Why is Mr. Wonka's office appointed with half of everything?

Why is Mr. Wonka's office appointed with half of everything? - Ethnic female psychotherapist listening to black clients explanation

In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), everything in Wonka's office is cut in half: half a desk, half a sink, half a safe, half a bust, etc.

Why is this?



Best Answer

Because he's a nutter.

That's pretty much all there is to it. It was a very simple and obvious way of bringing out his whimsicality and eccentricity visually.

The director, Mel Stuart, answered this in his book Pure Imagination: The Making of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where he said:

the reason everything in Willy's office is cut in half was because Stuart couldn't bear the thought of - after having gone through all the whimsical and creative rooms in the factory - ending the movie in an ordinary office. Everything was cut in half to make the room look more Wonka-esque.


Thinking about it a little more deeply, it could also be a reference to the halved pieces of crockery found in the 1951 Disney adaptation of Alice in Wonderland:

Alice Wonka

Both Alice in Wonderland, and Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, are examples of the trope of an ordinary child whisked into a fantastic world and shown incredible things. Perhaps this is the film's way of tipping the Wonka top hat to an older film adaptation of an older story with a similar theme.

(I in turn should tip my top hat to Jeff at the Sci-Fi & Fantasy SE for his answer to a similar question there.)


Oh and just for fun, from IMDb's trivia page:

During the construction of Willy's office, in which everything is cut in half, one of the prop men accidentally sawed in half a non-prop coffee pot that someone had put in the work area. Only when coffee began spilling out did he realize his mistake.




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Why is Mr. Wonka's office appointed with half of everything? - Ethnic businessman shaking hand of applicant in office
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Why did Mr. Wonka order all the employees to leave the factory?

Wonka, the owner of the chocolate factory, had fired all his workers because he found some spies among them who stole his secret chocolate recipes. Because he didn't trust them anymore, Mr. Wonka let all the workers go and shut the factory.

Why does Mr. Wonka shut down his factory for ten years?

Mr. Wonka had shut down his business because of spies, a word that carries dark and mysterious tones. He mysteriously reopened the factory ten years later without warning.

What is the deeper meaning of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?

The chocolate factory is the physical embodiment of the difference between poverty and wealth. Charlie's poverty-stricken home stands in the shadow of the behemoth chocolate factory, which is filled with untold riches.



Food Theory: MrBeast Is WRONG About Wonka's Chocolate River! (Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory)




More answers regarding why is Mr. Wonka's office appointed with half of everything?

Answer 2

I think its a representation of how Mr Wonka is incomplete, half a man, half a stable mind. Charlie completes him and the factory and his possessions. The edge, the two sided nature of wonka shows the true self and the flamboyant side, which is ultimately empty.

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