Nutty for Wonka
is a fanfic written by JadyneFarrow based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Set in an alternate timeline, it tells about Matilda Prescott, a 10-11 year old, dedicated Wonkarer, and best friend of Charlie Bucket, who longs to meet Willy Wonka himself. It's also located under the same title on archiveofourown.org with Jadyne's pen name being ETNMystic.
Taking place largely during and after the Golden Ticket frenzy, Matilda and her friends, Charlie and James, take to finding the tickets whilst looking into the mysterious disappearances of several classmates, who were last seen by the Wonka Factory.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Zinnia Prescott who, aside from purposefully calling Matilda by the wrong name, is shallow and readily discourages her daughter's interests. In one chapter, she destroys a gift that Matilda was excited to get in an attempt to get her to stop thinking. She's also shown to be physically and mentally abusive, as in the same chapter, she hits Matilda on the face, leaving a mark, as well as threatening to send her to the psychiatric ward to make her stop thinking. Later on in a flashback, it's discovered that she discourages her daughter's interests to keep her from trying to meet Wonka, as he wanted to take her as his own child after her husband Dorian shows him Matilda's candy notebook.
- Ambiguous Time Period: The only real hints of the time period are the mention of television, indicating this takes place after it was invented, as well as Mike Teavee's video game lingo, meaning the story could take place anywhere between roughly the 70s/80s and the present.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Matilda, after her mother is abusive towards her, wishes that she was the daughter of Willy Wonka and makes this same wish later on in the story. The wish does end up coming true, but not in the way she wants it to.
- Betrayal by Inaction: Considered but averted when Matilda debates whether or not to save her cousin Veruca and Uncle Nigel, which is encouraged telepathically by Wonka until Veruca says the word "please" to which Matilda decides to save them.
- Cassandra Truth:
- In chapter 3, after James and Charlie are saved from a school bully gang, Matilda tells them she's not going to help them again. James asks what if it's a situation they can't get out of, such as being turned into squirrels. Throughout the beginning of the story, he keeps bringing this up.
- In spite of Matilda's insistence that it won't happen, James, after going to look for another fellow Wonkarer, Dani, is captured and turned into a squirrel by Wonka.
- Also in another instance when a door is left open in the factory for the group to go through, warning her that it could be a trap. He's almost instantly proven correct
- The Cutie: Daisy Bloom, one of the Oompa-Loompas. She's one of the only Oompa-Loompas to actually show Matilda any kindness, including calling her by her first name as opposed to the Sweet One, was the only one who even wanted to bring her food, and reveals to her that her father's not dead as Wonka claimed, as she was unable to kill him when Wonka assigned her to. She also mentions that she gets picked on by the others for being too soft, even being unable to give the disobedient squirrels electric shocks during nut room training.
- The Ditz: Billie Smith is shown to not be the brightest bulb. James even comments how "there isn't a moment where she isn't either batting her eyes and sucking on a lollipop, putting on makeup, or saying something stupid."
- Forced Transformation: Dani, Sophie, Alfie, James, and Billie are turned into squirrels.
- Give Him a Normal Life: When Dorian Prescott decided to volunteer himself to be Wonka's prisoner in place of Matilda so that she can be a normal kid. This, of course, doesn't work out five years after, as the two end up meeting anyway.
- I Can't Hear You: Grandpa George often mishears what someone else said, repeating a rhyme of what was actually said.Mr. Bucket: Oh, leave him alone, Hannah. A young boy needs his time with his friends.
Grandpa George: Who's tying up loose ends? Georgina, someone's tying up loose ends. - I Warned You:
- In chapter 3, after James and Charlie are saved from a school bully gang, Matilda tells them she's not going to help them again. James asks what if it's a situation they can't get out of, such as being turned into squirrels.
- In spite of Matilda's insistence that it won't happen, James, after going to look for another fellow Wonkarer, Dani, is captured and turned into a squirrel by Wonka. After Matilda finds him, he tells her just that; "I told you so."
- Innocent Prodigy: Matilda is clearly very creative, coming up with quality and original candy ideas even at the age of six. A lot of this may stem from her slight sense of naiveté and innocence as Children Are Innocent. Because of this, she ends up managing to impress Willy Wonka with her notebook of candy ideas. Unfortunately, this backfires on her, as it's why Willy Wonka wants to keep her in his factory.
- Knockout Ambush: Happens at the end of chapter 29 when Matilda finds that James and Sophie are being transformed into squirrels. An oompa loompa then gives her a blow to her head.
- The Reveal: Following her flashback in chapter 45, Matilda realizes that Wonka knew of her way before she had met him. Her father, Dorian, used to work for him in his factory. After showing Mr. Wonka some of her candy ideas when she was six, Wonka demanded to have Matilda as his own. Instead her father comes into work the next day and sacrifices his own freedom in exchange for her to live a normal life.
- Shout-Out:
- James' name is a reference to another Roald Dahl novel, James and the Giant Peach. However it's also a reference to the name of the candy kid in the musical.
- In fact, all of the Candy Kids names from the musical reference characters from various Roald Dahl novels. Sophie from The BFG, Dani from Danny, the Champion of the World, Alfie from Esio Trot, and Billie from The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me.
- James' birthday gift to Matilda is the book of the same name by Roald Dahl.
- The I Can't Hear You joke is also a nod to a running gag within the stage production the author was in.
- In chapter 13, James' line of "Where's the revenge section?" is a nod to Matilda.
- In chapter 40, when Wonka tries to telepathically convince Matilda to let her uncle and bratty cousin burn in the furnace they're heading for, he tries a chant that gives a slight nod to The Lorax.
- In chapter 42, Captain Jack gives a shout-out to the original film with a slight variation of the song Wonka sings during the psychedelic boat trip.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?:
- Little to no indication is given about where the Wonka factory and Matilda are, only being referred to as in the Great City.
- The bullies in chapter 2 are written with cockney dialect, but no other characters seem to have a particular dialect mentioned.
