Oompa-Loompa

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". 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 similar 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 for some parts in the candy room, the boat that is used on the chocolate river, and the TV room. 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.

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 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 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-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 return to normal; 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.

In the film adaptations, they also dance to their own music.

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 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 Mike Teevee 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. However, this is only an element peculiar to Burton; as Wonka explains in the book, the Oompa-Loompas love to sing, and thus the songs are impromptu.

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

-Pam Gomez a Marist College student a ture life Oompa-Loompa has made the new Oompa rap. Pam stands in at 3 feet tall and is an inspiratiional member of the Marist community.

Casting

Adel Farhat (The Prisoner), George Claydon, Hussein Farhat Rusty Goffe, Rudi Borgstaller, Ismed Hassan, Pepe Poupee, Marcus Powell (credited in the Time Bandits as Horseflesh but did not appear), Malcolm Dixon (Time Bandits), Albert Wilkinson and Brian Santos played the role of the Oompa-Loompas in the 1971 film. Deep Roy plays all the Oompa-Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Racheal Linforth played the stunt double in the 2005 film.

References in popular culture

The 1967 Beatles song I Am the Walrus contains the vocal "Oompa oompa, stick it up your jumpa" under the outro. However, this is unlikely to be related to the Oompa-Loompas as the same line appears in the 1935 song "Umpa Umpa" by The Two Leslies, the chorus of which was "Umpa, Umpa, stick it up your jumper, tra la la la la la" [1]

Da Backwudz song I Don't Like The Look of It contains samples from the oompa loompa's.

Oompa-Loompas were once on the animated television series Family Guy in the episode "Wasted Talent" when Peter Griffin wins admission to a tour of the Pawtucket Patriot Brewery, which strongly resembles Willy Wonka's factory. The Chumba Wumbas 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.

Also, in "Fry and the Slurm Factory", an episode of Matt Groening's Futurama cartoon series, the "Grunka Lunkas" sing a song (tune same as 1971 version) while the crew is touring the Slurm soft drink factory. The crew is warned not to inquire about the secret ingredient of Slurm. The Grunka Lunkas subsequently lose their bathroom breaks for singing. It is later revealed that the Grunka Lunkas are essentially slaves, because they do not have a good union. They face degrading conditions and are treated badly by their employer in the episode for humorous effect.

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."

In the Drawn Together episode "Freaks & Greeks", Captain Hero swallows water and a piece of candy made by Willy Wonka (mistaking it for a roofie) and swells up into a giant blueberry. After this, Xandir plays the flute to summon Oompa-Loompas to roll him away to get the juice squeezed out of him.

The 1999 film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me features a character named Mini-Me (Verne Troyer), the diminutive clone of the film's villain Doctor Evil (Mike Myers). In one scene, Evil suggests the feelings of animosity his son Scott Evil (Seth Green) has for Mini-Me are from the latter's "creepy Oompa-Loompa vibe."

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.

Although there are more than a few satirical webpages devoted to the freeing of Oompa-Loompas, perhaps the most relevant is PETOL (People for the Ethical Treatment of Oompa-Loompas). This organization has existed since approximately 2000, and continues to be a leader in the fight for fair treatment.

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.

A Johnny Bravo episode, "Panic In Jerky Town!", shows a beef jerky factory where diminutive elderly men, the Tiny Cowboys of Jerky Town, work.

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, does various stunts on his skateboard in an urban area, dressed up as an Oompa-Loompa. He is musically guided by a remix from the Oompa-Loompa "theme song" from the 1971 film.

In episode 49 of Ranma ½, female Ranma calls Happosai an "upa rupa", or translated roughly, a water imp, after regaining counsciousness from hitting her head. The pronunciation is often confused with Oompa-Loompa.

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

External links

• 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
• The Oompa Loompa wiki