Augustus Gloop

Background

Augustus Gloop is a gluttonous overeater who is the first of the five children to find a Golden Ticket and win a trip to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, but is also the first to be expelled from the tour after disobeying Wonka's orders. His nationality is unmentioned in the novel, but both film versions and the theatrical shows portray him as hailing from Germany. In the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, he is from the fictitious town of Düsselheim; in the 2005 adaptation, he hails from the real-life city of Düsseldorf, Germany.  

Augustus in the original novel

In the original novel, Augustus is described as an enormous boy who has "fat bulging from every fold, with two greedy eyes peering out of his doughball of a body." His mother encourages his eating habits, saying that eating is his hobby, and that his habits are better than him being "a hooligan." She is blissfully unaware of the results of unhealthy eating, thinking that Augustus wouldn’t eat if he didn’t need or want to. 

Augustus in the films

Augustus was portrayed by Michael Bollner in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Although he eats constantly, he isn't as big in as portrayed in the book or 2005 remake, has proper table manners and is polite to the other kids. He is considerate enough to give an appropriate interview to reporters, and even expresses concern for Wonka by saying that making all the chocolate he and the other kids could eat is going to cost Wonka a fortune in fudge, suggesting that he knows a little about economics and business. Mrs. Gloop rationalizes her son's eating to reporters, saying it was inevitably he would find a Golden Ticket and it is better than being a "hooligan", while Mr. Gloop is far more uncouth. When reporters ask for Mr. Gloop's feelings about his son's finding, he thinks it is food and chews the head off the microphone. At the Chocolate Room, Augustus erroneously drinks from, and accidentally falls into, Wonka's chocolate river. He is sucked up a chocolate pipe that leads to the 'Fudge Room', and is nearly turned into a mass of chocolate.

In the 2005 adaptation, Augustus is portrayed by Philip Wiegratz and isn't nearly as vocal as the other children. His gluttony is greatly emphasized as he is always consuming chocolate, which is also sloppily smeared around his mouth. His diet of just chocolate and meat (his overweight father is a butcher like in the first movie) renders him obese with a lumbering, slow walk, and he discovers the Golden Ticket in his Wonka Bar only after accidentally biting off and nearly swallowing one of the ticket's corners. He is aloof and cruel toward Charlie in the one instance when they interact, as he offers him a Wonka Bar as they are walking towards the entrance to the Chocolate Room and then retracts it, telling him he should have brought one of his own. (<-- Charlie didn't need to buy it anyways, because of the 'Chocolate Room'.) When told by Wonka to "enjoy" the Chocolate Room, he begins to gorge himself on the room's various contents before moving on to the chocolate river, ignoring his mother's subsequent protests and Wonka's warning that the liquid chocolate can't be touched by human hands. Augustus soon loses his balance and falls into the river, and is sucked out by the extraction pipe and whizzed off to the "Boiler Room." He is also heavier in this film.

In the play "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory", Augustus is a combination of the boys in the book and the 2005 movie, with his song from the 1971. He is very gluttonous and says little. His mother feeds him massive amounts of food to train him for the "Eating Olympics". According to the song "I eat more" he gorges himself on such large amounts of food that at the end of the day he is too bloated to fit through the dining room door. His home town is mentioned to be Frankfurt, Germany.

His hometown of Düsseldorf is briefly seen as a resemblance to a southern German town during winter, with wooden houses and a backdrop of snowcapped Alps mountains. However, the real Düsseldorf is actually the capital city of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the lower Rhine plains, and is also located near the industrialized metropolis of Ruhr Valley. In the 2005 film's video game, Wonka says at the beginning of the Wriggle Sweets Room level, "That Bavarian bully has done it again!", which is geographically incorrect, though Wonka may not really care.

Augustus's Endgame

In the novel, after he falls into and is sucked out of the chocolate river, Augustus's body shape is altered dramatically: he becomes extremely underweight (anorexic) from being squeezed through the pipe. His fate in the 1971 film was not visualized, with only Wonka's insistence to Charlie that all four bad children would remain intact. In the 2005 adaptation, his physical stature is relatively unchanged after his journey into the Boiler Room. However, he is partially covered in chocolate, which he eats off himself as he leaves the factory, much to his mother's consternation. In "Poptropica", Charlie must guide Augustus through the factory's pipes until he finally gets thrown out of the suction system into the Chocolate Room.

Augustus leaving the factory in the 2005 film

Augustus Gloop song

The Augustus Gloop Song is the first song performed by the Oompa Loompas in the book and both film versions; it is sung in the Chocolate Room after Augustus is sent up the pipe. The original version talks about Augustus's repulsiveness and his upcoming experience in the fudge machine. The 1971 version centered around what happens if one overeats. The 2005 rendition restored some of Dahl's original lyrics; it reassures the tour group that Augustus will be unharmed, but he will be altered, while centering more on Augustus's personality; it calls him "a great big greedy nincompoop," asserts that he is "so greedy, foul, and infantile," and also reveals the impending doom of the machinery that will punish Augustus for his flaws. Unlike the book and 1971 film the song is sung while Augustus is stuck in the pipe.