Movie Mistakes!

1. When Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) plays the musical lock, Mrs. Teevee (Dodo Denney) remarks that the tune is by Rachmaninoff. In fact, the tune is not. It is the overture to The Marriage of Figaro, by Mozart. Roald Dahl could have just had her say this to show that she is a "know-it-all." This is probably the case although it could be a mistake.

**2. When Willy Wonka comes out of the factory for the first time, there is a shadow on the red carpet which seems to appear and disappear in different shots. This has been told to me by many people but I have yet to see it. I own three versions of the movie and I can't find it. Maybe it just occurs in certain edited/changed television versions.

**3. The Oompa Loompas who spin the paddle wheel turn the crank clockwise in one shot, but counter clockwise in another. This is another thing that I have been told but never seen. As far as i'm concerned this isn't true. I figure that the wheel is spinning so fast that it appears to some people to be moving in the opposite direction although this shouldn't be a problem. Either way you can see that the Oompa loompas bodies are always twisting the same way.

4. In the TV room, when Mike Teevee says "lights, camera, action!" The camera operating Oompa loompa puts on his goggles, then a couple of seconds later it shows the same oompa loompa putting on his goggles again with a surprised look on his face. I found this mistake myself and I was the first to publicly publish the mistake. It has been verified by Wolper Pictures and Warner Bros. as a simple editing mistake. I give myself a pat on the back for that one.

5. In the very beginning when it's showing all that chocolate and the credits are being showed there is a part where it shows chocolates similar to Hershey Kisses in rows and rows and rows. There is a ton of them. If you look closely (Very closely...It took me about 20 times before I found this) There is a deformed "kiss" It looks like the top caved in or something. You can see it if you wait for the credits to say "Lyrics and music by" and then it says Leslie Bricusse...If you look to the left just then you'll see it. It's 3 kisses over from the "L" in Leslie. Check it out.

**6. When the Willy, Charlie, and Grandpa Joe are up in the air in the WonkaVator, while Mr. Wonka is explaining to Charlie why he is bequeathing the factory to him, look in the lower-left corner. You can see houses and trees, etc. _through_ the lower metal panel, complete with transparent buttons! This was obviously a chroma-keying error.

7. When Willy first enters the main candy room and sings his song, "If you want to view Paradise" He pierces and picks up a large "mushroom" with his cane, but when you view it you can see that the styrofoam mushroom has been pierced several times (about six or seven) before this particular scene was shot

8. When the visitors first get onto the Wonka-mobile before they go through the Wonkawash... There is a fancy design on the back wheel cover. Notice that after going through the wash, the design disappears! It reappears in the next shot. I believe this to be a lighting problem, not with the lights but with our eyes. If the lights hit that wheel cover too strongly then the design can very easily be "gone" with the blink of an eye.

9. There are many "hair mistakes" throughout the film. I don't know who to blame for this. In many of the scenes an actors hair will get messed up and then in the next shot it'll be perfectly combed over. I'll leave it up to you to find the numerous amounts of "bad hair" but I will tell you that there is at least 4 times when this happens in the film. This really doesn't constitute as a mistake but lots of people tell me about this so I decided to post it here.

10.When bill the candyman goes behind the counter notice that the counter top is UP. Then at the lyrics "separate the sorrow and collect up all the cream" if you look in the lower right hand corner you will see (as he picks up the counter top, which by the way should already be up at this point) he just about takes off that little blonde girl's head.

11. Here is one that should be number one on this list. It's the most evident mistake in the whole movie! Yup, you know the one, in the Fizzy Lifting Drinks room! Notice that you can see the harness strings and you can see where Charlie's pants bunch up from the harness in several places.

12. This is more funny than it is a mistake. In the scene after charlie found the money in the sewage drain, Charlie goes into Bill's candy store to buy a Wonka Bar. after he eats the first one, he turns to ask Bill for another one. Notice what Bill is doing when Charlie is talking to him, he takes a "CLEAR" glass jar from the shelf. Then he takes the lid off of the jar and looks inside at the contents. If the jar is clear, what is the purpose for taking the lid off of it? He could just simply look through the side of the jar.

** - indicates that these mistakes are explained below with explanatory pictures.

Matt Wilson has continued to explain and contribute to the movie mistakes. Every time he e-mails me something new I post it here so if you're really interested in the mistakes then please read on. The following includes very detailed descriptions of the mistakes along with explanatory pictures. You guys won't believe this...

Some people have noted a "disappearing" shadow when Wonka first
exits the factory. This discontinuity is due to the non-linear method by
which movies are shot. The shadow in question is being cast by the domed
roof of a building nearby. In the amount of time it took the movie crew to
move their equipment for "reversals" (facing the factory/facing the crowd),
the shadow had moved along the ground like the shadow of a gnomon.  (The
shadow falls directly across the red carpet on shots facing the crowd, and
falls short of the bend in the carpet on shots facing the factory. ) This
is a continuity error, but a common one. An overcast day is a godsend to
movie crews because such errors can generally be avoided, and contrast is
easier to control.

Another "error" is when the Oompa Loompas running the Wonkatania
allegedly run the paddle in opposite directions. If you watch the Oompa
Loompas themselves, you will note that they always paddle in the same
direction. The "error" was caused by an artifact common to TV and film
known as "phasing." When a cyclic motion, such as the Wonkatania's paddle
or a wagon wheel in a western, reaches a certain speed it begins to fall
out of synch with the frame rate of the camera. The wheel then creates the
illusion that it is running backwards. (Helicopter blades create a similar
effect which makes it appear as if the rotor is turning slowly.)
The artifact can be diminished with motion blur (like the
helicopter blades). However, the tunnel scene was shot before a bluescreen,
which requires bright lighting. That lighting, plus the hard-edged mattes
generated by the bluescreen, reduce the motion blur and further enhance
the stroboscopic problem.

Most films prepared in letterbox for home viewing actually permit
you to see more of a film's original frame than a pan-and-scan version, but
there are exceptions. In the non-letterboxed version of "Willy Wonka" you
can see the hose which inflated Denise Nickerson's blueberry costume. The
hose was not visible in the theatrical release due to the letterbox
matte--the filmmakers may have been counting on that.
Many filmmakers today purposely shoot for both TV and cinema by
using a combination reticule in their viewfinders. (An example is James
Cameron's "Titanic.") In the case of "Willy Wonka" this was unintentional.
The video publisher simply found it easier to pull the matte rather than
script the moves for a pan-and-scan version of the film. Thus, you see less
of the original photography on the letterbox version.
For comparison, TV has an aspect ration of 4:3, "Wonka" was shot with 35mm 
film and matted with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and a really widescreen movie,
like "Star Wars" is 2.35:1 (which was shot with 65, aka 70mm).

There is a mistake with the WonkaVator, but it is not as described
by Michael Kotler.

On a technical note: "chroma key" refers specifically to color
separation compositing in video. "Bluescreening" is just one of
dozens of "automatic" traveling matte techniques used in film.
Lastly, I do not think that bluescreen was used for the interiors
of the WonkaVator (the shot is too clean). The bluescreen work
done elsewhere in the film is not of the finest quality (note 
the matteline, or "edge" to the airborne WonkaVator in the attached
JPEG). Fine details like hair and the the wires embedded in the glass
walls would have caused problems. Instead, I think the FX team used
a much more natural-looking and inexpensive technique called rear
projection.

(Special effects don't have to be high-tech to be useful--they just
have to look good. For example, "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" was a 
film with the budget for high-tech effects like digital animation,
compositing and wire removal. And yet an old effect like rear
projection was used very effectively in one of the chase scenes.
The shot of the Model 800 terminator lifting John Connor off his
dirtbike is rear projected.)

I have attached a montage image showing Wonka stepping into the
WonkaVator which clearly shows the elevator to have a glass door and
walls--with buttons embedded. And this shot is certainly not a 
composite. (You will note the continuity error that the life-size
model does not have the minaret-like top.)

The model shown breaking through the roof of the factory appears to
have "stripes" on the lower part of the door, but I think that is an
artifact of the light. I think the model had a clear plastic wall,
but the scoring in the plastic meant to show the embedded wires was,
perhaps, too deep to be in scale, thus creating the stripe effect. 
Further evidence that the model had clear sides can be seen in the
airborne shot of the WonkaVator. (I think that is supposed to be Grandpa
Joe looking out.)