Characters / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Four Bratty Kids

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory franchise character index
Willy Wonka | Bucket Family
The Four Bratty Kids | Other Adult Characters | Adaptation-Specific Characters

The Four Bratty Kids

In General

• Abusive Offspring: Many incarnations of Veruca are depicted as this towards her father but the 1971 version takes the cake, best exemplified in the scene where the workers are looking for her Golden Ticket. In the musical, Mike is depicted as this as shown in his mother's introduction song that states he has a ridiculous amount of Troubling Unchildlike Behavior.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Depending on the version, if the script wants them to be spoiled to the point of rudeness to better emphasize their vices. As an example, with the exception of Veruca (who is less whiny and more passive aggressive), all of them become more antagonistic and unpleasant in the 2005 film: Augustus and Violet are openly mean to Charlie while Mike is very rude, skeptical, and arrogant toward Willy Wonka.
• Adaptational Nationality: None of the kids had their nationalities specified in the novel. Both the 1971 and 2005 versions make Mike and Violet American, Veruca English and Augustus German.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Very downplayed. None of the adaptations depict them as nice kids but some adaptations tone down their bratty behavior. For example, as noted below, Augustus was a gluttonous pig with bad manners. In the 1971 film, he's relatively well-mannered and noticeably more polite than his literary and 2005 film counterparts.
• Aerith and Bob: Charlie, Mike, and Violet along with Augustus and especially Veruca.
• All for Nothing: In the 1971 version, they all are offered a bribe from a man claiming to be Slugworth. At the end, once they're all eliminated, the man is revealed to be a Wonka employee and the bribe to be a Secret Test of Character.
• Anti-Role Model: Their main purpose in the narrative. All four were spoiled in different ways by their parents, and their behavior by the time of the factory tour is meant to show how giving into these different vices can affect a child's mentality the way the author saw it, and their downfalls serve as lessons for the readers to not let your child/yourself get to that level.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The kids' major character flaws: being greedy and gluttonous, being spoiled, being obsessed with TV and... chewing gum? This is an example of changing cultural norms: When the book was written, society was a lot stricter about a lot of things, chewing gum included (chewing gum is noisy and can be disruptive to other people, but it is usually classrooms that ban it, rather than factories); as the Oompa-Loompa song in the 1971 version puts it, "Given good manners, you will go far". Adaptations tend to balance this by having Violet be ill-mannered and rude due to being spoiled, and giving her a different issue where the incessant gum chewing is a symptom of the problem rather than the problem itself, usually in the form of Pride caused by her status as a record-hungry athlete (like the 2005 film) or as a pop-based celebrity (like the theater play).
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Finding the Golden Ticket. Seemingly everybody in the world wants to find one. Veruca — and, in the 2005 film and 2013 musical, Mike — even get theirs using underhanded methods (using laborers in her father's factory and "hacking" the ticket distribution to find the bar with it or just the ticket outright, respectively), and all five finders are considered "lucky winners" by the press. But four of them are subjected to horrible Ironic Hell punishments, which may or may not be Mr. Wonka's plan all along.
• Blessed with Suck: Winning the Golden Ticket. You get to be one of only five families that get: 1) to see and explore Mr. Wonka's chocolate factory, 2) a huge supply of chocolate and 3) a shot at a mysterious super-prize, but one small misstep and you are in for a very unpleasant experience, possibly with long-lasting damage.
• The Bully: Adaptations tend to turn some of the quartet into rude kids to better show how spoiled and selfish they are. Both Augustus and Violet, for example, have shades of antagonism towards Charlie (Augustus taunting him by asking, "Do you want some chocolate? Then you should have brought some" and Violet passive-aggressively insulting him by suggesting that starting a new piece of gum, which is what he suggested, would make her a "loser") in the 2005 film.
• Devil in Plain Sight: All four, but especially Veruca. The Bucket family, the grandparents in particular, is dismayed to learn that each of them is obnoxious in their own way, yet they are all indulged by their parents and acclaimed and celebrated for their luck, which isn't even really luck in Veruca's case, by the rest of the world. The four kids get a very rude awakening to their own faults once they are in the factory, because — while he may not show it at first — Willy Wonka, to say nothing of his Oompa-Loompas, does recognize them for who they are and has No Sympathy for what happens to them when they give in to their vices and meet dreadful fates.
• Dwindling Party: In the book, the 2005 film, and the opera, the kids all survive but are eliminated from the tour/secret competition one by one. At the end of the book it is revealed that the "winner" is defined as the child whom Mr. Wonka likes best and Charlie, the only one who doesn't have a flaw that results in elimination, is that kid. In the 1971 film and 2013 musical, their fates are left ambiguous — in the latter, three kids and one adult might suffer Death by Adaptation (and thus play this trope straight!). In the Broadway retool of the musical, Veruca is torn apart, not-quite-killing her off (she calls for her dad off-stage afterwards).
• Embodiment of Vice:
  • Augustus represents gluttony and hubris;
  • Violet represents pride and ignorance;
  • Veruca represents greed and impatience;
  • Mike represents cynicism and laziness.
• Famed In-Story: Usually in regards to the adaptations, as we see a bigger media coverage in their Golden Ticket wins, but some adaptations tend to have the children be celebrities in their own right. In the 2013 musical, Violet is this for sure, even having her own TV show (and in some versions a huge social media following). Augustus Gloop is also an eating contest champion in this version, and Veruca is the daughter of a billionaire.
• Fearless Fool: All of them, but it's Played for Drama to drive home how their spoiled upbringing made them so foolish to begin with. Augustus drinks from the chocolate river despite warnings and the fact that he can't even swim, Violet chews experimental gum despite being told it wasn't "quite right yet", Veruca tries to steal a trained, albeit dangerous squirrel, and Mike sends himself through a teleporter just to prove to Mr. Wonka that it can be done.
• Felony Misdemeanor: All the bratty kids (yes, even Veruca to an extent), but especially Violet, whose "crime" in the book consists solely of chewing gum, yet her punishment is being turned into a giant blueberry (while Augustus's "crime" is eating too much and he gets squeezed in a tube, and Mike's "crime" is watching too much TV and his punishment is being shrunk). This trope is lampshaded in the story when Veruca's father comments that yes, his daughter is bratty, but this doesn't justify her burning.
• Foil: Each kid to Charlie, in different ways:
  • Augustus enjoys all the food he wants. Charlie is barely even getting what he needs;
  • Veruca demands her parents give her any valuable object she wants and gets it immediately, since she's insanely rich. Charlie is a dirt-poor child that only wants mundane luxuries like chocolate bars but can only get them once per year;
  • Violet is proud and rude. Charlie is humble and well-mannered. Additionally, Violet hung onto the same piece of gum for some iditoic claim to fame, while Charlie's poverty means he has to retain every single purchase and isn't recognised for it;
  • Mike dismisses Wonka as a lunatic (he isn't completely wrong) and doesn't appreciate the wonders of the factory — they go to the Television Chocolate room because he misses TV while on the tour. Charlie listens to Mr. Wonka with childish wonder and is absolutely fascinated with the place. Also, Mike watches tv for entertainment and hates it when he's interrupted while Charlie's family are only ever shown watching the news and Charlie just goes along with it.
• From Bad to Worse: The 1971 version. Once they are all eliminated, we learn from Wonka that by violating the contract they signed at the start of the tour, they lose their 'Lifetime Supply of Chocolate' privileges. Not long after that, we also learn that the Gobstopper bribe was actually a Secret Test of Character set up by a Wonka employee posing as Slugworth. Needless to say, we can only imagine how the four brats reacted to this.
• Heel–Face Turn: In certain adaptations.:
  • In the 2005 stage musical Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, they emerge for the finale restored to their original states and Charlie claims "They learned their lesson." They then sing an additional verse of the 1971 film's Oompa-Loompa song confirming this.
  • Much the same happens at the end of The Golden Ticket, but they are not restored to normal. They are transformed as in the novel's denouement, which they admit is "our just reward/For being greedy, spoiled and bored."
  • The 2017 Broadway version was originally going to end with them all coming out alive (albeit deformed) and hired by Charlie to work for his factory. This cut the pacing, so it was dropped.
• Humiliation Conga:
  • All four kids go through this, particularly in the 2005 film and 2013 musical, in which all of the kids except Veruca have their personal insulting songs sung in front of them (though they mostly don't seem to be paying attention). One by one: Augustus falls into a chocolate river in front of everyone, gets sucked up a glass tube and sticks, goes through who-knows-what in the Fudge Room, then exits the factory thin as a straw and/or covered in chocolate. Violet swells up and is rolled around, and ends up permanently purple. Veruca gets covered in trash. Mike is shrunk, then stretched to ridiculous proportions. All of them exit, in some demeaning fashion, filmed and being watched by presumably the whole world.
  • The 1971 adaptation doesn't even show the children getting out at all, though Mr. Wonka does assure Charlie they will be fine. In the 2013 stage musical, Mr. Wonka may actually have a Dwindling Party situation on his hands, and he doesn't care!
• Idiot Ball: Even ignoring the highly advanced fantastical technology around them, the children are being given a tour of a factory and engage in extremely unsafe behavior, usually involving interfering with working machinery they don't understand, and ignore Wonka's warnings in the process. To what extent these factors apply to each individual child varies depending on the adaptation, but as a whole, they really should have known better.
• Iron Butt Monkey: All four of them risk being seriously injured or killed due to their misbehavior, and three wind up permanently transformed by their experiences (squeezed skinny, purple-skinned, turned into a giant), but they are all otherwise safe and sound upon emerging from the factory. Veruca and her parents don't even get hurt in their fall down the garbage chute, only getting Covered in Gunge for their trouble. According to Mr. Wonka, it is justified in Mike Teavee's case; stretching him back to his original size is easy and presumably painless because boys his age "stretch like mad"! This is averted in the 2013 musical, owing to the Uncertain Doom most of them face; in the 2017 Broadway Retool, Veruca is definitively killed off.
• Ironic Hell: The bratty kids' punishments:
  • Augustus has a Sweet Tooth, and his punishment is nearly drowning in melted chocolate and narrowly escaping being made into fudge.
  • Violet loves to chew gum, and her punishment is being turned into a blueberry from chewing dangerous gum.
  • Mike loves watching TV, and his punishment is being shrunk via being "sent by television".
  • Veruca is a spoiled Animal Lover, and her punishment is being attacked by the squirrels she tries to take and throws a tantrum to acquire.
• Kids Are Cruel: In the book, the bad kids aren't really mean at all, but adaptations use this to varying extents:
  • In the 1971 film, Veruca seems to hate Violet, shoving her around for no real reason. (According to the DVD commentary, Julie and Denise fought regularly for the attention of Peter, who they both had a crush on. Each would sneak jabs at each other while the camera was rolling as a result of the tension, which was kept in.) Also, it is implied that at least Veruca and Mike have taken Mr. Slugworth up on his offer of further riches if they manage to get him an Everlasting Gobstopper.
  • There is a clearer mutual dislike between the girls in the 2005 film, culminating in Veruca's schadenfreude at Violet turning into a blueberry. This is likely because both girls (Veruca due to being spoiled and Violet due to being a competitive perfectionist) feel a need to be the center of attention, and don't like sharing the limelight with other girls. Also, Violet occasionally picks on Charlie. Again, this is probably due to Violet's competitiveness, but Augustus just randomly mocks him. He said nothing to him in the book.
  • In The Golden Ticket, Veruca is subjected to Adaptational Villainy; she agrees to be a spy and videotape the tour after she gets her ticket. She also says "Let's face it, who's going to miss Mikey Teavee?" after he is shrunk... in front of his terrified mother. Violet picks on Augustus with regards to his weight when they are both interviewed, and thinks he deserves his karmic fate in the pipes. And both Mike and Veruca look down on Charlie.
  • Mike is an Enfant Terrible in the 2013 stage musical, and Veruca's bossier than ever (if not as malicious as her Golden Ticket counterpart). And while the brats don't pick on Charlie, they occasionally snipe at each other (Violet even uses two lines of her Boastful Rap / "I Am" Song to put down Veruca before they even meet!) — and certainly don't hesitate to put down/snap at that crazy old guy who will serve as their tour guide...
• Lack of Imagination: In The Golden Ticket and the 2013 stage musical, it is suggested that all four brats have this problem — they are too preoccupied with consuming/getting things or just becoming famous for the sake of fame itself to actually create things, or even (in the former) to truly dream. Kind of important as they are (secretly) applying for a position that requires creativity.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Happens to all the children, whose misfortunes — or, in Charlie's case, good fortune — are a direct result of their personalities and actions.
  • Augustus came dangerously close to being turned into the very confectionary he thoughtlessly gobbled up.
  • Violet is left disfigured after chewing an experiemental piece of gum all because she wanted to be known as the first person to try it. Assuming she does become famous in the future, it'll likely be for looking weird.
  • Veruca is filthy rich and never appreciated any of her material possessions. She's thrown down a garbage chute and leaves the factory looking derelict.
  • Mike's obsession with the wonders of media and assumption that he already knew enough left him completely unprepared for the side-effects of trying out some new tech.
• Lost in Imitation: The four kids' home countries aren't specified in the novel. The 1971 film was the first to make them a Multinational Team (see below), and other versions follow its lead, down to the countries involved.
• Menace Decay: These kids don't seem so awful in the book and 1971 film to modern viewers, which makes their fates seem wildly out of proportion to their sins (though they are all cause-and-effect situations — equivalent to a person walking into a lion's cage and getting mauled). From the 2005 film onward, they are portrayed as more obnoxious to counteract this trope. But depending on the adaptation, their punishments might be more extreme as well...
• Multinational Team: Starting with the 1971 film, it is traditional to depict the brats as German (Augustus), British (Veruca), and American (Violet and Mike), with Charlie's nationality usually left ambiguous — he is either British or American. Two audiobook narrators broke with tradition for one character apiece — Eric Idle's Veruca Salt is American, and Douglas Hodge's Mike is British. In the Retooled Broadway production of the musical, Veruca is Russian.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Each kid represents at least one of these:
  • Gluttony: Augustus Gloop. He just can’t have enough of sweets. He eventually falls into a river of chocolate, his favorite type of candy.
  • Pride: Violet Beauregarde. She always want to show that she is the best in everything. She shows that she isn’t afraid of chewing the three-meal-gum despite Wonka’s warnings. She turns into a blueberry because of it.
  • Greed: Veruca Salt. She always wants more and more things, and thanks to a rich dad who does everything for her, she has gotten used to always getting what she wants. When she tries to take one of Wonka’s squirrels, all of them attacks her in the garbage.
  • Sloth / Wrath: Mike Teavee. Despite being rather intelligent in most adaptations, he prefers to sit around watching TV and playing violent video games all day than do anything productive, and is short-tempered and violent.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Augustus and Mike. The former is a Fat Idiot who is subtly implied to be a Momma's Boy while the latter is a Bratty Half-Pint who's seen watching a show about cowboys at one point. This is especially evident in the 1971 film. They can also both be the Manly Men to Charlie's Sensitive Guy.
• Spoiled Brat: All four. Augustus' parents feed him pounds of chocolate, Violet's parents indulge all her obnoxious habits, Veruca's parents get her anything she wants, and Mike Teavee's parents actually encourage his television watching because it means they won't have to babysit him.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Violet and Veruca; the former's vice is more physical (constantly chewing gum) and the illustrations show her wearing pants, while the latter is a rich girl who's shown wearing a fancy dress. The 2005 adaptation ups this by making Violet The Lad-ette and a competition freak while showing Veruca in a mink coat, pink dress, and her hair in Regal Ringlets.
• Too Dumb to Live: The children's eliminations from the tour were the result of their own idiotic actions.
  • Being the glutton he is, Augustus qualifies as this the most, especially in the 2005 film. Seriously, don't drink out of the chocolate river on a ledge!
  • Really Violet, popping a piece of still-experimental gum in your mouth straightaway? In the book and 1971 film her parent(s) initially warn her not to do anything stupid... but in those and other versions, as soon as she starts to chew and declares that it works just as Mr. Wonka says, they cheer her on, proud that she's the first person ever to have a chewing gum meal. Never mind that Mr. Wonka continues to demand she spit it out before she hits dessert... On top of that, in most versions, she's still chewing even after noticing that she's turned blue and/or has started inflating.
  • Yes Veruca, it's a brilliant idea to try and take a profesionally trained squirrel as a pet and then get attacked as a result.
    • In the 1971 film, she doesn't realize that a scale meant to weigh eggs (even giant ones) might not be able to support her weight.
  • Not only does Mike use an untested teleporter on himself but in the 1971 film, he asks to go through it again even after it shrank him.
• Tricked to Death: Each of the children were taken to specific rooms that were tailored to their vices. All the children had to do was listen to Mr Wonka and not mess with his inventions, but instead, they fell to their own vices. Each room tested the worst parts of an unworthy heir; addiction/selfishness (Augustus), arrogance (Violet), entitlement (Veruca) and apathy (Mike).
• Two Girls to a Team: Of the five Golden Ticket winners, we have three boys and two girls (Veruca and Violet).
• Uncertain Doom: Depending on the adaptation, it may be left ambiguous if the children actually survive their trip through the factory and their karmic punishments. The original book describes all of them surviving and leaving the factory, and we also see this in the 2005 movie.
• Victimized Bystander: The naughty children who fall victim to events in the factory survive in most versions, but with "reminders" of their misbehavior. Augustus is thin as a rail from being squeezed through the pipes, Violet is purple, Veruca is covered in garbage, and Mike is a 10-foot giant (the end result of being put through a taffy puller to de-shrink him).
• "The Villain Sucks" Song: Although they don't really qualify as villains, each of them gets one of these from the Oompa-Loompas after they get their Laser-Guided Karma. The 1971 movie gave them a song with minor variations each time one was eliminated, while the book and 2005 movie give unique songs for the whole lot of them.
• Villainy-Free Villain: The kids are characters most resembling actual villains we get in this story; they are mean, unpleasant, somewhat disgusting - but not evil. It is also implied that it is their parents' fault the bratty kids became... well, spoiled brats.

Augustus Gloop

Played by:

Michael Bollner (1971 film)
Philip Wiegratz (2005 film)
Andrew Drost (2010 opera's 2012 recording)
Jenson Steele (2013 musical's Original London Cast Recording)
F. Michael Haynie (2017 Broadway Retool of the musical)
Rachel Butera (Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

This obese nine-year-old boy, whose "hobby" is eating, is the first Golden Ticket finder, and the first to fall prey to the factory's perils when he decides to drink directly from the Chocolate Room's river and winds up falling into it. Drowning turns out to be the least of his worries. Traditionally played as German in adaptations.

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In the novel and/or multiple adaptations:

• All Take and No Give: The Oompa-Loompas' justification for disposing of him in the novel and 2013 musical. To quote the former:
  However long this pig might live
  We're positive he'd never give
  Even the smallest bit of fun
  Or happiness to anyone.
• Animal Motifs: Pigs — with the gluttonous and messy connotations invoked. His character description in the book is "a fat pig who would eat anything within reach or bite." Promotional material for the 2005 film showed pigs around him, as well. His family also runs a butchery in that film, driving the point home further with large sacks of meat hanging around him. The 2013 musical takes it even further — they raise pigs for their butchery in their backyard.
• Big Eater: His defining character trait, and effectively the reason he's the first kid to find a ticket, is that he eats a great deal of food, mostly sugar, every day. In the Tim Burton adaptation, he didn't even know he'd gotten a ticket until he'd already taken a bite out of the bar (and the ticket) and realized something wasn't right.
• Fat Bastard: While it's pretty disgusting to put unwashed hands in chocolate meant for worldly consumption in any case — and especially when repeatedly told not to for precisely this reason — in the book Augustus is mentioned to have a nasty cold too, which is now being spread through everything. This is played up in the 2005 version. He's also a round boy.
• Fat Comic Relief: He exists primarily to be this and A Weighty Aesop — his large size is mainly played up as a joke, with characters often poking fun at him.
• Fat Idiot: Augustus doesn't seem to have much personality to show, and it's implied his mother has babied him enough to make him completely infantile. His only notable action is the supremely idiotic one of trying to drink from the river and falling in. Some adaptations give him moments of nastiness to go along with this.
• Fat Slob: Usually, the key exception being the 1971 film's version, who has decent table manners. By the time he falls into the chocolate river in the novel, he's been "lapping up the chocolate like a dog" from it. The 2005 scene in the Chocolate Room is made genuinely unpleasant as Augustus stomps around eating everything, the area around his mouth and face becoming quite colorful and messy in the process. The 2013 incarnation tends to introduce himself with a good belch, if he isn't too busy eating something or other.
• Flat Character: On account of spending most of what little screentime he gets stuffing his face, we don't get to see very much of his personality. Various adaptations have attempted Adaptation Expansion, but have gone in completely different directions, with the 2005 movie portraying him as a Fat Bastard bully and the 2013 musical portraying him as a sheltered Cheerful Child who is unaware of how disgusting his habits are. Other adaptations, such as the 1971 film, simply choose to run with the book's portrayal and make him into a Living Prop.
• Formerly Fat: In the book, his time in the tube squeezed him quite thin.
• "I Am" Song: Gets one in at least two different stage adaptations.
  • In 2005's Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, it's "I Eat More".
  • In the 2013 musical, it's "More of Him to Love" (performed in tandem with his parents).
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The in-between to Charlie's nice and Mike's mean. He's not as bad as the other kids but he's still considered a brat.
• Obsessed with Food: Eating is described as his hobby!
• Oktoberfest: The 1971 film, 2005 film, 2005 musical, and 2013 musical all present him as German, and this trope always follows suit. In the 2005 film, he is from *ahem* Düsseldorf, which The Other Wiki calls the center of one of Europe's most populated metropolitan areas. The 2013 musical goes with Bavaria instead and also counts as Yodel Land.
• Seven Deadly Sins: He represents Gluttony due to being a Big Eater who is portrayed as greedy for his appetite.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: How rich his family is is debatable, but Augustus is so sheltered that he doesn't even know how to swim.
• Sinister Sweet Tooth: While a Big Eater in general, it's his love of sweets in particular that leads him to discover the first Golden Ticket, for according to his mother "He eats so many candy bars a day that it was almost impossible for him not to find one"; on top of breaking the rules and drinking chocolate straight from Wonka's river, he's often portrayed as a bully in the adaptations. Some versions even have it that his gorging caused him to take a bite out of his Golden Ticket. Of course, his sweet tooth also factors into his undoing.
• Super Drowning Skills: His inability to swim bites him in the ass hard when he nearly drowns in the Chocolate River and certainly can't escape the pipe.
• Translation Convention: In most adaptations, the Gloops are presented as being fairly bad at English, with heavy accents and Germanic terms sprinkled in their conversation ("Guten tag Mr. Vonka!"). Yet they nevertheless always speak English to each other during the tour, as they do throughout the book. It's particularly odd during Augustus's troubles with the pipe — despite fearing for his life, he screams for his mother in English.
• Villainous Glutton: He's an antagonist and a Big Eater. Though how villainous he is depends on the adaptation.
• Waistcoat of Style: In Quentin Blake's illustrations he wears a pink-spotted one, stretched to bursting.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The first winner to "leave" the tour in all versions.

In the 1971 film:

"I feel sad for Wonka. It's going to cost him a fortune in fudge."

• Adaptational Attractiveness: Augustus is disgustingly obese in the novel and other versions; here, he's not nearly that fat — even kind of cute — and has much better manners too.
• The Hedonist: Both his mother and Willy Wonka tell him that he needs to show some self-control. He doesn't listen to his detriment.
• Hufflepuff House: In the first film, he's quite well-mannered, even at the dinner table. Veruca wants one of everything Wonka's factory has, Violet likes to chew gum and show off to her friends in one-upmanship, Mike likes to watch TV and hopes to be a star with Wonkavision, while Augustus' few lines at the dinner table consist of feeling hungry and feeling a little sad that his big appetite could cost Wonka a fortune in fudge, and he's the first one to experience disaster when he gets caught in a pipe and ends up in the fudge room.
• Mr. Vice Guy: He's nice to the others and has good manners. He only gets in trouble because of his gluttony.
• Nice Guy: He has good table manners and seems to be polite towards the other kids.
• Out of Focus: He barely speaks here, mainly because the actor spoke little English. That said, the lack of dialogue is not a huge change from the novel, in which he only has a handful of lines.
• Save the Villain: After he falls into the chocolate river, Charlie tries to save him by extending a giant lollipop for him to grab onto, which fails. Downplayed on the villain part because he was the least rotten out of the four bratty children and it's debatable how much he was in on providing Slugworth with an Everlasting Gobstopper as he was eliminated before he even manages to get a hold on one of them.
• Token Good Teammate: Augustus is the least mean of the bratty kids, as he's only merely gluttonous and follows the group without doing any truly bad things whatsoever, serving more or less as a Funny Foreigner. He was also the first of the group to be ejected from the tour.
• Yodel Land: The town he comes from ("Dusselheim") is fictional, but the restaurant where he's interviewed has a very Bavarian look to it and he goes on the tour wearing lederhosen.

In the 2005 film:

"I'm Augustus Gloop. I love your chocolate".

• Adaptational Jerkass: Much more aggressive, particularly towards Charlie, than in other adaptations. He offers him a bite of his chocolate bar, then cruelly says, "then you should have brought some!"
• Covered in Gunge: His ultimate fate is being coated in molten chocolate. Luckily he tastes delicious! And compared to what happens in the novel — he's squeezed skinny by the pipe — it's an improvement in any case.
• Creepy Child: Those wide blue eyes, impossibly bright red hair and vacant smile make him look positively unnerving. Almost as if he's got no thought in his mind beyond eating.
• Fat Bastard: On the way to the first room, he offers his chocolate bar to Charlie and then yanks it away, saying, "Would you like some chocolate? Then you should have brought some," before giving the child-equivalent of an Evil Laugh.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The eccentric Sensitive Guy to Mike's anti-social, moody Manly Man, but the Big Eater Manly Man to Charlie's kind-hearted Sensitive Guy.

In the 2013 musical:

• Cheerful Child: A subversion. He's just as constantly happy and upbeat as Charlie, who is a straight example of this trope. But it isn't portrayed as positive because of his revolting habits and occasional rudeness (not to mention that, since all he does is eat, his happiness stems directly from his appetite being constantly whetted). His demise is presented as a grotesque mockery of Break the Cutie; he is thoroughly broken by his sojourn through the pipe, in tears by his exit to an Uncertain Doom.
• Crazy Consumption: He's proud of being able to eat those aforementioned pigs "limb from limb" — with his father noting "We don't leave our dachshund all alone with him!"
• Gasshole: Along with his tendency to introduce himself with a belch, he even releases some flatulence in the pipe, which propels him further toward his doom.

Veruca Salt

Played by:

Julie Dawn Cole (1971 film)
Julia Winter (2005 film)
Abigail Nims (2010 opera's 2012 recording)
Tia Noakes (2013 musical's Original London Cast Recording)
Emma Pfaeffle (2017 Broadway Retool of the musical)
Emily O'Brien (Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

Ticket finder number two is a spoiled little rich girl who gets everything she wants. Notably, she didn't find the ticket on her own — rather, her father (who runs a peanut factory) had his employees "shell" thousands of Wonka Bars until one of them found a ticket. She is the third child to be eliminated from the tour when her attempt to steal a trained, nut-sorting squirrel from The Nut Room ends with her tossed down a rubbish chute that leads to an incinerator that may or may not be lit today. (Her parents go down it as well when they try to save her, making them the only parents to face a poetic comeuppance in the factory.) Traditionally portrayed as British in adaptations.

On a side note, the band Veruca Salt is named after her.

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In the novel and/or multiple adaptations:

• Abusive Offspring: She verbally bullies her dad and mom to get what she wants.
• Adaptational Intelligence: In the novel, 2005 film and 2013 musical, she just throws tantrums if her parents don't bow to her demands right away and at least in the first two is implied to be literally empty headed, but in the 1971 film and 2010 opera she also emotionally manipulates her father, telling him what an awful person he is for not getting her what she wants. In the opera, she's also unusually savvy about business for a 10-year-old, both in telling her father to mortgage his factory when he tries to explain that the search for the Golden Ticket is bankrupting him and her agreeing to act as a spy during the tour.
• Adaptational Nationality: Is English in the movies and the 2013 musical but the 2004 musical makes her Brazilian and she's Russian in the 2017 Broadway show.
• Animal Lover: She owns a pony (and wants another one), two dogs, four cats, six rabbits, two parakeets, three canaries, a green parrot, a turtle, and a hamster, and wants a squirrel as well. While her being allowed to have all the animals she wants marks her as a spoiled brat, she still has to be an animal lover to want them in the first place.
• Berserk Button: Nothing will piss Veruca off and send her into Bratty Half-Pint mode faster than being told that she can't have whatever she wants.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She constantly tries to appear adorable, only to throw a tantrum once in a while.
• Bratty Half-Pint: When she's mad she'll yell at people relentlessly, nag, pout, and stomp her feet.
• Break the Haughty: In the novel, her comeuppance is the simplest (notably it's the only one that doesn't involve Applied Phlebotinum) and most humiliating, tying directly into her sense of entitlement.
• Covered in Gunge: Garbage, to be exact, once she and her parents go down the Nut Room's chute.
• Daddy's Girl: Mr. Salt is the primary pamperer between her two parents. How much she loves him back varies from version to version. Adaptations almost always render Mrs. Salt Demoted to Extra or Adapted Out (the key exception is Richard George's non-musical play) so this trope is played up further.
• Diseased Name: A verucca is a plantar wart. This trope is lampshaded in-story by Mr. Wonka; in the 2013 musical she points out "The wart has two Cs, I've got one." It doesn't work because he "misinterprets" this statement to mean she has one wart...
• Hollow-Sounding Head: Unusually it is an actual plot point, rather than just a brief gag, in the novel and most adaptations.
• It's All About Me: She's completely self-absorbed and makes those around her absolutely miserable when she doesn't get what she wants right away.
• Karma Houdini: Despite being unquestionably the worst of the four brats in just about every regard, she ends up being the only one of the four who doesn't end up permanently changed by her trip to Wonka's factory; she just gets covered in garbage and has her expensive clothes ruined, with no real indication that she's learned anything from her experience. As a result, most adaptations do more to make her suffer a dose of Laser-Guided Karma, with the 2005 film and the Tom and Jerry adaptation both having her father decide that he's no longer going to spoil her from now on.
• Meaningful Name: "Verruca" is the scientific latin name for warts, which fits with how obnoxious she is. Lampshaded by Mr. Wonka.
• Pink Means Feminine: In Quentin Blake's illustrations, the 2005 film and the 2013 musical, the latter specifically referencing her love of ballet (her outfit comes complete with a tutu). She even arrives at the factory in a pink limo in that version. The color might have been chosen due to its connotation with princesses.
• Pretty in Mink: Veruca has furs because she's spoiled in the book and most adaptations. Julie Dawn Cole actually wore a custom-made little mink coat made for the part for the 1971 movie. It's fake in the 2005 film, though the character could easily have a real one. The 2013 musical, meanwhile takes this trope to eleven; not only is her coat real fur, but she's proud to announce it's made from baby seals (clubbed and tickled pink).
• Rich Bitch: Her family's wealth helped make her the Spoiled Brat she is today, and though a child she's as snobby, rude, well-dressed, and entitled as any adult example of this trope. This is played up in The Golden Ticket, in which she is played by an adult actress, but it's also apparent in the 1971 version, where despite having everything she wants she is willing to sell one of Mr. Wonka's recipes to Slugworth for even more money.
• Seven Deadly Sins: She represents Greed with a touch of Envy, since she's a very greedy, demanding girl who always covets what other people have.
• Spoiled Brat: As noted above, all the kids are this to some extent, but she's the worst by far because her father gives her whatever she demands, and the Oompa-Loompa song that sends her off is about why.
• Tempting Fate: When she realizes Mr. Wonka won't let her have a squirrel, she declares, "Who says I can't!? I'm going in to grab me a squirrel this very minute!" And she does, and... The 2013 musical goes with "No one says 'No' to Veruca Salt!" as she heads into the room, which fits this trope even better.

In the 1971 film:

"I want it NOW!"

• Adaptational Jerkass: While she's still a greedy, spoiled bitch in the book, the book version isn't nearly as hateful and nasty as this version.
• Adaptational Villainy: In this movie, she makes the jump from spoiled brat to corporate spy, and plans to sell Wonka's gobstopper to Slugworth, which is what drove Wonka to being a recluse. All this considering she's already from a very rich family.
• Attention Whore: Her It's All About Me attitude crosses into this ("Hey, she got two [Everlasting Gobstoppers]! I want another one!") which is likely why she's the only brat to get a Villain Song in this version.
• Berserk Button: As one of the iconic Spoiled Brats in cinema, Veruca does NOT like being told that she can't have what she wants. At all. This leads directly to her "I Want" Song.
  Mr Salt: Wonka, how much do you want for the Golden Goose?
  Wonka: They're not for sale.
  Mr Salt: Name your price.
  Wonka: She can't have one.
  Veruca: WHO SAYS I CAN'T?!
  Mr Salt: The man in the funny hat.
  Veruca: I WANT ONE!!
• Blatant Lies: She immediately takes credit for finding the golden ticket after forcing all of the factory hands to open untold hundreds of thousands of candy bars just to satisfy her selfish desires.
• Cute and Psycho: Maybe not quite, but she's borderline this, capable of a lot of destructive damage when she gets angry.
• Everyone Has Standards: She does show concern when Augustus falls into the chocolate river and, despite their animosity, is considerably freaked out when Violet starts turning into a blueberry.
• Evil Brit: She's British in this version, and is as nasty as can be.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It takes very little to set her off. She becomes more and more aggressive through her "I Want" Song, going so far as to ransack the room where the geese lay golden eggs while everyone stares in complete disbelief.
• "I Want" Song: "I Want It Now", appropriately enough. The bratty tone almost pushes it to being a Villain Song.
  I want a feast!
  I want a bean feast!
  Cream buns and doughnuts and fruitcake with no nuts so good you could go nuts. / No, now!
  I want a ball! I want a party!
  Pink macaroons and a million balloons and performing baboons and / Give it to me / Now!
• Jerkass: Of the four bratty kids, she is easily the worst.
• Large Ham: Perhaps inevitable, given her need to be the center of attention and get everything she demands.
• Lying Finger Cross: After promising Mr. Wonka she wouldn't give away the Gobstopper to anyone.
• Narcissist: She is utterly self-centered and believes that the whole world revolves around her. Moreso, she reacts violently when those around her don't cater to her demands.
• No Indoor Voice: Half of Veruca's dialogue is spoken in an insufferably shrill voice.
• Nouveau Riche: Whilst Veruca speaks with an RP accent, both her parents have far more workaday northern English accents, and he especially is presented as bluff and crass, the implication being that Mr & Mrs Salt come from humble beginnings and have made a colossal fortune in the nuts business in their own lifetimes.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Her spoiled personality is tested when she takes a ride on the Wonkatania. While she's her usual bratty self, demanding a similar boat, the subsequent tunnel sequence is more than enough to change her mind, and she's quick to get off with everyone else once the boat stops at the Inventing Room.
  Daddy, I do not want a boat like this!
• Threw My Bike on the Roof: During her Villain Song she smashes a bunch of decorations in the golden goose room just to be a bitch.
• Token Evil Teammate: Of the four bratty kids, she's the only one who's genuinely a bad person, the other three being annoying and spoiled at worst (though not to the extent she is).

In the 2005 film:

"Where's my Golden Ticket! I WANT my Golden Ticket!"

• All Girls Like Ponies: The very first thing she says after she receives her Golden Ticket is "Daddy, I want another pony."
• Deadpan Snarker: She gets her moments.
  Violet's Mother: I can't have a blueberry for a daughter! How is she supposed to compete?
  Veruca Salt: You could put her in a county fair.
• Kick the Dog: Her Lack of Empathy for Violet when she's turned into a blueberry. Even for a rival, that's pretty cold.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When her father refuses her demands with a stern glare, she shuts up.
• The Long List: Gives one to her father about the animals she has when he won't get her one of Wonka's squirrels, and even having the gall to say "All I have" at the start of it.
• Regal Ringlets: Which makes an interesting contrast to Violet's short, straight bob haircut.
• The Rival: She and Violet take to each other like this, all while pretending to be friends.
• Smug Snake: She has this attitude, especially where Violet's fate is concerned.
• Spoiled Brat: After her and her father's trip down the garbage chute, he refuses her demand for a "flying glass elevator". When she starts getting moody, he just fixes her with a stern glare, which gets her to shut up.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl (spoiled rich girl, pink dress, Regal Ringlets) to Violet's Tomboy (competitive, athletic, wears a tracksuit, has Boyish Short Hair).
• Ungrateful Bitch: When her father finally gets her a golden ticket, instead of thanking him, she tells him she wants another pony.
• Villain Ball: She remains spoiled but relatively restrained throughout the trip through the factory, before rather suddenly blowing it by throwing a conniption over the squirrels - which gets her ejected.

In the 2010 opera:

• Adaptational Villainy: She was already the worst of the five children in the source material, but this is probably the darkest interpretation of the character. After she gets her ticket she agrees to a deal with a television host: With her father's help, she'll secretly film the interior of Mr. Wonka's factory; this makes her a spy as well as a greedy brat. Veruca also gets the most stage time of the brats in this version, explicitly being portrayed as a ruthless Foil to selfless Charlie Bucket. With this in mind, while in all other versions she is the third brat to be eliminated from the tour, here she's the last to go.
• Bound and Gagged: One squirrel gags her while she is tested during her elimination.^note In this version, the squirrels are Rodents of Unusual Size played by the female chorus.
• Enfant Terrible: She never even tries to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
• Girls Love Stuffed Animals: She has a teddy bear...that she strangles to work out her frustration with not getting a Golden Ticket right away. Also counts as part of her...
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Her Adaptational Intelligence and Adaptational Villainy (see above), combined with her being played by an adult actress, make her come off as far older than she's supposed to be.

In the 2013 musical:

• Baby Talk: She unsuccessfully tries this on Mr. Wonka to wheedle a "cwootsie wootsie squiwwuw" from him in the Nut Room.
• Fur and Loathing: Played straight!
  Willy Wonka: It's a pleasure, dear / To have you here / Where did you get that mink?
  Veruca Salt: Are you for real?
  Mr. Salt: It's baby seal / That's clubbed and tickled pink
• "I Am" Song: With her father, "When Veruca Says". (One could also call it a She Wants Song.)
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: The first thing she asks for after getting her Golden Ticket is North Korea.
• Tutu Fancy: Zig-zagged. She loves ballet so much that tights, toeshoes, and tutu are everyday wear for her, but her overall outfit is surprisingly practical for dancing! Even her fur jacket is waist length so it won't get in the way when she dances.

In the 2017 Broadway Retool:

• Adaptational Nationality: She and her father are Russian to further the ballet motif of her character.
• Death by Adaptation: Instead of getting thrown down the "Bad Nut" chute, she's torn limb from limb and decapitated by the squirrels!

Violet Beauregarde

Played by:

Denise Nickerson (1971 film)
AnnaSophia Robb (2005 film)
Ashley Emerson (2010 opera's 2012 recording)
Jade Johnson (2013 musical's Original London Cast Recording)
Trista Dollison (2017 Broadway Retool of the musical)
Dallas Lovato (Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

The third Golden Ticket winner is a world-champion gum chewer who is both prideful and rude. She is the second child to "drop out" of the tour when she samples an experimental stick of gum that Mr. Wonka doesn't have quite right yet. Traditionally played as American in adaptations, with a surprising tendency to be from the mid-Southern/Southeastern U.S. (2005 film, 2005 stage musical Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, 2010 opera).

---

In the book and across adaptations:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Given that her punishment is the slowest-acting, she's frequently shown screaming for someone to help her. This is present in both film adaptations and the 2013 musical.
• All There in the Script: Violet's age was never confirmed in the original book, but the scripts for the 1971 and 2005 films state that in these adaptations, she is 12 and 10 respectively.
• Color Motif: The color blue/purple. This is to reflect her ulimate karma on trying out Wonka's gum, which causes her to inflate into a giant blueberry.
• Competition Freak: Besides her pride in becoming a record-holding gum chewer, she became involved in the Golden Ticket contest more for the glory she'd get if she found a ticket than desire for the actual prize, though she's quite happy to know that said prize will include gum! In the 2005 film, this becomes her defining trait, and it is also played up in the 2013 musical ("I may love chewing gum/But I like winning even more"), owing to societal changes over her gum-chewing habit being portrayed as a vice equivalent to those of the other brats.
• Cursed with Awesome: Her fate in the 2005 film has her permanently blue, but she's now an exceptional contortionist. She seems pretty content with the exchange.
• The Ditz: Of the kids the audience gets to know at length (Augustus being a case of We Hardly Knew Ye), she is the dumbest. This is downplayed in the 1971 film and eliminated in the 2005 film, but brought back in The Golden Ticket and the 2013 stage musical, in which she's effectively a Brainless Beauty in the making.
• Foil: To the other brats. Like Charlie, she's the only other one who actively searched for and found a Golden Ticket on her own initiative; Augustus found his through blind luck and current habits, Veruca had her dad's factory workers hunt for it, and Mike didn't care. Unlike Charlie, she's prideful that she won whereas he's humbled by the find.
• Forced Transformation: Her karmic punishment (Karmic Death in the musical) is a transformation into a giant blueberry! In the 2005 film her mom's first concern is that she won't be able "to compete". In the 2013 musical her father has similar concerns ("I can't have a blueberry on the cover of Vogue!") but quickly thinks of other moneymaking opportunities for her in her new form... and forgets that she's in real danger.
• Foreshadowing: She just has to be wearing blue that day in most illustrations and adaptations (the 2013 musical goes with purple instead).
• Giant Food: She turns into a human blueberry, and the "giant" part is emphasized in the 2005 film.
• Harmful Healing: After transforming into a gigantic blueberry, Violet has to be rolled to the Juicing Room to have the juice squeezed out of her in order to get her back to normal. In both film adaptations, the Oompa-Loompas seem to be very rough when rolling her, too — she's even screaming in terror and pleading for help as she is rolled (from around ten feet high, no less) around in the 2005 film.
• "I Am" Song: The 2005 stage musical Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka gave her "Chew It" (see below for 2013 musical-specific tropes).
• Iconic Item: Her world record-breaking piece of chewing gum, which she is still chewing on at every opportunity after three months. When she's asleep, she puts it on her bedpost for safe keeping; when she's awake and not chewing on it (namely at mealtimes), she sticks it behind her ear.
• Inflating Body Gag: One of the earliest and arguably most infamous examples of this trope is her swelling up into a blueberry, even being the Trope Codifier.
• Magic Pants: During and after her blueberry transformation, her clothes remain intact.
  • Played straight by most illustrators of the book.
  • Zig-zagged in the 1971 film: Violet's belt pops off as her body becomes too big for it, but upon her complete transformation, her clothes appears to fit her round new form completely.
  • Somewhat subverted in the 2005 film: Violet grows to around 10 feet in diameter, enough for her ballooning midsection to outgrow her sweatshirt— but her clothes, though visibly stretched to their limit, still manage to stay on. They also inexplicably turn a darker shade of blue with her.
  • Played straight in the 2010 opera: Violet's cowgirl outfit grows and turns blue along with her, even though there's no reason it should do either.
• Meaningful Name: Beauregarde is French for "good/high regard", which she clearly holds herself in.
• Motor Mouth: Taken to ridiculous levels in the 1971 film — and further still in the 2002 unabridged audiobook (not surprising, as the reader is Eric Idle). In the 2013 musical, it turns out that her chewing skill sprang up from her mom's efforts to keep her quiet, and one of the requirements to play her is that she can rap.
• Not Quite Back to Normal: She is changed back from being a blueberry, but remains permanently purple-skinned. In the 2013 musical, after she explodes in a shower of glitter, Mr. Wonka has her swept out and away to be restored, but with no guarantee that the (offstage) Disney Death won't result in this trope. In the 2005, she both remains blue and becomes a Rubber Girl, which actually delights her as her newfound flexibility gives her an edge in the athletic scene (though her mother is still annoyed about the blue skin).
• Oral Fixation: She loves chewing gum so much that she only takes breaks at mealtime and bedtime, and even then, that little piece of gum is never far away.
• Poke the Poodle: Unlike the other brats she is never mean to anybody, though she admits that she used to switch her gum once a day and leave the previous wad on an elevator button; she was highly amused by the reactions of adults when they inevitably got it on their fingers. ("You get the best results with women who have expensive gloves on.")
• Prophetic Name: Oh, her fate will leave her very violet, indeed.
• Quirky Curls: The most energetic, ditzy, and goofy of the five Golden Ticket finders has a "great big mop of curly hair", which is red to boot. The only major adaptation that sticks with red hair is The Golden Ticket, and even there it's long enough to be in pigtails.
• Seven Deadly Sins: She represents Pride due to being very arrogant in most adaptations.
• Simpleton Voice: In the 2013 audiobook, reader Douglas Hodge gives her the "high-pitched, nasally whine" variant of this trope.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Gum! She's nearly always chewing on a piece of gum, and once even states that she doesn't feel right without it.

In the 1971 film:

"Can it, you nit!"

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Violet was very much a Designated Villain in the book. In this film, she's the only member of the group who tells Veruca to shut up, and she's never mean-spirited to Charlie or the other kids.
• Big "SHUT UP!": She finally tells Veruca off when she begins demanding an Oompa-Loompa. See caption quote.
• Book Ends: The DVD Commentary begins and ends with her actress, Denise Nickerson, asking for gum.
• Bratty Half-Pint: She tends to snap at others (her mom, Veruca) when she gets annoyed with them.
• Captain Obvious: When Augustus gets stuck in the pipe, she helpfully says "He's blocking all the chocolate!"
• Compressed Vice: She is seen picking her nose once and never again.
• Curtains Match the Window: Brown eyes and long chestnut hair.
• Daddy's Girl: She and her father seem to have a very good relationship, except for when he tries to steal her interview time.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Wonka mentions that Blueberry!Violet must be rolled to the Juicing Room or else she will explode. Violet seems actually quite likable in this version, despite not having the best of manners, and the possibility of exploding seems far too hard on someone whose only "crimes" were having bad manners and chewing gum, especially a child.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even she can't stand Veruca. When Veruca starts demanding an Oompa-Loompa, Violet rolls her eyes in annoyance and tells her to shut up.
• Hypocritical Humor: "Spitting is a dirty habit." As she's picking her nose!
  Wonka: I know a worse one.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Violet may have a habit of shouting others down - like her father and Veruca - but Veruca is a brat that needs to be told off and her father is using his daughter's time in the limelight to promote his business.
• Popping Buttons: Her belt pops off when she starts inflating, though the rest of her outfit stretches out.
• Stunned Silence: After she becomes a blueberry; this makes her Ironic Hell complete, as the former Motor Mouth no longer can muster the words to speak, whether out of the gum's symptoms or out of sheer humiliation.

In the 2005 film:

"I'm a winner!"

• Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: When the other four children are leaving the factory with her parents, her body has become a lot more flexible after being juiced (she's also the only one happy about having her body altered in some way because of her incredible flexibility).
• Action Girl: She can go toe to toe with male adult karate opponents and take them down handily — and does in her Establishing Character Moment.
• Adaptational Badass: Whatever she sets her mind to do, she works hard to become the best there is at it, be it sports, gum chewing, etc.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: She's a red-head in the book but here, she's played by the blonde AnnaSophia Robb.
• Adaptational Jerkass: She's noticeably malicious in this film, far more than in any other adaptation.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Is a professional athlete, and that's what drives her to win competitions of any sort. In the book, she chewed on Wonka's untested gum because she's a gum-chewer, and that's what she does. In this film, she takes Wonka's warning as a challenge and tells him she's not afraid of anything.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Blonde in this, while brunette in other versions.
• Alpha Bitch: She has a more domineering personality in this version and is obsessed with being better than everyone else.
• Anthropomorphic Food: She becomes a humanoid blueberry.
• Boyish Short Hair: It's a straight blonde bob, which provides a contrast to Veruca's Regal Ringlets.
• Cursed with Awesome: At the end, she is now perhaps permanently blue, but with a body that can stretch like rubber. Mr. Wonka and Violet's mother are the ones who view it negatively; Violet herself reckons (and rightfully so!) that this "punishment" is made of win.
  Violet: Look, mother, I'm much more flexible now!
  Violet's Mother: Yes, but you're blue.
• Disappeared Dad: Her father, if she even has one, is nowhere in sight.
• Eye Color Change: In the middle of her giant blueberry transformation, Violet's eyes change from green to blue as her cheeks swell up.
• Freudian Excuse: It's implied that she has been shaped into what she is by her Stage Mom. And, contrary to the other kids whose vices are more the consequences of bad parenting methods, Mrs. Beauregarde willingly turned her into a bratty Competition Freak.
• Glory Seeker: Her life is devoted to winning. Nothing else.
• Go-Getter Girl: Her fixation on triumphing in any competition that comes her way results in a rather serious, all-business manner for her age.
• Heavy Voice: As a gigantic blueberry, her voice is noticeably deeper.
• Kick the Dog: Calling Charlie a loser unprovoked was just straight-up nasty.
• Little Miss Badass: She's shown to be very good at karate.
• Reveling in the New Form: Zigzagged. Violet certainly doesn't seem to enjoy being turned into a blueberry, given the horror-stricken expression on her face. However, when she's still purple after the juice has been squeezed out of her, she doesn't mind it since the procedure made her much more flexible.
• The Rival: She and Veruca take to each other like this (frowning at each other and acting spiteful), all while pretending to be friends.
• Sycophantic Servant: Not "servant," exactly, but she immediately acts cheerful and polite in an attempt to win over Wonka so that she can win the competition.
• A Taste of Defeat: Almost literally, as sampling the experimental gum means she loses out on the super-prize — perhaps the first competition she's ever lost. She takes it well though, thanks to her newly flexible body once she's squeezed out!
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: She's the Tomboy (competitive, athletic, wears a tracksuit, Boyish Short Hair) to Veruca's Girly Girl (spoiled rich girl, pink dress, Regal Ringlets).
• Tomboyness Upgrade: Probably the most tomboyish portrayal of the character. In this film, she wears a tracksuit, has Boyish Short Hair, and practices karate.
• Too Clever by Half: So she's pretty savvy on realizing there's a secret prize and thinks that she has to impress Wonka. There's just a problem; his warning her not to chew the gum was not a Secret Test of Character, in the way that she thinks. She assumes that it's testing her mettle and courage. It's actually testing if she can shed her competitive nature to listen to common sense.
• Villains Want Mercy: As the gigantic ten-foot blueberry Violet is rolled around the Inventing Room, she is heard screaming, groaning, and audibly begging for help, as the rest of the group simply watches.
  Blueberry Violet: [stuck in the Inventing Room Door] Mother, help me! Please!

In the 2010 opera:

• Comically Missing the Point: As the group watches in horror as she inflates, Violet, in Cloud Cuckoolander territory, simply goes on about the delicious taste of the blueberry pie stage of Wonka's Three-Course-Meal Gum; indeed, she seems not to notice that anything has happened to her at all until Wonka mentions juicing her.
• Daddy's Girl: Unlike Veruca Salt, she has a healthy relationship with her dad. Her Golden Ticket find came about when she was willing to break her perpetual diet and have just one bite of chocolate at his urging. ("So I said, 'Okay, Popsy-poo...I think I'll do it just for you.") Later, he stays with her while she's being de-juiced, and the last we hear of her as the scene changes is her crying out for him as the process begins.
• Girlish Pigtails: As with the other brats in this adaptation, Violet is played by an adult rather than an actual child, so having these is helpful in making her look younger.
• Harmful Healing: Blueberry!Violet has to have the juice squeezed out of her to turn her back into a human, and the end of "It's Three-Course-Meal Gum!" suggests that this is indeed not a comfortable process for her.
• I Just Want to Be Beautiful: Her primary vice is vanity rather than pride in this version, and it's why she's so weight-obsessed.
• Kids Are Cruel: Constantly picks on Augustus's weight to the point of saying he deserves his karmic fate just for being fat!
• Weight Woe: She's obsessed with being thin, making her a Foil to Fat and Proud Augustus Gloop. This is why she's always chewing gum — it substitutes for actual eating. This makes her transformation into a giant round blueberry (as Wonka says, "She's gone too far! She's grown too big! She's like a bloated, purple pig!" - - the chocolatier even has the Oompa-Loompas, in a rather humiliating manner for Violet, bring the Juicing Machine to her) a touch more poetic.

In the 2013 musical:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: For a rich kid nicknamed the "Double Bubble Duchess"/"Queen of Pop", Violet certainly isn't hesitant to beg in a terrified plea for help as her blueberry body is spun around like a disco ball during "Juicy!"
• Aristocrats Are Evil: A downplayed variant. The starlet has no royal blood but is a celebrity who proudly boasts of being "The Double Bubble Duchess" or "Queen of Pop"; her father also refers to her as "royalty of the highest order". They may not be evil, but putting on such airs emphasizes their egotistical, obnoxious natures.
• Attention Whore: Her and her father's single-minded pursuit of her fame and fortune despite her lack of anything that makes her worth paying attention to makes them both Attention Whores and Shameless Self Promoters. And it works...until they arrive in the world of someone who may be boastful but earned the right to brag through years of hard work and cultivated creativity. Ultimately, her foolishness makes the center of attention in a way she doesn't want.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: As explained in "Juicy!":
  Oompa-Loompas: Juicy is a girl named Violet B.
  She doesn't have a talent as far as we can see
  But she wants to be a star
  Though there's nothing she can do
  Mr. Wonka and the male Oompa-Loompas: She's gonna be famous now
  For just turning blue
• Boastful Rap: Her original "I Am" Song, "The Double Bubble Duchess", is this.
• Bratty Half-Pint: Owing to her stardom-inflated ego.
• Break the Haughty: Her ego and sense of entitlement factor heavily into her fate — why shouldn't she try the experimental gum? Why should she heed that crazy old guy warning her to stop?
• Daddy's Girl: She and her dad love each other — and feed each other's egos to boot.
• Disney Death: She explodes offstage! Mr. Wonka says there's hope: Provided she hasn't started to ferment, she can be restored to at least Not Quite Back to Normal and invoke this trope. The audience never finds out exactly what happens to her.
• Embarrassing Nickname: She may be the Double Bubble Duchess/Queen of Pop to the wide world, but when she meets her comeuppance the Oompa-Loompas give her the rather less flattering nickname "Juicy!" (West End staging only).
• Everything's Better with Sparkles: She wears a sparkly purple velour jumpsuit at all times. In the original West End staging, this has a blackly comic payoff when she undergoes her transformation — she becomes the glitter ball at the center of a Gratuitous Disco Sequence, and when she explodes, a sparkly Confetti Drop ensues.
• Foil: Besides being prideful and rude (as in the novel), she is also famous without being talented or even intelligent, whereas Charlie is dirt-poor but has the potential to be a great inventor if only someone could give him a leg up to realize his work.
• Harmful Healing: Mr. Wonka's method of supposedly getting her back to normal after she explodes ("...or — you know — near enough...") does not sound pleasant.
• "I Am" Song: "The Double Bubble Duchess" in the original West End staging, which was replaced with "Queen of Pop" in the final months. The latter song carried over to the Broadway staging.
• "Pop!" Goes the Human: She explodes after turning into a gigantic blueberry.
• Race Lift: She and her father are black rather than Caucasian, though they could be played by other races. Initially, only non-white actresses were sought for the role of Violet (which, like the other child roles in this show, is rotated among 3-4 different performers), but complaints about stereotyping — given that she raps — being added to Violet's traditional brattiness led to this requirement being dropped by the end of 2013. In any case, this is the first major adaptation to firmly break away from Monochrome Casting all the Golden Ticket winners as white. (In the Atlanta Opera production of The Golden Ticket Charlie's role was alternated between a white and a black actor, but that was likely Ability over Appearance — all of his grandparents were white, raising some weird Fridge Logic over who his parents, absent in that version, were.)
• Seven Deadly Sins: In this version, she represents Sloth as well as Pride — she has fame but never put in real effort to earn it.
• Shameless Self-Promoter: With her father's help she has parlayed her "talent" into a full-fledged career in the entertainment industry, as he explains to Wonka: "She's got her own TV show, line of perfume, and we are opening boutiques all over the world." Pride is definitely her primary vice.

Mike Teavee

Played by:

Paris Themmen (1971 film)
Jordan Paul Fry (2005 film)
Gerald Thompson (2010 opera's 2012 recording)
Jay Heyman (2013 musical's Original London Cast Recording)
Michael Wartella (2017 Broadway Retool of the musical)
Lauren Weisman (Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory)

The fourth Golden Ticket finder's favorite activity is watching television in the novel and 1971 film. Because Technology Marches On, his interests are expanded to include all forms of potentially mind-rotting electronic media in later adaptations. The last brat to be eliminated from the tour when he decides he wants to be "sent by television" via the Television-Chocolate setup. Traditionally played as American in adaptations.

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In the book and across adaptations:

• Berserk Button: Do not interrupt him while he is watching TV or attempt to take his television away.
• Bratty Half-Pint: His Establishing Character Moment in the novel and 1971 film is his telling off the reporters who want to interview him because he's busy watching television. During the tour, he is prone to incredulous and/or rude comments and questions about Mr. Wonka's creations. Tellingly, Mr. Wonka becomes subtly, progressively more annoyed by them, hence his habit of brushing them off with claims that the boy's mumbling.
• Cursed with Awesome: Mr. Wonka regards Mike's ultimate fate as this, pointing out that "Every basketball team in the country will be trying to get him."
• Didn't Think This Through: Mike is so excited to travel through the television teleporter that he doesn't consider that the device, by design, shrinks whatever goes through it. So when he comes out the other end he is small enough to fit in the palm of his mother's hand, and the process is not reversible.
• Firing in the Air a Lot: A kid-friendly version — Mike has no less than eighteen toy pistols on his person at all times in the book, and while watching action shows likes to fire them in the air. In the 1971 film, he has a toy pistol and admits to the TV interviewer "Wait 'til I get a real one. Colt .45. (turning to his dad) Pop won't let me have a real one, will ya Pop?" "Not 'til you're 12, son." The 2005 film and 2013 musical make him a fan of Shoot 'Em Up video games, while the 2010 opera has him carrying a toy machine gun with him.
• Eagleland: A Type 2 example. He embodies a lot of the negative stereotypes about America in Britain (and elsewhere): he's violent, not particularly sympathetic, and obsessed with guns and shallow pop culture.
• Gender Flip: One stage adaptation in Seattle’s Pioneer Square Theatre turned Mike into a girl and renamed him "Mimi Nintendo".
• Hate Sink: His 2005 version is portrayed as a completely unlikable, arrogant, and insensitive jerk who hates fun and shows no redeeming qualities whatsoever.
• Hi, Mom!: He waves and says 'Hi' to his mother when he shows up on the TV monitor in the Television Room.
• "I Am" Song: In the 2005 stage musical Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, he has "I See It All On TV".
• Incredible Shrinking Man: He winds up an inch high (usually larger in adaptations — but only fashion doll-sized at most) when he tries out the Television Chocolate setup on himself.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Mr. Wonka reflects on Violet's fate, saying that her chewing gum habit was a nasty one, Mike asks him why he manufactures gum if he hates it so much.
• Look Ma, I Am on TV!: He's ecstatic when he comes through on the Chocolate Television monitor. The fact that the device shrank him doesn't bother him at all!
• Madness Mantra: When his parents vow to throw away his beloved television set he repeatedly screams, "I want to watch television!"
• Meaningful Name: As his surname implies, he's obsessed with television.
• New Media Are Evil: His Oompa-Loompa song in the book and the 2005 film is mostly a long diatribe against television. Additionally, most of his adaptations are changed in a way that exemplifies this trope - by the time later adaptations were created, television was established enough that audiences would no longer find it as credible for his character to demonize it the way the book does, so modern adaptations generally update him to be ruined by videogames instead. More downplayed by the West End Musical, where he was already violent and video games were being used (albeit poorly) as a pacifier from taking it out on others.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The mean to Charlie's nice and Augustus' in-between, being a disruptive bratty smartmouth who is obsessed with TV.
• Noodle People: He's stretched out on a machine that tests chewing gum to restore his height — rather too much, resulting in him becoming a ten-foot-tall noodle person!
• Prophetic Name: Mike Teavee becomes the first person to travel via a T.V. set. Too bad about the whole shrinking thing...
• Resized Vocals: After he's been miniaturized his voice is described as sounding like the squeak of a mouse.
• Seven Deadly Sins: He represents Sloth in all versions. Sometimes it is combined with Wrath: He loves Shoot 'Em Up games in the 2005 film and 2013 musical, wants to be a Sociopathic Soldier in the opera, and is an Enfante Terrible in the musical.
• Skewed Priorities: He's absolutely fine with being miniaturized in the book because not only has he become the first person to be sent by television, he can still watch TV!
• Tantrum Throwing: After he receives his comeuppance his parents resolve to throw away their television set. When he hears this he starts jumping up and down and screaming "I want to watch television!"
• There Is No Cure: After Wonka reveals his teleporter prototype in the Television Room where he would send giant chocolate bars, as in several dozen pounds heavy and with a surface area of several square feet, across the airwaves and people would be able to grab them as a regular sized chocolate bars out of their own TVs', Mike happily jumps in to try it out himself. When he comes out the other end, Mike is several inches tall, and when Wonka is asked to put him back so Mike will regain his normal size, Wonka responds that it's impossible because the teleporter can only make big things small, NOT small things big. The only solution is to take Mike to the taffy room and stretch him, and he's last seen coming out of the factory, not normally proportioned but looking very tall and very skinny.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He watches extremely violent gangster shows and wishes he could shoot people like everyone in the show.

In the 1971 film:

"Can't you shut up? I'm busy!"

• Adaptational Dye-Job: Blonde hair in the book, brown hair in the 1971 movie.
• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed. He's agreed to sell an Everlasting Gobstopper to Slugworth. He even asks his mother if he might pay extra to know about the Wonkamobile.
• Americans Are Cowboys: In this version he's depicted as a loudmouthed American who dresses like a cowboy and is obsessed with watching violent Westerns on television.
• Dissonant Serenity: Besides Wonka himself, Mike is the only one unfazed by the weirdness of the factory. He even reacts to Violet's inflation by trying to poke her.
• I Regret Nothing: He's actually quite thrilled at being the first kid on his block to be shrunk by the power of Wonkavision, hoping to become a celebrity before his mom stuffs him in her purse and he's taken by the Oompa-Loompas to the taffy room.
• Laser-Guided Karma: He's agreed to Mr. Slugworth's offer to provide him with Wonka's secrets. This makes his fate in the Television Room all the more deserving.
• Nightmare Fetishist:
  • He actually seems to enjoy the boat ride, noting "Boy, what a great series this would make" and, afterward, "Now why don't they show stuff like that on TV?"
  • He's also having a great time watching Veruca tear apart the Golden Goose room.
  • He's fine with busting his teeth with exploding candy and ecstatic that he was shrunk down to action figure size.
• Resized Vocals: Averted. His voice sounds the same after he's been shrunk.
• Uncertain Doom: After he's been miniaturized Wonka offers to stretch him back to his normal size via a taffy pulling machine. Apparently this would be dangerous and the Oompa-Loompas only agree to proceed once Wonka absolves them of any responsibility. They then walk away with the tiny boy and we never learn what became of him.
• Villainous Mother-Son Duo: Mike and his mother have agreed to Mr. Slugworth's offer and they spend the tour looking for secrets to sell to him.
  Mike: Do you think Slugworth would pay extra to know about this?
  Mrs. Teavee: Just keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Mike is supposed to be from Arizona but speaks in a stereotypically New York fashion when he's trying to sound like a tough guy (probably Rule of Funny).

In the 2005 film:

"I hate chocolate."

• According to My Calculations: Mike explains that he won the ticket by tracking the manufacturing dates, offset by weather, and the derivative of the Nikkei Index. He did so likely to show off how smart he is and to see what the special prize Wonka promised, which he most likely assumed was cash (not the candy factory/company itself), and when asked what the candy bar tasted like he bluntly answers "I don't know, I hate chocolate".
• Adaptational Intelligence: He is upgraded from merely a bratty TV-obsessed kid into a jaded Insufferable Genius, accounting for most of the tropes below.
• Adaptational Jerkass: He's a lot less pleasant than in the 1971 film. Borders on Adaptational Villainy in the tie-in video game, where he sneaks off to upgrade the Wonkabots and doesn’t fess up when his tampering makes them more dangerous.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In the book and most other versions Mike's completely nonchalant about being shrunk to an inch or so high. In this film, after he's been shrunk he cries out for help and asks Wonka to send him back through the other way to restore him to his original size.
• Ascended Extra: Mike Teavee is more prominent here, and more antagonistic. This is even more prominent in the 2005 console ports of the game as Mike caused the Wonkabots to go haywire.
• Bowdlerise: After explaining how he got his ticket, Mike says that "a retard could figure it out." The term "retard" is considered to be a slur, so on British TV the word is changed to "idiot", and ABC Family omits the whole line.
• Break the Haughty: In most versions, Mike loves his teleportation misadventure, but here he has a terrifying time as he's zapped from channel to channel.
• Challenge Seeker: He doesn't even like chocolate. He only went after the golden ticket to prove that he could cheat the system and figure out exactly in what store and in which bar it would be.
• Comically Missing the Point: While explaining how he got his ticket. He apparently deduced it from so many facts, then found out what store and bar the ticket would be in. When asked about how the chocolate bar he bought tasted, he says...
  Mike: I don't know. I hate chocolate.
• The Comically Serious: He can't appreciate the amazing World of Chaos that is Mr. Wonka's factory and would rather point out how everything shouldn't be able to work/exist — even when zapped by the shrink ray.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: He doesn't really do anything but snark, and the questions he asks and things he points out are usually justified, yet at least in the TV room everyone acts like he's completely wrong and that he deserved his fate. Then again, maybe he did; he also violently tosses aside two Oompa-Loompas in his charge towards the controls, forcing others to scatter for safety instead of trying to stop him.
• Deadpan Snarker: As noted above, he doesn't do much besides snark!
• Does Not Like Spam: He doesn't like chocolate, and never tasted the candy bar that came with a Golden Ticket. For some reason, he still wanted the prize promised by Wonka most likely since he assumed the prize would be money and not just more chocolate.
• Everyone Has Standards: He has the decency to look horrified when Wonka informs everyone that Veruca probably went down the furnace — but it's only lit on Tuesdays — and reminds Mr. Wonka that it is Tuesday.
• Foil: He's this to Charlie Bucket, who hasn't lost his sense of wonder and can appreciate the marvels of the factory.
• Idiot Ball: Because of his Adaptational Intelligence in this version, his decision to put himself through Mr. Wonka's television teleportation device even after seeing how it shrinks objects really comes across as this. It doesn't help that he declares that he's not an idiot before going through with it.
• Insufferable Genius: Mr. Wonka is also this trope in this adaptation, but as the two characters are brilliant in different ways and have opposing worldviews, they're in conflict with each other. Mike explains that he won the ticket by tracking the manufacturing dates, offset by weather, and the derivative of the Nikkei Index.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Before he throws himself out of the contest, he points out that Mr. Wonka has invented a teleporter, but doesn't seem to see any use for it besides delivering candy bars. Mr. Wonka has a valid reason for this, however...
  Mike: Just put me back in the other way!
  Wonka: There is no other way. It's television, not telephone; it's quite a difference.
• Lack of Imagination: What seems to be Mike's problem, in addition to a video-game-induced violent streak: he's so jaded by TV and videogames and so focused on facts that he's completely unimpressed by Mr. Wonka's factory.
• Magic Pants: Justified when he travels through the teleporter; his clothes shrink with him. But when he gets stretched out in the taffy-puller his clothing also stretches.
• Not So Above It All: Despite his more sour attitude in this adaptation, he performs dorky karate moves and even waves happily to the others just before he goes on his journey through the Wonka-Vision. It’s the most cheerful we see him in the entire movie, though it doesn’t last long.
• Paper People: After he's put through the taffy-puller, he's not only extremely tall but almost paper-thin as a result. (In the novel Mr. Wonka prescribes the boy Supervitamin Candy to fatten him up once he's stretched, so this trope is exclusive to the film.)
• Perpetual Frowner: Is almost always frowning boredly.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: When he tells the media how he got his Golden Ticket, he comments that "a retard could figure it out".
• The Quiet One: Talks less in comparison to the other kids.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Very much downplayed, his clothes mostly consist of red and black but he is merely a grumpy, smart-mouthed Jerkass.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Prefers Enlightenment and will have none of Mr. Wonka's messed-up Sugar Bowl.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The anti-social, moody Manly Man to Augustus's eccentric and Charlie's kind-hearted Sensitive Guys.
• Shout-Out: After he's been miniaturized he cries out "Help me! Help me!" in a high pitched voice. This is a reference to the ending of the film The Fly (1958).
• Ungrateful Bastard: Lampshaded. He hates chocolate and has no business or reason to ever go to one, let alone Wonka's amazing factory. Yet he won't give up his ticket, to allow another child who would appreciate the prize, take his place.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He cites all the science fiction movies he watches, which doesn't work in Wonka's factory that runs on wonder and magic. Like yes, Wonka invented a transporter, but it's a transporter that shrinks the object it's teleporting. Mike finds this out the hard way when he tests the machine on himself.
• You Remind Me of X: It's implied that Mike's jaded behavior reminds Mr. Wonka of his own father, as one of Mike's rants about candy and wasting time triggers a Flashback to the time when Willy left home and Dr. Wonka transported the house away.

In the 2010 opera:

• Adaptation Personality Change: In the novel and most adaptations he's the smartest of the brats (not that that's saying much), but in this version, he's no smarter than Augustus or Violet — he might even be dumber — and his habit of questioning Mr. Wonka during the tour is completely dropped.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: While he's written as the oldest of the brats, he's the hardest to keep in one place. In his opening scene, when he's being interviewed in a TV studio, he won't stay in his chair and winds up causing a blackout. Later, he chases the floating bubbles in the Bubblevision room.
• Speech Impediment: He has a stutter, suggested to be a side effect of his hyperactivity.
• Teens Are Monsters: Aged up to 13 (from nine in the novel) and appears to be a Type 2 Sociopathic Soldier in the making, as he's specifically obsessed with programs about violence and war. Luckily, his Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! nature keeps him from being truly dangerous to others.
• Totally Radical: His introductory monologue: "C-c-c-c-cool B-babies!/Plug me in, man! Wicked!" Oddly, later he uses terms like "Wowee!" and "See you later, allig-g-g-gator!", which aren't any less dated and sound even stranger given the character's intended age.

In the 2013 musical:

• Adaptational Intelligence: Like his 2005 counterpart, he's much smarter than his book self, and a whiz with computers.
• Adaptational Villainy: While he's not an outright antagonist to any one character he is responsible for a great deal of misery in the lives of those around him and resorts to criminal means to get his ticket, making him by far the worst of the brats in this version. While he enjoys his sojourn in cyberspace and is the one brat who doesn't get an Uncertain Doom, he does end up with a Fate Worse than Death — his long-suffering mother doesn't want him restored to his original size.
• Asshole Victim: When he receives his karmic fate his own mother can't help but dance and sing with the Oompa-Loompas!
• The Cracker: He hacks Mr. Wonka's computers, which is how he got a Golden Ticket without having to buy a Wonka Bar at all! Mr. Wonka isn't happy about this to say the least, but he lets him into the factory anyway and even asks the kid to explain how he did it in "Strike That, Reverse It".
• Enfant Terrible: The Teavees let electronic media babysit him because, despite all their best efforts, they can't keep him from getting into real-world trouble if he isn't glued to a screen of some sort. Said trouble, which he seems to get into solely for his own amusement, includes smoking two packs of cigarettes a day (this is down from what he was smoking before), setting a cat on fire, chloroforming a nurse, and stealing a German tank!
• Fate Worse than Death: He's going to spend the rest of his life miniaturized and living under the thumb of his long suffering mother.
• Foil: Besides being jaded and unimpressed by the wonders of the factory while Charlie is fascinated with it, Mike embodies destruction while Charlie embodies creation.
• "I Am" Song: With his mother, "It's Teavee Time" (his part also overlaps with Villain Song) in the West End staging, "What Could Possibly Go Wrong" in the U.S. version.
• It Amused Me: If he isn't enjoying his video games and whatnot, he's committing actual destructive acts for fun, so as Mrs. Teavee explains, "the authorities request/That little Mike not leave the house."
• Jerkass Has a Point: He makes a good point when he asks Mr. Wonka why he sells chewing gum when he finds it gross. Unfortunately, Wonka pretends he didn't hear his question.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: While Jay Heyman handles Mike's American accent well when he shouts "You can't stop progress!" in the lead-in dialogue to the cast album version of "Vidiots" he does use the British pronunciation of progress.
• Out of the Frying Pan: He runs the risk of getting lost forever in Cyberspace ("What once was viral's soon forgot"), but never fear, the others manage to isolate him in the Television Chocolate monitor, and Mrs. Teavee pulls the now-miniaturized boy out. Turns out she likes him better that way...
• Practical Effects: After he's been shrunk, Mike Teavee is "played" by an action figure sized puppet.
• The Unintelligible: After he's been shrunk his voice is so high pitched it's indecipherable.

In the 2017 Broadway Retool:

• Phoneaholic Teenager: Downplayed. Mike carries his phone around and tries to get a signal on it after the Mixing Room visit. Wonka puts a damper on those plans by stepping on his phone and breaking it.
• Social Media Before Reason: Mike tries to film Augustus' demise until his mom calls him out on it.

Cut Bratty Kids

Miranda Mary Piker

A character who was cut from the novel: an insufferable brat allowed to do anything she wanted, and who never missed a day of school in her life. She believes children should never laugh or have fun. Along with her father — a school headmaster — she met her end when she tried to smash a Spotty Powder machine (said powder allowed kids to play sick so they could have a day off from school). This caused them to fall to their apparent deaths, but Mr. Wonka revealed that what sounded like screams were them laughing for the first time in their lives. Spotty Powder and Other Splendiferous Secrets (The Missing Golden Ticket and... in the U.S.) features rough draft material from this subplot.

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• Academic Alpha Bitch: She's spoiled and brainy, has never missed a day of school in her life, and is the daughter of the school headmaster. She's allowed to do what she wants, but she hates having fun and other children having fun.
• All Work vs. All Play: She's all work to an extreme, believing that children should have no time off from school whatsoever and being utterly incapable of having fun.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Her crimes are an inability to have fun and a superior attitude to others, being a teacher's pet, and having a headmaster for a father, which seem minor next to those of the canonical brats (save for Violet).
• Brainy Brunette: Quentin Blake's illustrations in Spotty Powder give her brunette hair in braids.
• Insufferable Genius: She's described as having a superior attitude to everybody else.
• Just Desserts: The Oompa-Loompa song about her claims that she will be turned into peanut brittle (as in the song about Augustus Gloop, they regard this as an improvement).
• Seven Deadly Sins: She is another facet of Pride in her Insufferable Genius manner.
• Smart People Wear Glasses: In the illustrations.
• Spoiled Brat: In an unusual way; she's allowed to do whatever she wants, but she doesn't want to do things that are conventionally pleasurable for kids and doesn't want other kids to do them either. This is a sharp contrast to the canonical brats, who are all hedonistic.
• Take That!: She and her father were likely jabs at the schools Roald Dahl went to as a child, and the teachers in them.
• Teacher's Pet: Perhaps inevitable, given that she's the daughter of a headmaster.
• Uncertain Doom: Her actual fate isn't mentioned in the material that's been published. But given that the worst that happened to some of the bratty kids was turning into freaks, it's possible that the most that happened to Miranda and her father was being unable to stop laughing.
• Workaholic: She declares that all holidays and vacations should be stopped, because children are meant to work and not play.

Marvin Prune

A character who was cut early on from the novel: little is known about him, other than apparently being very egotistical.

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• It's All About Me: The only surviving description of him paints him as a "conceited boy".

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