Violet Beauregarde

Violet Beauregarde
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character
Violet Beauregarde as portrayed by Denise Nickerson
First appearance	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Created by	Roald Dahl
Portrayed by	Denise Nickerson (1971) AnnaSophia Robb (2005)
Information
Gender	Female
Age	10
Family	Mr. Beauregarde (father), Mrs. Beauregarde (mother)

Violet Beauregarde is a fictional character from the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the subsequent film adaptations.

Background

Violet Beauregarde is the third of the five children to find one of Willy Wonka's elusive Golden Tickets, and the second to be kicked off the tour. She exhibits a more competitive spirit than the four other ticket winners, especially in the 2005 movie, in which her ambitious behavior is greatly expanded to include her participation in sports and martial arts. Violet is also a notoriously relentless gum chewer, though she temporarily curbed her habit in order to focus on Wonka Bars and search for the ticket.

It ought to be noted that aside from Charlie, Violet is arguably the most redeemable of the four other children on Wonka's tour. For example, in both the novel and the 2005 film she is the only child other than Charlie to find a Golden Ticket the way the contest had intended (Augustus had a diet consisting entirely of chocolate and thus found it easily; Veruca had her father order his workers to find the Golden Ticket for her; and Mike (in the 2005 film) merely studied the bar codes on the chocolate bars to accurately predict where the next one would be). Violet is a competitive gum chewer and has some unhygienic habits connected with it, most notably sticking the gum behind her ear when she takes it out at mealtimes.

Violet in the novel

Violet is described in the novel as having a "great big mop of curly hair" and as someone who talks "very fast and very loudly." Like Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salt, her nationality is never touched upon in the book, but she is depicted as American in both films (from Miles City, Montana in the 1971 film and Atlanta, Georgia in the 2005 film). Both her parents wind up accompanying her to the factory, though her mother disapproves of Violet's gum-chewing habit. At her newspaper interview, Violet boasts about how she enjoyed sticking chewed gum on elevator buttons so that whoever presses the button next will have gum stuck on their finger, and chewing on the same piece of gum for three months, beating the record held by her best friend Cornelia Prinzmetel. She talks far more about this than her Golden Ticket.

Violet in the films

In the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Violet was depicted as a preteen girl from Miles City, Montana, and was played by Denise Nickerson. She dressed in contemporary blue bell-bottom pants, and her brown hair is styled in a partial ponytail embellished with a giant hair clip. Her father, Sam Beauregarde, is a used car salesman who never misses an opportunity to compete with other car dealers. Violet uses her television interviews to demean Cornelia Prinzmetel far more than she does in the novel. There is no interaction between Violet and Veruca Salt in the novel, but in the film, the girls are seen pushing and shoving each other when walking down the Chocolate Room stairs. Before Violet is removed, she becomes the first to stand up to Veruca, telling her to shut up whenever she makes whining demands from her father. In contrast, Violet gets along fairly well with Charlie.

In the 2005 film adaption, Violet (played by AnnaSophia Robb) is a preteen like in the previous film, but her hometown has been changed to Atlanta, Georgia. She also has a short, blonde pageboy hairstyle along with a fervent competitive streak, having won 263 trophies and medals in various events ranging from martial arts competitions to gum-chewing contests; she is a junior champion and world-record holder in the latter, and had been working on the same piece for three months straight at the time that she had found her Golden Ticket. During the ticket search, she temporarily laid off gum and switched to Wonka Bars, keeping the aforementioned wad stored behind her ear in the meantime. No mention is made of Cornelia Prinzmetel. As far as personality goes, she sees all the other kids as contestants to beat. This is evident in the Chocolate Room of the tour after Violet snatches a candy apple from a tree before Charlie does and puts the gum in her ear. He asks her why she doesn't simply start another piece. She replies that she would "be a loser like [him]" if she did.

Violet's mother, Scarlett Beauregarde, is her primary parental figure and factory tour chaperone in the 2005 film. She herself is an award-winning baton twirler (something she makes very obvious in the interview) who also serves as Violet's personal coach, having strong confidence that her daughter is going to win the special prize at the end of the factory tour. She encourages her daughter's bad manners and cocky attitude until they leave the factory.

Violet's Endgame

AnnaSophia Robb as Violet
Beauregarde in Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka invents a gum that is a three-course dinner: tomato soup, roast beef and blueberry pie. Wonka warns her not to chew it, for it is not ready for human consumption. Violet argues that she holds the world record in chewing gum and begins chewing it anyway, ignoring Wonka's protests. She claims it is amazing, but when it reaches the blueberry pie her face begins to turn blue. Soon her entire body turns blue, before swelling and expanding like a balloon and then becoming similar to a large blue ball. Wonka tells the Oompa Loompas to roll her to the juicing room to be squeezed of the blueberry juice that has built up inside her. she is rolled head first.

In the 1971 film, Violet turns light blue, but in the 2005 film, she turns dark purplish-blue. In the 2005 film, her clothes also turn blue. In the novel, however, nothing is mentioned about her clothes changing color. In the 1971 film, her clothes already happened to be the same color as her skin turned. In the 1971 film, she only grows in width (so she is rolled sideways) but in the 2005 film, she grows in height as well, becoming nearly ten feet tall (so she is rolled headfirst). In the 1971 version Violet tries to walk, but for her increase in weight, She can only waddle. She doesn't get very far as the Oompa-Loompas surround her and lie her on her back to roll her. In both films her clothes stretch to impossible proportions. One thing happened in each of the films [to Violet] that abide by the laws of physics: In the 1971 film, her belt pops off. In the 2005 film, her navel is shown. None of this (except the colors) is specified in the novel.

Violet's fate is not visualized in the first film, in which Wonka simply assures Charlie that all the other children will be their normal selves. In the 2005 version, she is seen exiting the factory with her now-disapproving mother after the tour. She has been deflated back to normal size, but rather than walking, she somersaults and backflips down the stairs and the front walk, and her skin and clothes are both a permanent shade of blue, but she is actually pleased with her new form and pliability, although her mother is less than happy with her new blue color. In the novel, Violet ends up with purple skin but there is no mention of increased dexterity.

The filmmakers of the 1971 adaptation simulated the blueberry scene by inflating Nickerson in a rubber suit and made her outline in two halves of a Styrofoam ball. It took forty-five minutes for her to get into her costume. Nickerson was unable to go to lunch during rehearsals; instead she was rolled every five minutes to keep blood circulating. In the 2005 version, at the request of director Tim Burton, the filmmakers combined real pictures of AnnaSophia and computer effects, in order to increase the overall size of the blueberry rather than just the width.

In the 1971 film Violet wears a wide red belt while in the 2005 film she didn't. The belt popped off because her inflating body became too big for it. It flies onto the floor and is not seen again. Also in the 2005 movie Violet's backside increases in size in one shot, as does her face/cheeks in several; in the 1971 version her stomach mainly increases in size.

Violet Beauregarde Song

In the 2005 version, this song takes place in the Inventing Room, where the multicourse gum was created. It is sung by the Oompa Loompas while Violet is being rolled around in blueberry form, and the lyrics contain 42 repetitions of the word "chewing." The track uses the same pitch in voice, accompanied by a '70s funk-style sound. The original song in the novel featured a "Miss Bigelow" who chewed gum day in and day out for years before her jaws bit her tongue in two, and how the Oompa Loompas wanted to prevent the same thing happening to Violet. In the 1971 version, the song merely talks about how chewing gum for long periods of time is repulsive.

References

The Violet Beauregarde blueberry transformation was parodied in That 70's Show where Jackie Burkhart [1] ate five blueberry pies and ended up swelling into a blueberry. Jackie's blueberry appearance matches the blueberry appearance of Violet in the 1971 version:

• She grows in width, but not in height.
• Only her face and hands turn blue.
• Her clothes were already dark blue and stretch to impossible proportions (though, when she is eating the pie, they are normal sized, but after the pie is eaten, they look quite baggy).
• She is rolled sideways.
• Donna says, "Don't. Stop. Wait." in completely calm and unconcerned tones just like Willy Wonka did to Violet in the 1971 version as she chewed the gum.

Though there are a couple of differences between the two blueberry transformations:

• Jackie turns into a blueberry after eating five blueberry pies. Violet Beauregarde turns into a blueberry after eating prototype chewing gum that had blueberry pie and ice cream as the dessert.

• Jackie's skin turns blue AFTER she starts swelling. Violet's skin turns blue before the swelling begins.

• When Jackie is swelling up, she cries, "Oh goodness! Oh gracious! Oh my!". In the book and 2005 version, Violet did not speak during the swelling (in the 1971 version she said "I feel funny! What's happening?" and cried, "Help! Help!").

• Jackie as a blueberry looks rather square than round. In all three versions, Violet as a blueberry is as round as a ball.

• Jackie has curly black hair. In the 1971 film, Violet has straight brown hair. Plus Violet's hair in the 1971 version is a little longer than Jackie's.

• Jackie does not wear a belt like Violet did in the 1971 version.