Movies - Oompa-Loompa

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	Movies - Oompa-Loompa

Oompa-Loompas are dwarves in Roald Dahl's fictional books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. They come from Loompaland and are the only people Willy Wonka will allow to work in his factory due to the risk of industrial espionage. They are only knee-high with astonishing haircut, and are paid in their favourite food, cacao beans.

History

The Oompa-Loompas were first featured in Roald Dahl's 1964 children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The original book first portrayed Oompa-Loompas as black pygmies from "the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had been before". After the book's U.S. release, complaints of racism caused Dahl to rewrite the characters as dwarves with "golden-brown hair" and "rosy-white" skin. In the 1971 musical film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the characters were again reinterpreted as orange-skinned and green-haired - similar to the Munchkins of 1939's The Wizard of Oz. In the 2005 adaption, restored to its original title of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa-Loompas are small, with short dark hair and bronzed skin, and all played by dwarf actor Deep Roy. Roy's stature was diminished on screen to an apparent height of 30 inches, using digital compositing and forced perspective.

Loompaland

Oompa-Loompas lived in Loompaland, an uncharted place full of Snozzwangers, Horn Snolgerlers, wicked Whangdoodles, and Vermicious knids, four classes of extremely dangerous creatures.

Songs

Oompa-Loompas are notable for their witty, moralising songs and dances about the mischievous children who have been invited to tour the factory. Four songs are presented in the form of a simple puzzle which are intended to make adolescents think about the consequences of their behaviour: the Augustus Gloop
Song, about a greedy boy who tried to drink up the chocolate river only to fall in and get sucked up into a pipe headed for the fudge room; the Violet Beauregarde
Song, about a chronic gum-chewing girl who eats an experimental gum, causing her to turn blue, expand into a human-like blueberry, and be taken to the juicing room to keep from bursting; the Veruca Salt
Song, about a spoiled brat who winds up going down into a garbage chute for her wanton greed; and the Mike Teevee
Song, a song about a boy who watches too much television, only to get shrunken down to size by a matter condenser, and sent to the taffy room to be stretched back to normal.

The songs written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley for the 1971 film are radically different than the songs in the book (each beginning and ending with the now-iconic Oompa-Loompa-Doompa-Dee-Do), while the 2005 adaptation uses the book's lyrics to the point where Roald Dahl is listed in the 2005 movie credits as having written the lyrics for the songs.

In the 2005 version of the movie, it is pointed out by a character as being highly suspicious that the children's names were already in the songs, suggesting that they already knew that the incidents (Augustus Gloop getting sucked up the pipe, for example) were going to happen.

In the book's sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, the Oompa-Loompas sing two other songs: Wonkavite, and Goldie Pinklesweet.

Casting

Angelo Muscat (The Prisoner), George Claydon, and Hussien Farhat (Time Bandits) played the role of three of the Oompa-Loompas in the 1971 film. Deep Roy plays all the Oompa-Loompas in the 2005 film.

Parodies

Oompa-Loompas were once parodied on Family Guy. In the episode "Wasted Talent", which features a subplot based on the 1971 film in which Peter Griffin wins admission to a tour of the Pawtucket Pat Brewery, the "Chumba Wambas" sing a song to Joe Swanson in which they make fun of his need for a wheelchair. Shortly afterwards, they start singing to Peter Griffin when he and Brian are forced to leave for tasting beer they weren't supposed to taste. During this song, one of them kicks Peter in his knee, making him drop down and clutch it in pain.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Oompa-Loompa ]

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