Mike Teavee
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Mike Teavee is a fictional character in the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the subsequent film adaptations.
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[edit] Background
Mike Teavee is, as his last name implies, a television fanatic. His parents felt that television was a fine choice for raising a child, as they believed they could always keep track of him and lay his food right by the TV. In spite of this, his parents are very critical of their son for his excessive TV watching. Mike is the last of the bad children to find a Golden Ticket, and is also the last of the children to be expelled from the tour.
In the novel, nine-year-old Mike is particularly obsessed with violent gangster films. He wore "no less than eighteen toy pistols of various sizes hanging from belts around his body," and he liked to act out gangster shootings by "pumping [bad guys] full of lead."
[edit] Mike in the 1971 film
Mike was played by Paris Themmen in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, in which his last name was spelled as "Teevee" in the credits. The film portrayed Mike in a more greedy manner than the book (he asked if Slugworth would pay extra to know about the Wonkamobile). Mike, no older than eleven and hailing from Marble Falls, Arizona, was dressed in a cowboy outfit complete with a hat, a fringed jacket and a cap gun, in imitation of the stars of his favorite western TV show. He openly wished he could have a real gun, to which his father replied, "Not 'till you're 12, son." When the children were asked to sign a contract prior to the tour that forbade them from divulging Wonka's secrets, Mike remarked, "I saw this in a movie once. A guy signed his wife's insurance policy, then he bumped her off." He then signed his name as "Mike T.V." on the contract.
Unlike the 2005 adaptation, Mike does not have an aversion to chocolate, as he calls a miniaturized chocolate bar a "TV dinner" in the Wonkavision Room and is seen eating candy in the Chocolate Room. He is very impudent and self-assertive around most adults, but is generally kind and sociable around the other kids. He also talks about his favorite shows and movies, and he dreams of becoming a TV star.
[edit] Mike in the 2005 film
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
In the 2005 movie adaptation, Mike (played by Jordan Fry) has a more contemporary wardrobe in lieu of cowboy attire, and resides in Denver, Colorado. His behavior has been greatly influenced by television and video games. As a result of being constantly bombarded with violent imagery, particularly from first-person shooter games, he possesses a short fuse and is quick to anger.
Mike proves to be both scientifically and economically literate. He finds his Golden Ticket simply by analyzing both the Nikkei Index and the datecodes of the other ticket finds, and then calculating the location of the next ticket, thus requiring him to purchase only a single Wonka Bar. However, Mike does not like chocolate, and he simply used the ticket hunt as an opportunity to test his wits, rather than out of true desire to visit the factory. His haggard father (Adam Godley), who later serves as Mike's tour chaperone, laments during the press conference about his inability to understand his son's thought processes, while bemoaning children's obsession with technology in general. When the five children first enter the facility, Mike is the only one whom Wonka addresses by name, adding, "You're the little devil who cracked the system." Mike considers everyone else beneath him and is especially condescending toward Wonka, while finding everything in the factory to be "completely pointless."
Whenever Mike tries to argue with Wonka about the impossibility of his inventions, Wonka tells him to "stop mumbling" despite Mike's speech being rather clear. This became a running gag in the movie that did not appear in the novel and was hinted at in the 1971 film. Their inability to communicate is due to Wonka's creative mind and Mike's logical rants. Because Mike's speech is often full of logic and technical information, Wonka "can't understand a word" Mike is saying.
[edit] Mike's Endgame
In the novel and both films, Mike is shrunk after berating Wonka and impulsively disobeying his request to stay away from the Television Chocolate camera. In an attempt to distribute free samples of Wonka's candy, Television Chocolate was intended to send larger-than-life-sized Wonka Bars through television sets around the world. After the bar is teleported by the camera, it is shrunk down to normal size, and can be extracted from the television set and consumed, which amazed the remaining children in the tour (Charlie and Mike). The Television Chocolate camera transmits Mike to a television set across the room, shrinking him to a size that enabled him to fit within the diameter of the screen. Wonka orders him to be stretched out in the gum stretching machines (taffy pullers in both films), but the Oompa Loompas overdo the process and accidentally transform him into a flattened, two-dimensional giant; Wonka quips that at least every basketball team in the country would now be looking for him. In the 2005 film, Mike is left with a very high, squeaky voice after being shrunk, and his overstretched figure was seen leaving the factory after the tour, whereas in the 1971 version, nothing was stated other than Wonka's reassurance to Charlie that Mike would be fine.
In the book and the first film, Mike sends himself through the Television Chocolate machine simply due to his television fanaticism. In the novel, when his parents say he won't be able to go back to school, or do anything in general, Mike states that he'd still be able to watch TV. This causes Mr. Teavee to holler, "I'm throwing the television out the window once we get home! I've had enough of television!" In the 2005 movie, Mike sends himself through the machine to demonstrate its potential use as a teleporter, after becoming frustrated that Wonka never considered using the machine in any other context beyond chocolate transportation.
[edit] Mike Teavee Song
This song took place in the factory's Television Room, and was sung by the Oompa Loompas after Mike was shrunk while trying to use the camera to teleport himself into the in-room television screen. In the book, the Oompa Loompas sing about how TV is unhealthy and detrimental for children's minds, and how they should read books instead of watching TV. The song in the original film says basically the same thing, but only gives books as a suggestion. In the 2005 film, the song suggests that television is bad for young minds, and it makes children dull and blind, as mentioned in the novel.
The 2005 version of the song is performed as Mike finds himself jumping from, and interacting with, one television program after another while an Oompa Loompa changes channels: he flips through a heavy-metal music video, a Psycho-style shower scene, two other Oompa Loompas playing Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, a WNN (Wonka News Network) news broadcast, a cooking show, and a psychedelic parody of a Beatles concert. All of the performers on all the channels were Oompa Loompas.
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