards to the bratty kids' misfortunes. Willy Wonka is the protagonist this time around rather than the AudienceSurrogate Charlie, and his eccentric hijinks are given a lot of page time (such as a stretch in which he basically ''trolls Earth'' by claiming he and his companions are aliens). There are also three new Oompa-Loompa songs, several songs/poems for Willy Wonka, and even a song for the President of the United States's nanny/vice president!
169* SeriesContinuityError
170** All four grandparents were said to be over 90 years old in the first book, but the three bedridden ones here are in their early 80s at most -- which wouldn't be such a big error if it weren't so important to the second half.
171** It specifically says that the TV Stations had been talking about only the Space Hotel for six whole months, and that it was the "event of the century". Except the first book basically said the same thing about the golden ticket contest.
172* ShaggyDogStory: The entire Wonka-Vite storyline ends up being this, as all four grandparents are ultimately returned to their original ages. Note that making just ''one'' pill takes 27 days and requires a long list of [[EyeOfNewt weird]], exotic and often downright [[InsubstantialIngredients bizarre]] ingredients, which was why Mr. Wonka didn't want to use any himself; he felt it was too valuable. By the end, a total of 26 of them have essentially gone to waste.
173* ShapeshifterDefaultForm: Vermicious Knids are normally egg-shaped before turning themselves into various shapes.
174* ShoutOut: A wacky and mysterious man and his companions use a small box as a spaceship to get to a space hotel. Instead of a nice, peaceful resort facility, they find a charnel house where aliens have invaded. They have to defeat the aliens, while keeping the blustering military and a world leader from getting themselves and others killed. They employ a desperation gamble, which works, and the threat to Earth is eliminated. [[Series/DoctorWho Sound familiar?]]
175** He even knows the alien species' name, their modus operandi, and their weaknesses, like The Doctor frequently does about their foe.
176** Quentin Blake's illustrations for the book also depict the President as looking rather similar to [[Film/DrStrangelove Dr Strangelove's]] Merkin Muffley. He's about as inept, too.
177* ShowWithinAShow: The sad story of Goldie Pinklesweet, recounted as part of the Oompa-Loompa's MoralityBallad, is a Type 4 PlotParallel example similar to the Miss Bigelow story in the first book.
178* SolarSystemNeighbors: Mars, The Moon and Venus used to have life before the Vermicious Knids wiped them out.
179* {{Spoonerism}}:
180** Grandma Georgina tells Mr Wonka that he has got them into enough tubbles and trumbles for one day.
181** When the President loses contact with the astronauts Shuckworth, Shanks and Showler, he yells "Shankworth! Shucks! Shankler! Showlworth! Shanks! Shuckler! Why don't you answer?"
182* SpaceElevator: The Great Glass Elevator enters space, though not on a "typical" cable. It uses a cable with "skyhooks". One end is hooked to the elevator, the other to... [[LookBehindYou Hey! Look!]] A [[WeNeedADistraction convenient distraction]]! That's more Mr. Wonka deflecting the question by {{handwav|e}}ing the Elevator's support/propulsion mechanism than a genuine explanation. Essentially, the book does not ''contain'' an explanation. The elevator also has "rockets" which the illustrations depict as nothing more than an exhaust bell underneath, attached to the outside of the glass, with no sign of the rest of the rocket engine or the fuel tanks. Really the thing works by something between AppliedPhlebotinum and [[AWizardDidIt magic]], and it is [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief not useful to try and explain it rationally]].
183* StatusQuoIsGod: Mrs Bucket insists on the grandparents being returned to their original ages, despite the Wonka Vite and Vita Wonk easily being able to make them younger when administered safely.
184** She, and Grandma Georgina, are afraid that trying to make them younger will just go wrong again.
185* StunnedSilence: When Charlie and Mr. Wonka return from Minusland, only Grandpa Joe greets them, because the rest of the Buckets nearby have been struck stone-silent by the dreadful sight of the now-ancient Grandma Georgina.
186* StupidEvil: The Vermicious Knids twist their stretchy bodies in to the letters "S-C-R-A-M," thus frightening off their victims and depriving themselves of a meal, because, as Mr. Wonka explains, "They're tremendously proud of being able to write like that," and ''scram'' is the only word they know how to spell.
187* SweetTooth: President Gilligrass seems to have one; in the postscript of his letter inviting Mr. Wonka and the Buckets to the White House he asks the former to bring him some Wonka Bars. (This is because Vice President Tibbs keeps taking his away.)
188* ToiletHumor: In response to the grandparents taking too much Wonka-Vite, the Oompa-Loompas perform a song telling the sad tale of a little girl who foolishly helped herself to the tastiest-looking stuff in her grandma's medicine cabinet -- which turned out to be chocolate-flavored laxatives. She survived, but ever since (as the overdose was so high) she's had to spend seven hours in the ladies' room every day.
189* TrappedWithMonsterPlot: The segment in Space Hotel U.S.A. with the Vermicious Knids.
190* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: It's Grandma Josephine's panicking that causes the elevator to fly into orbit when she keeps Mr. Wonka from reaching the controls that would have stopped it from going that high. They're lucky the elevator turns out to be equipped for space travel! (On the other hand, the heroes will ultimately save many people for being in space.)
191%%* UrbanFantasy: As per its predecessor.
192* VicePresidentWho: Inverted with Elvira Tibbs, President Gilligrass's former nanny and vice president, who is competent enough to be universally regarded as the ''real'' power behind the president — including by the president himself..
193* VileVillainSaccharineShow: The whole outer space escapade is quite whimsical until the man-eating Vermicious Knids show up. They're notable as the only out-and-out villains that appear and affect the action between the two novels (the invisible Gnoolies of Minusland are mentioned as a threat but don't actually cause trouble).
194* AVillainNamedZrg: The Vermicious Knids.
195* VirusAndCureNames: The FountainOfYouth pill Wonka-Vite isn't a virus, of course, but the RapidAging counterpart developed specifically to re-age those who are rendered ''too'' young is known as Vita-Wonk.
196* WarningSong: "Attention, Please!" by the Oompa-Loompas, warning against taking medicine in a foolish way.
197* TheWholeWorldIsWatching: It's explicitly said that the whole world is glued to their [=TVs=], watching the glass elevator's flight, listening to Mr. Wonka, and then watching the subsequent confrontation with the Vermicious Knids.
198* WhosOnFirst: Mr. Wing and Mr. Wong on the phone, and explaining the carpets are wall-to-wall to Mr. Walter Wall.
199* WorldOfPun: The book is filled with puns, such as the Chief Financial Advisor trying to balance the budget. (It kept falling off his head.)
200** The President accidentally gets connected to a greengrocer named Wing and a stationmaster named Wong while trying to call the Chinese government, leading to him saying that calling people in China is difficult due to all the people with Wing and Wong for surnames: "every time you wing, you get the wong number."
201* YouDoNOTWantToKnow: Willy Wonka, recounting the story of how he invented and perfected Wonka-Vite, lets on that he tested the prototype versions of the pill on 131 Oompa-Loompas, one at a time. It's clear that ''something'' went wrong every time until it was perfected and worked splendidly on the 132nd, but when pressed by the Buckets, he won't say what that was. After Grandma Georgina overdoses on the pills and is de-aged into Minusland, Mr. Wonka finally explains to Charlie that the 131 Oompa-Loompas went through the same experience she did as the pills were too powerful at that point; one test subject apparently ended up de-aging back to minus eighty-seven. Mr. Wonka rescued them all by creating Vita-Wonk and journeying down to Minusland to bring them back, a terribly long and risky process and thus one he didn't want to discuss in the present.
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