Fun facts about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

By M&C News May 26, 2005, 1:57 GMT

Johnny Depp plays Willy Wonka in this adaptation of Roald Dahl's book

Johnny Depp stars as Willy Wonka in this new adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic. Five golden tickets are hidden beneath the wrappers of Mr. Willy Wonka's delicious chocolate bars - five golden tickets which will change the lives of those who find them. T

The winning children are invited through the gates of Mr. Wonka's Chocolate Factory to see all the secrets and magic inside and to meet Mr. Wonka and his staff of Oompa-Loompas. For Charlie Bucket, a poor boy living within sight of the factory, winning the fifth and final golden ticket is just the beginning of an unforgettable adventure.

Fun Facts

Wonka’s Chocolate Room - 007 Stage

206,563.48 US gallons of fake chocolate was made for the River area.

38,430.41 US gallons of fake chocolate were made for the waterfall.
 
Total on stage 244,993.89 US gallons of fake chocolate. 
 
Fake and real chocolate bars

110,000 plastic candy bars were made and wrapped by Nestle.  These were mostly used for Mr. Salt’s Nut Factory when his 500 employees ripped the wrappers off to find the Golden Ticket for his daughter Veruca.
 
1850 real chocolate bars were made by Nestle for the film
A special walk-in trailer was acquired to hold all the chocolate.  It was kept at a certain humidity to preserve and safe guard the chocolate.  All chocolate was made with real ingredients.

Other real candy made for the film included:

All the lollipops on the trees, the giant pink sugar canes, the giant humbugs and the red & white swirls of the sweeping tree were all real.

The Nut Room

Animal trainer Michael Alexander and his team spent 19 weeks training 40 squirrels for the squirrel room scene.  The squirrels were trained to sit on stools while they opened nut shells and dropped the nuts onto a conveyor belt. 
 
The Glass Boat used on the Chocolate River
Measuring 30 ft x 9 ft., the boat took 20 weeks to build.  It was designed to float on the chocolate river and later put onto a track for the tunnel scene.

Find out more about the film in our database.