Willy Wonka is a fictional character in the novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as the film adaptations Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wonka is stated to be old, as he is portrayed in the story to be "older than you think". A musical film adaptation of Dahl's book Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, was released in 1971.

It was originally a box office flop, but has since come to be considered a classic, hailed a children's classic by critics, and has attracted a worldwide audience. This film added some dialogue with references to poetry that were not in the novel. The film also included a rival chocolate maker offering the children money if they betrayed Wonka and provided him with an 'Everlasting Gobstopper'.

Another departure from the novel had Charlie disobeying Willy Wonka with the encouragement of Grandpa Joe. Also, Veruca Salt's "elimination" involved a room full of golden-egg-laying geese of which she wanted one. When she went to stand on one of the egg-testing machines, she was pronounced a "bad egg" and dropped down the garbage chute.

This is different from the book (and 2005 film) where Veruca went after a squirrel, got tested by a squirrel, and thrown down the garbage chute by the squirrels because "her head sounded hollow."

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