Oompa-Loompa

Willy Wonka character
name=Oompa-Loompas


caption=
gender=Predominantly male
personality=Cat-like. Can land on their feet
family=Communal family unit
town=('64 version) Belong to an African tribe called "Oompa Loompa". ('71 version) Originally lived in a fictional place called "Loompaland", now live in Wonka's factory although a group escaped and now reside in secret in their new homeland of Kuala Lumper
portrayed=various|

Oompa-Loompas are fictional creatures featured in Roald Dahl's books "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator". They come from Loompaland, which is a region of Loompa, a small isolated island situated in the Pacific Ocean. In the book, they are the only people Willy Wonka will allow to work in his factory, because of the risk of industrial espionage. They are only knee-high, with astonishing haircuts, and are paid in their favorite food, cacao beans.

History

In fiction, 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". The Oompa-Loompas natural enemy is the whangdoodle, an ambiguous but terrible monster. In the first movie version, Gene Wilder also mentions two other enemies of the Oompa Loompas: "Snozwangers" and "Vermicious Knids." 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, very similarly to the Munchkins of 1939's "The Wizard of Oz". In the 2005 adaptation, restored to its original title of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", the Oompa-Loompas are small, with short dark hair and bronzed skin, and are all played by the dwarf actor Deep Roy, except in some scenes. Roy's stature was diminished on screen to an apparent height of 75 centimetres (30 inches), using digital compositing and forced perspective. They communicate only through song, mimic, and gestures. As seen in the film, they also have a singular gesture of accord, in which they cross their arms and closed hands up to their chest in a way that resembles the greeting gesture of the aliens in Plan 9 from Outer Space. The only Oompa-Loompa of this list with a name is the high voiced Evelyn Miller, the apparent leader of the Oompa-Loompas. Oompa-Loompas are known to love Chinese Food.

Songs

In the book, Oompa-Loompas perform impromptu witty, moralising songs about the mischievous children who have been invited to tour the factory. Four songs are presented to make adolescents think about the consequences of their behaviour: the "Augustus Gloop Song", about a gluttonous 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-chewer who eats an experimental gum, causing her to turn blue, expand into a human-like blueberry, and be taken to the Juicing Room to return to normal; the "Veruca Salt Song", about a spoiled brat who falls into a garbage chute; and the "Mike Teavee Song", a song about a boy who watches too much television, only to be shrunken down to a height of one inch and sent to a stretching machine to be stretched back to normal.

The songs written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley for the 1971 film are radically different from the songs in the book (each beginning and ending with the refrain "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 Charlie Bucket as highly suspicious that the children's names were already in the songs, suggesting that they already knew that the incidents were going to happen. However, this is only an element peculiar to Burton; as Wonka explains in the book, the Oompa-Loompas love to sing, and thus composed the songs at the moment.

Casting

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) [cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067992/fullcredits#cast|title=IMDB]

Rudy Borgstaller
George Claydon
Malcolm Dixon
Rusty Goffe
Ismed Hassan
Norman McGlen
Angelo Muscat
Pepe Poupee
Marcus Powell
Albert Wilkinson
Michelle Ngai

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Deep Roy plays all the Oompa-Loompas, Racheal Linforth played the stunt double.

References in popular culture

In the WB's hit series, Gilmore Girls, one of the main characters, Lorelai, is noted as having an Oompa Loompa fetish. This was mentioned in Season 1 in the episode, Kiss and Tell. Lorelai, her daughter Rory, and her daughter's boyfriend are watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Lorelai exclaims, "Oompa Loompa, Oompa Loompa!" Rory accuses Lorelai as having a thing for the Oompa Loompas, and then says that Lorelai had a recurring dream about marrying one of them. Lorelai denies this, but clearly enjoys their presence.

In "The Simpsons" episode "Sweets and Sour Marge", when Marge comes back from the candy factory, Homer says, "Were there Oompa-Loompas?" Marge replies, "There was one in a cage, but he wasn't moving." In the same episode, the (supposedly) same Oompa-Loompa can be seen smoking causing Homer to give an aside to Bart: "Those guys are freaky."

The [http://www.iratecinemaunderground.com Irate Cinema Underground] made a satirical film called "Oompa-Loompa Liberation" in which they protest the film release of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" because of Wonka's outsourcing of American jobs to Oompa-Loompa slaves.

An episode of "Mind of Mencia" attacked Tim Burton for only using one Oompa-Loompa in the entire film. Several Oompa-Loompas appear and start singing about how they lost their jobs, and have been forced to turn to prostitution.

In an episode of "Arthur", Buster Baxter reads a book about going to a sandwich factory with small, elf-like creatures resembling Oompa-Loompas who say, "When you break off all your teeth, it becomes so hard to eat."

The Heavy Metal band Macabre parody the tune and lyrics of the Oompa-Loompa song on their track "Jeffrey Dahmer and the Chocolate Factory" on the album "Dahmer".

In an episode of MTV's stuntshow "Jackass", Jason Acuña, also known as Wee Man, performs various stunts on his skateboard in an urban area, dressed as an Oompa-Loompa. He is musically guided by a remix from the Oompa-Loompa theme song from the 1971 film.

In "The Rundown", Christopher Walken's character refers to the poor villagers in his town as "Oompa-Loompas".

In the "Jerusalem Duality" episode of "The Big Bang Theory" the character of Sheldon refers to engineers as the Oompa Loompas of science.

In an episode of the animated television series "Phineas & Ferb", Phineas stands near a river of chocolate in a toy factory, where he questions a group of small blue characters in a boat, obviously resembling the Oompa-Loompas. They all replied with "We are the Bdink-a-dinks!". One revealed an English accent (sounding Liverpudlian), either referring to fact that Roald Dahl was from Wales, or Ferb is English.

The popular psychobilly band from UK The Klingonz has a song called Oompa Loompa on their Flange LP.

In Series 3 of BBC comedy show "Little Britain", Linda Flint insulted a university student in her office, Paul Roberts, as "the Oompa-Loompa" because of his being small.

On the reality television show I Love New York Season 1, Chance called the girls "Oompa-Loompas".

In Australia, it is common slang to call a person with an bad orange fake-tan (particuarly if they are short) an 'oompa'.

In the song "Ya heard" by The Game off L.A.X. album Ludacris who is featured on this track raps "My money long, your shit is shorter than oompa-loompas"

References

External links

* [http://www.stilldemanding.com Veruca Salt's memorabilia from the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film]
* [http://www.roalddahlfans.com/movies/willlyrics.php Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Movie Song Lyrics] - Roalddahlfans.com
* [http://www.roalddahlfans.com/books/charsongs.php Official Oompa–Loompa Songbook] - Roalddahlfans.com
* [http://www.roalddahlfans.com/books/charoompa.php Politically Correct Oompa–Loompa Evolution] - Roalddahlfans.com
* [http://vision-nary.com/content/oompa.html Economics of Oompa Loompas]