Violet Beauregarde

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 exclusive 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 and competitive gum chewer, though she temporarily curbed her habit in order to focus on Wonka Bars and search for the ticket.

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 not mentioned. Both her parents accompany her to the factory. During her newspaper interview she talks more about her gum chewing than her 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. Her father, Sam Beauregarde, is a "prominent" local politican, civic leader and a used car salesman who uses Violet's television interview for free advertising. 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. Like Mike Teavee, Augustus Gloop and Veruca Salt, Violet gets along fairly well with Charlie.

In the 2005 film adaption, Violet (played by AnnaSophia Robb) is again a preteen, but her hometown has been changed to Atlanta, Georgia. She is athletic and has a vicious 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. Violet and her mother wear matching outfits and hairstyles. Violet 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. Violet's mother Scarlett Beauregarde (played by Missi Pyle), a former baton champion herself, initially encourages her daughter's unladylike behavior and rude attitude; however, her approval of her daughter turns into disapproval when they leave the factory and head back to Atlanta.

Violet's endgame
Wonka invents a gum that contains an entire three-course dinner: tomato soup, roast beef and blueberry pie (pea soup, roast beef and blueberry ice cream in the theatrical shows), but forbids Violet to chew it as it is not ready for human consumption just yet. Violet rudely snaps that she holds the world record in chewing gum and begins going at it anyway, ignoring Wonka's protests. However, the blueberry pie stage is defective, which causes Violet to turn blue and expand into a giant blueberry. She is unable to walk due to her girth, and Wonka tells the Oompa Loompas to roll her to the juicing room to extract the blueberry juice immediately, implying that more swelling will cause her to explode.

In the original, Violet blows up to smaller proportions but everyone is still surprised; she was seen wearing a red buckled belt but it pops off as her body becomes too big for it. She is rolled to the juicing room by a team of Oompa-Loompas but is not seen again, and there is a twist as Mr Wonka said she might explode. Violet is not seen again after being rolled away, but Wonka simply assures Charlie that all the other children will be returned to their normal selves. She is also the only one present during her song in the 1971 film.

In the 2005 version, she is seen exiting the factory with her mother after the tour. She has been deflated back to normal size, but rather than just walking, she somersaults, cartwheels and backflips down the stairs and the front walk, and her skin and clothes are both a permanent shade of blue. She is actually pleased with her new form and pliability, but her mother is furious over Violet disobeying Wonka's orders and in response says that she was blue and glares at her. 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 composed her outline in two halves of a Styrofoam ball, and it took 45 minutes to get her into costume. Nickerson was unable to go to lunch during rehearsals; instead she was rolled around on set every five minutes to keep blood circulating. In the 2005 version, at the request of director Tim Burton, the filmmakers combined real footage of Robb with digital effects in order to increase the overall size of the blueberry rather than just the width, as well as for the scenes of Violet leaving the factory.

Violet Beauregarde song
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 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. In the 1971 version, the song merely talks about how chewing gum for long periods of time is repulsive. In the theatrical shows, her song is called "Chew It", which talks about her love of chewing gum and how it's her life long dream to chew the same stick all her life.