Oompa-Loompa
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| Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character | |
|---|---|
| Oompa-Loompas | |
| Gender | Male |
| Personality | Cat-like. Can land on their feet |
| Family | Communal family unit |
| Town/City the character lives in | ('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. |
| Portrayed by | 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 favourite food, cacao beans. In popular culture, they can be referred to as small people.
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[edit] 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, Wonka explains (as he also does in the book) that the Oompa-Loompas love to sing, and thus composed the songs at the moment utilizing their talent for improvisation.
[edit] Casting
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) [1][2]
- Rudy Borgstaller (unknown)
- George Claydon (1944 - 1993)
- Malcolm Dixon (living)
- Rusty Goffe (born 1948)
- Ismed Hassan (unknown)
- Norman McGlen (unknown)
- Angelo Muscat (1930 - 1977)
- Pepe Poupee (born ca.1951)
- Marcus Powell (1932 - 2000)
- Albert Wilkinson (born 1938)
- Jackie King (Unknown)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Deep Roy plays all the Oompa-Loompas, Racheal Linforth played the stunt double.
Andy Willday (Oompa-Loompa stuntman)
[edit] References in popular culture
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (June 2007) |
In the WB series Gilmore Girls, one of the main characters, Lorelai, is noted as having an obsession with the Oompa Loompas. 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 Dawson's Creek, one of Dawson Leery's nicknames when he was growing up was Oompa Loompa, which Pacey Witter at times would make fun of calling him Oompa Loompa.
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: "That guy is freaky."
The 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 The Simpsons Game Homer says in the first level "I hope I don't run into any Oompa-Loompas." because the first level is chocolate and Oompa-Loompas make chocolate.
In an episode of Family Guy, Peter wins a trip to Beer factory resembling Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. There he sees near identical creatures called "Chumba wumbas", an allusion to the one-hit wonder band, Chumbawamba.
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 and 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 Badink-a-dinks!". They tell him that they have been trapped in the basement for many years and that because they are free, they will lay waste to the surface world(and he is okay with that). One revealed an English accent (sounding Liverpudlian), possibly referring to fact that Roald Dahl was from Wales.
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 due to achondroplasia.
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 (particularly 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"
In the television series the Hughleys, Darrel's (D.L. Hughley) sister in law (Adele Givens) calls him an Old Ugly Oompa-loompa.
In Futurama, episode Fry and the Slurm Factory, there are small men with orange skin and green hair resembling Oompa Loompas. They are named Grunka Lunkas.
In the ITV soap opera show Coronation Street, Fizz Brown often compares the Underworld factory workers to Oompa Loompas, there to provide unswerving loyalty and underpaid labour to the owners of the factory.
In the comic strip Pearls Before Swine, Pig refers to his testicles as his "oompa-loompas".
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
- Veruca Salt's memorabilia from the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Movie Song Lyrics - Roalddahlfans.com
- Official Oompa–Loompa Songbook - Roalddahlfans.com
- Politically Correct Oompa–Loompa Evolution - Roalddahlfans.com
- Economics of Oompa Loompas
- [1] Racism in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
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