Thursday, October 14, 2021
From Pygmies to Puppets: What to Do with Roald Dahl’s Enslaved Oompa-Loompas in Modern Adaptations?
The Theatre Times: But there is a troubling aspect to this story. In the first edition of Charlie (1964), the Oompa-Loompas are black pygmies who Wonka imports from “the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle” and enslaves in his factory.
In this latest stage production, the Oompa-Loompas are transformed into “humanettes” (living dolls that are part human, part puppet). Their recent manifestation raises a number of questions. What do the Oompa-Loompas represent? And how should they be portrayed in modern-day adaptations?
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Thinking back to when Tim Burton’s 2005 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came out, as well as reading Roald Dahl’s novel upon which the movie was based, I realize now I never really understood how the Oompa Loompas were actually enslaved. It certainly occurred to me later in life, and this article makes it blatantly obvious, but it went over my head in some capacity when I was first introduced to the story. Reading the article, I was actually quite shocked to learn that in the original novel, the Oompa Loompas were originally written to be from Africa, which is quite disturbing. That, as well as the wording of the passages, saying they were “rescued” and “imported” is also incredibly disturbing. While the newer adaptations have somewhat rectified this kind of wording and associations with true slavery, my overall view of this story has certainly been changed. I do not think I will be able to watch either of the movies or read the novel again without this newfound knowledge ruining the experience for me.
Was anyone else like deathly afraid of the Oompa Loompa's when they were a kid? It's not just because of their looks but because of their almost mechanical mannerisms and the scary way they abduct kids into giant chocolate vats. But that's not even the worst part about them! They're actually based in a really racist tale about how a white man saved them from Africa and made them work for him. Like, I don't know why we keep trying to remake this story into something more palatable or relatable for the new generation of people. Any which way you spin this story, it won't be good. So the Tim Burton version felt like the most "okay" with the whole like, they made them into robots and mechanically work, which in it of itself feels gross to say. It's still gross to think that people will even watch this movie.
Whenever I look bad at older beloved media, I often find that there are outdated and problematic elements to the story that audience's overlooked when the media was first released. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory's oompa loompas definitely fall into this category. Their role in the Factory is very reminiscent of slavery, and their character design is racist. I always wonder how modern adaptations will approach these problematic but beloved movie characters/moments/etc. It is an interesting situation as some die hard fans might be upset you are changing the media, but others will be upset if you leave the insensitive topic in. Personally, I think the risk of having fans upset at you changing the script is 100% worth avoiding the harm you will cause a community. I hope the new adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory recognizes this, and I am excited to (hopefully) see how the movie is changed.
When looking back at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I truly never thought of the Oompa-Loompas as slaves, but after learning this I now cannot stop thinking about this terrifyingly dark side of the story. I never read the 1964 first edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or any of the books for that matter, which is why I guess I simply had no idea about this. I am still astonished that at the time it was perfectly acceptable to write a story about how a chocolate factory owner who enslaved Black African Pygmies within his factory. I’ve truly only seen Tim Burton’s 2005 movie in which the portrayal of the Oompa-Loompas was entirely different and only done by one actor who was then edited to be all of them. What is still disturbing is that while the Oompa-Loompas of both films look entirely different, a prominent future is that they are all very small which only emphasizes the stereotype surrounding the Pygmie people of Africa. I’ve heard rumor that Timothee Chalamet will be starring as a new version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as Willy Wonka, which should be very interesting to see how they portray Oompa-Loompas within the film.
Watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as a kid, I did feel a little disturbed by the Oompa-Loompas, but hearing that they are based off slavery has made it even more disturbing. Although I’ve never read the original version of the book, knowing that words like “imported” and “rescued” were used has helped me understand why audiences are having such a strong backlash. I understand that those languages were used at the time the book was originally written for the purpose of reflecting societal values of that time, but it’s no longer appropriate to use languages like that, especially if the intended audience is children. I see that changes and corrections are made, but dehumanising the Oompa-Loompas may not be the best idea because it doesn’t resolve the White superiority and still gives hints that the Oompa-Loompas are simply workforces who are treated inhumanely. Given that there’s a new version of the film coming (hopefully soon), I hope that the issue is resolved and that the audience - the kids in particular - are directed in the right direction and that racist ideas are no longer present.
As someone who obsessively watched the Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when I was little due to it being one of the few kids movies we actually owned, I never actually thought too much about the Oompa-Loompas until I was watching the movie again once I got into college and watched the movie again after several years. While I thought the idea of a short, funny looking work force that all looked the same was odd in a social context, I hadn't exactly understood the implications of where they came from (The pro-slavery roots were NOT something I expected but wow), and it made me realize just how significant of a subject the oompa-loompas are when talking about portraying a fictional workforce. I don't know if dehumanizing them is the right move for the message they want to send, but it's certainly better than what we started with.
I grew up with the Tim Burton movie version of Willy Wonka, so I did not know the disturbing backstory of the oopma loopas. I still thought it was kind of messed up, but it was done so outlandishly it didn’t come across as explicitly racist or anything. I think any way you change the origin story of the oompa loompas, if you know the original it will never not be disturbing, and any change will feel like a cover up. I do not really know what solution could fix this. I also do not know whether I think this needs to be fixed. I think the whole story should just be shelved. The story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reads as capitalist propaganda to me, and I don’t really see how it would serve audiences today. I feel there is no point in trying to salvage this story.
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