He even says something along the lines of, "Not an adult. An adult would want to do it his own way, not mine. So I needed a child. A nice, honest child."
Makes you wonder...
Grant discovered raptor eggs in Jurassic Park
The other kids were dumb and easily blackmailed, by Slugworth. If he wanted someone easy to manipulate he'd have chosen one of them.
Clinton/Kaine 2016
No. Those kids did as they pleased in favor of their self interest. They were no better than the adults Wonka detested. Charlie, on the other hand, would respect what Wonka wished and would follow his command. With Charlie leaving the gob-stopper, it is proven that that was what truly was the test (and not the other circumstances). The kids won the chocolate whether they fell into the traps or not. It was the gob-stopper that was truly the focus of Wonka's scheme.
Grant discovered raptor eggs in Jurassic Park
Charlie broke the rules by drinking the fizzy pop. He also challenged Wonka's self-absorption and pity at the end when he refused to leave his family to live with Wonka. He wasn't always 100% compliant. He just wasn't two-faced and sneaky about it. He stood by his convictions.
Clinton/Kaine 2016
"Refused to leave his family to live with Wonka"
Go back to the Tim Burton boards!
Grant discovered raptor eggs in Jurassic Park
You know, I've seen this said a couple of times on this board "He also challenged Wonka's self-absorption and pity at the end when he refused to leave his family to live with Wonka."
First, Wonka tells Charlie he wants him to move into the factory. Charlie asks about Grandpa Joe. Wonka says Grandpa Joe too. Then Charlie starts to say "What about..." and Wonka interrupts him and says "The whole family. I want you to bring them all."
At no time does Charlie challenge Wonka to bring the family because Wonka is obviously willing from the beginning for the whole family to come. (These comments apply only to this movie).
Charlie doesn't ask about Granpa Joe. Granpa Joe says '...and me'? Ever the scrounger he was never gonna miss that opportunity.
shareThe other kids showed no interest in Wonka's candy-making secrets because all they wanted was to satisfy their own selfish desires, Charlie was different.
shareRight, but Wonka was control freak.
Grant discovered raptor eggs in Jurassic Park
Not really, otherwise he would never let anyone else run the factory. If he had passed his company down to an adult they would have watered down his unique ideas of making candy and totally screwed up his factory.
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I was going to start a very similar thread. You're correct in that the dialogue makes it seem like Wonka wanted a puppet but I think it was more that he was offering to be a mentor rather than a dictator. An adult would have just started thinking about profit and all that business rather than appreciate Wonka's child like approach that made his factory magical.
We have to show the world that not all of us are like him: Henning von Tresckow.
Willy wonka wanted a innocent, sweet, caring child to take over the factory, not one of the mean, nasty, greedy kids. He wanted a child because a child would run the factory his way, meaning wonka was like a child himself and that's why he didn't want an adult.
shareTo me it's the opposite. The running theme is that these are all to some degree bad kids, but largely because they have bad parents. Even Charlie has Uncle Joe who is not a great role-model either, always out for himself, and is who encouraged Charlie to steal the Fizzy-Lifting drinks with him. At the end, Charlie is being influenced by three adults (Wonka, Slugworth, Uncle Joe) all at once to encourage him to betray Wonka, but he makes an *independent* decision not to. He is free from the influence of bad adults and makes a conscious choice to do the right thing despite all the encouragement to do the wrong thing.
shareSeems to me Charlie realised listening to his Granpa Joe was gonna make things worse rather than better
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