Willy Wonka Event Leaves Kids Crying From Its Awfulness
Following the unexpected worldwide success of the 2023 film Wonka, Willy Wonka (both the character and the franchise) is experiencing something of a cultural renaissance. That led to a recent UK event where organizers charged fans of the franchise $44 per head to experience what was advertised as an “immersive experience” filled with “mind-expanding projections, optical marvels and exhibits that transport you into the realm of creativity.”
They used AI-generated art to advertise the event, and disappointed participants soon learned the real event looked nothing like what was described, leading to crying children and parents calling the police.
The marketing copy claimed participants would see “mind-expanding projections” and “optical marvels” as well as “enchanting surprises at every turn,” what they got was a mostly empty warehouse-filled disappointment.
To put this Willy Wonka fiasco in nerd terms, the combination of breathless ad copy and AI promotional art led the people shelling out good money for this event to think they’d get the Chocolate Factory equivalent of Galaxy’s Edge, Disney’s immersive Star Wars section of Hollywood Studios.
However, the key difference is that Star Wars fans traveling to Disney World for that attraction get exactly what they paid for and exactly what was advertised. By comparison, this Willy Wonka event has been likened by many to the infamous Fyre Fest because it underdelivered despite being overhyped and overpriced.
Just how bad was the gulf between advertisement and reality? While the marketing copy claimed participants would see “mind-expanding projections” and “optical marvels” as well as “enchanting surprises at every turn,” what they got was a mostly empty warehouse-filled disappointment.
Scottish police arrived and quickly shut down the event.
There were a handful of props, some pinned backdrops, a tiny bouncy house…and that’s it. Not only did the reality fall far short of the ambitious advertising copy, but it was clear to anyone who walked through the doors that the event looked nothing like what the AI-generated promotional art had promised.
Everything about this was so disappointing that the parents of these crying children did what the parents of all those kids Gene Wilder potentially killed in the 1971 Willy Wonka film should have done: call the police. Scottish police arrived and quickly shut down the event. They weren’t quick enough, though, to stop news of this disappointing Wonka tribute from going viral, and the internet had a field day once the wilder details of the event became public knowledge.
Allegedly, the Willy Wonka performers were only handed scripts the night before, giving them very little time to rehearse and generally get prepared for this very unconventional acting role.
For example, the event had a woman portraying an Oompa Loompa, and in addition to her orange body paint, she made the event more “immersive” by pretending to work on Willy Wonka’s next confectionary concoction. However, nothing about the weird chemistry tools in front of her screamed “candy,” and the combination of Breaking Bad-looking gear with the empty warehouse vibe prompted countless comparisons to real-life meth labs.
The fact that the now-viral image of the Oompa Loompa in question looks like she’d rather be dead than working in this fake chocolate factory makes the whole thing feel even more surreal.
One of the reasons she looked less than thrilled could be that she had very little time to prepare for her role. Allegedly, the Willy Wonka performers were only handed scripts the night before, giving them very little time to rehearse and generally get prepared for this very unconventional acting role. The combination of unprepared actors, the empty warehouse, and false advertising all destroyed any chance of this event becoming the immersive experience customers paid $44 for.
As for the Willy Wonka event organizers, they refunded everyone’s tickets and later claimed that “we were let down in many areas of our event” at the “last minute” while acknowledging they should have just called the whole thing off. That’s an understatement, but we can’t help but think they could have salvaged this whole thing by pivoting in a different direction.
They had freaky images, crying children, and one potentially disappointing trauma for young children after another, all at what was supposed to be an immersive and lighthearted event. If they had only advertised the event as a trip on Willy Wonka’s boat ride rather than through the Chocolate Factory itself, things might have been fine.
Speaking of which, we’re going to go wash our minds out by rewatching the boat scene from the 1971 film…it might be the only thing to make us temporarily forget the pain in the eyes of that meth lab Oompa Loompa.
