Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory makes some changes to the beloved novel, and one, in particular, might point to Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) being responsible for the conditions of Charlie’s (Freddie Highmore) family. Tim Burton is no stranger to remakes and adaptations of other works, as seen with his feature-directorial debut Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and his Batman movies. In 2005, he explored the world of Roald Dahl’s children’s novels with an adaptation of the 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Charlie Bucket is a kindhearted boy who lives in poverty with his parents and four grandparents in a small house near the Wonka Factory. When Willy Wonka launches a worldwide contest in which those who find the Golden Tickets he hid in five random Wonka Bars, Charlie becomes one of the lucky winners. Along with the other four winners, Charlie enters the mysterious Wonka factory, but Wonka has one final big prize for only one of the kids. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has the elements of every Tim Burton movie, but he might have made it a bit too dark.

Grandpa Joe’s Firing From Wonka’s Factory Might Have Greatly Impacted Charlie’s Family

It Might Have All Started With Grandpa Joe’s Firing

At the beginning of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Grandpa Joe tells Charlie about the unbelievable candies Willy Wonka makes at the factory, as he used to work there many, many years ago. Grandpa Joe was fascinated by Wonka’s talent, but so were other candy makers. Unfortunately, there were spies among the Wonka factory’s employees, and they stole Wonka’s unique recipes, resulting in his rivals selling the same candy as he did. Wonka had to take extreme measures to protect his work, and so he fired all of his employees, including Grandpa Joe.

As mentioned above, the Buckets live in poverty, with all the grandparents bedridden, Charlie’s mom doing her best to feed everyone, and his father working at a toothpaste factory, from where he’s fired when he and many others are replaced by robots. Because of all this, it’s widely believed that Grandpa Joe’s firing is the reason why the Buckets are poor, as a job at the Wonka factory would have been a strong and stable source of income for the family.

There’s nothing in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that can confirm that Willy Wonka firing Grandpa Joe is the reason why the Buckets live in poverty, but it might have been a contributing factor. Grandpa Joe has no grudges against Willy Wonka and shows his fascination for his work when he goes into the factory with Charlie, so it might not have been the trigger for the Buckets’ financial problems, but the firing of Grandpa Joe didn’t make it easier, either.

Willy Wonka’s “Prize” For Charlie Brings Well-Deserved Closure To The Bucket Family

The Luck Of The Bucket Family Changed Completely

Willy Wonka’s big prize at the end of the visit to the factory is one no one would have imagined: what Wonka was doing was testing the children to see who would inherit his factory, as he had decided he had to retire soon. Charlie proved himself to be the most suitable for it thanks to his kindness and good behavior, and inheriting the factory was the closure his family needed.

Not only does the factory give them financial stability (and a cool place to live, as they move their house inside the factory), but it’s a full-circle moment for Grandpa Joe after his unfair firing. Whatever happened to Charlie and Wonka after Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is up to the imagination of viewers, but it’s fair to say Charlie had a much better life after it.