History YMMV / WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory

** Mr. Salt's incongruously cheerful attitude when he asks Wonka where Veruca has gone after she falls down the garbage chute, and his fit of giggling at the thought that Veruca will be "sizzled like a sausage." Is it [[LaughingMad hysteria]] over his daughter's possible fate? Or is he actually relieved to be rid of the little brat, only faking desperation to save her after Wonka reveals she could be stuck in the chute?

*** Mr. Salt's incongruously cheerful attitude when he asks Wonka where Veruca has gone after she falls down the garbage chute, and his fit of giggling at the thought that Veruca will be "sizzled like a sausage." Is it [[LaughingMad hysteria]] over his daughter's possible fate? Or is he actually relieved to be rid of the little brat, only faking desperation to save her after Wonka reveals she could be stuck in the chute?

** "YOU GET '''''NOTHING!'''''" YOU '''''LOSE!''''' '''''GOOD DAY, SIR!'''''" [[labelnote:Explanation]]Wonka angrily tells Charlie and Grandpa Joe that they broke their contract by stealing Fizzy Lifting Drinks and thus can't receive their lifetime supply of chocolate. His rant ends with this phrase.[[/labelnote]]

** Several examples during the worldwide scramble for the Golden Tickets, but the standout is probably the English comedy-actor [[Series/TheGoodies Tim Brooke-Taylor]] as a... peeved... computer operator.

** Nowadays, Augustus being punished for his weight comes across as just mean spirited with the rise in childhood obesity, and the mounting evidence that overeating and obesity is a biochemical issue rather than a character flaw.

** There's a fairly common fan theory that Wonka is some kind of SatanicArchetype for various reasons. Mainly, all of the bad kids have a problem with one of the SevenDeadlySins, and Wonka uses this to tempt them into ruin. While he also tempts Charlie, Charlie doesn't succumb (due to being the good kid). [[https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/ye52z/willie_wonka_is_the_devil_incarnate/ This post]] talks about this theory in great detail, including claiming the Oompa Loompas are really [[OurDemonsAreDifferent some kind of demons.]]

** Film Theory hypothesizes that the whole golden ticket contest was just Wonka's attempt to offload the [[NoOSHACompliance horrifically unsafe factory]] before OSHA, established that same year, hit him with millions of dollars in fines. Even ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' had parodied this theory.

* MisaimedMarketing: It is a testament to viewers' love for this kid-oriented movie extending well past their childhoods that WMS Gaming brought out a ''video slot machine'' themed to it in 2013. It's proven popular enough to have follow-ups.

* SpecialEffectFailure: The producers noted that the film was given a shoestring budget even at the time of $2M, so they made a ''lot'' of shortcuts.
** The reason for the AdaptationSpeciesChange from nut-sorting squirrels to golden chocolate egg-laying geese was to ''avoid'' this trope, as the filmmakers knew there was no hope of pulling off the squirrels with turn-of-the-Seventies tech.

** When Wonka transports the chocolate bar the "television" he sends it to is clearly a hollowed-out white box with a black shelf inside it. Mike's line of "How can he take it? It's just a picture" doing nothing to hide the fact that it's clearly three-dimensional. In general for as good and beloved as the movie is, even diehard fans will admit that the special effects tend to look hokey at best.

* {{Squick}}: The chocolate river is this to many people, who find that [[SpecialEffectsFailure it looks more like muddy water]], or, as one character ''within the film'' comments, sewage, instead of delectable chocolate. The rest of the film's cast felt bad for Michael Bollner, who played Augustus Gloop, since he had to film numerous takes falling into the river and getting sucked up the pipe. Bollner himself admitted the experience was "disgusting". The irony is that they used real chocolate and cream in the water to try and make it look realistic, which obviously didn't photograph very well.

** "The Rowing Song", whose cover as "Prelude (The Family Trip)" was made [[TheCoverChangesTheMeaning a bit more disturbing]] by Music/MarilynManson.

* FirstInstallmentWins: As evidenced by the thirty-four year head start, the NostalgiaFilter, VindicatedByCable, soundtrack, a higher score on the Tomatometer (especially among general audiences), and a career highlight performance from Creator/GeneWilder (even the most ardent Creator/JohnnyDepp fans will usually concede that he was miscast as Wonka), the 1971 film is more popular than the 2005 film.

* CommonKnowledge: A number of fans and critics decried Burton's film for the unforgivable "alteration" of making the other children's fates known to the viewer. There is a widespread perception that the classic film left their ultimate endings ambiguous, even implying that they all died. Not only is this not an alteration from the original text (there's an entire chapter called "The Other Children Go Home"), it's not even an alteration from the first film, where Wonka tells Charlie the other children will be fine, but hopefully a little wiser.

* FandomRivalry: Between the fans of this movie and those who prefer the 2005 film. Fans of the Burton film and Roald Dahl purists don't think very highly of the Stuart film, perceiving it as a barely faithful take on Dahl's book which takes way too many liberties with the source material and is filled with overly corny, musical numbers that don't help to advance the plot at all and just pad the runtime (specially Charlie's mom and Grandfather's numbers). The fact that Dahl himself as well as Tim Burton have expressed their distaste with the 1971 movie is commonly cited as well. While fans of the Stuart film do recognize the Burton film is more accurate to the book, they feel it just doesn't evoke the same sense of wonder and amazement as the 1971 movie, has a particularly unlikable portrayal of Willy Wonka [[spoiler: and is dragged down by a forced DaddyIssues conflict regarding Wonka and his father, Wilbur that just magically solves itself at the end]]. That said, there is a subset of fans who appreciate both films equally.

** "Charlie is a [[ChickMagnet ladies' man]]".[[labelnote:Explanation]]Because Denise Nickerson (Violet's actress) and Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca's actress) both had a crushes on Peter Ostrum (Charlie's actor), it became very popular for fans to joke about Charlie being a ChickMagnet.[[/labelnote]]

* MemeticPsychopath: Jokes have been made about Willy Wonka being this, but it pales in comparison to the amount of jokes made about the Oompa Loompas [[BlackComedy dancing and singing as a child dies horribly]].

** Grandpa Joe. In the film, he's portrayed as a kindly old man and sort of a mentor figure to Charlie. The fandom, however, portrays him as a cabbage water-guzzling deadbeat who faked having a disability and never lifted a finger to help his starving family despite being perfectly able to, only finally climbing out of bed when a day of chocolate and fun is involved. People also take issue that Grandpa Joe, who stayed in bed for two decades, got to go to the factory instead of the hard-working Mrs. Bucket. Some exaggerate it by theorizing that he was the mastermind behind numerous historical atrocities. Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory rectifies this by establishing that Grandpa Joe worked at Wonka's factory before Wonka laid off his entire workforce, and was unable to find further employment. This also gives Grandpa Joe a better reason to accompany Charlie to the factory since he knows more about it than the others.

** There's a fairly common fan theory that Wonka is some kind of SatanicArchetype for various reasons. Mainly, all of the bad kids have a problem with one of the SevenDeadlySins, and Wonka uses this to tempt them into ruin. While he also tempts Charlie, Charlie doesn't succumb (due to being the good kid). [[https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/ye52z/willie_wonka_is_the_devil_incarnate/ this post]] talks about this theory in great detail, including claiming the Oompa Loompas are really [[OurDemonsAreDifferent some kind of demons.]]

* SacredCow: It was already VindicatedByHistory by the time the 2005 film came out but the huge backlash against the latter and [[PosthumousPopularityPotential later the death of Gene Wilder in 2016]] firmly pushed the original into this territory. The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' crossover/remake ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryWillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' seems poised to become the duo's most-hated direct-to-video production thus far, even compared to Warner's previous attempt at shoehorning the duo into an animated remake of a classic fantasy musical (''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', in that case).

* AssPull: Slugworth was added to the film during shooting so there could be a token villain. Furthermore, Mel Stuart and screenwriter David Seltzer had no idea what Slugworth's motivations were for the majority of production. The twist that he was actually working for Wonka all along was made up during the shoot. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools This manages to add a layer of mystery early in the film that the character would have otherwise lacked.]]

* AudienceColoringAdaptation: The film has become so iconic [[CharlieAndTheChocolateParody and parodied]] that outside of the U.K. -- and ''especially'' in the United States -- the novel has suffered AdaptationDisplacement. This is why Creator/TimBurton's [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory 2005 adaptation]] has become more polarizing, as it is sometimes seen as a poorly-done remake of the film rather than a faithful retelling of the novel. There are actually [[AdaptationOverdosed many other adaptations of it out there]], but old-time fans tend to bristle at any telling that doesn't slavishly follow the lead of the original film, never mind that said tellings are usually TruerToTheText ([[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory the 2013 stage musical]] was heavily retooled for its 2017 Broadway run to work in more film-specific material for this reason). [[DisownedAdaptation Dahl himself disowned the film]][[note]]albeit on a rather short-sighted decision after the film version didn't do so well upon initial release[[/note]], so he likely wouldn't be happy about this at all. Some of the changes were "corrected" in the 2005 version -- the Oompa-Loompas changing back from orange-faced, green-haired clowns to dark-skinned jungle natives -- but others were not.

* VindicatedByCable: A box-office disappointment when initially released, it found its audience through TV and home video, becoming the 1970s equivalent of ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''. (Curiously enough, Creator/RogerEbert's original review outright praised it as being the best kids' of it's kind film since ''Oz''!)

* HypeBacklash: The film is hailed as a classic yet takes several creative liberties with the source material, so this was inevitable. Even when the movie was released it angered many fans with its changes to the story and tone, even [[CreatorBacklash Roald Dahl himself.]] This has gotten more prevalent in recent years with less and less people growing up with the movie and instead with other adaptations.

** One of the few updates in the 2005 version that fans of this movie have approved of was making the chocolate river actually look like chocolate, rather than the... questionable-looking brown liquid here, which even one of the parents says looks more like sewage (some have less-favorably compared it to diarrhea) than anything remotely edible. Even the grown-up actors who played the children joke about this on the DVD commentary (though some DO still have fond memories of it just the same- Julie Dawn Cole often ate lunch on its shores).

** Grandpa Joe. In the film, he's portrayed as a kindly old man and sort of a mentor figure to Charlie. The fandom, however, portrays him as a cabbage water-guzzling deadbeat who faked having a disability and never lifted a finger to help his starving family despite being perfectly able to, only finally climbing out of bed when a day of chocolate and fun is involved. People also take issue that Grandpa Joe, who stayed in bed for two decades, got to go to the factory instead of the hard-working Mrs. Bucket. Some exaggerate it by theorizing that he was the mastermind behind numerous historical atrocities. The [[Film/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory 2005 remake]] rectifies this by establishing that Grandpa Joe worked at Wonka's factory before Wonka laid off his entire workforce, and was unable to find further employment. This also gives Grandpa Joe a better reason to accompany Charlie to the factory since he knows more about it than the others.