#oompa-loompas

Loompas!! Left to right: Craigory, Herman, Theo and Perdia.

Favorite thing about them: In the books and the 2005 film, I like the wit, cleverness, and dark humor of their songs. Despite their appearance of being a "primitive" tribe, their songs are sophisticated, poetic, and wickedly snarky and funny.

Of course this gets lost in the 1971 film with their much simpler moralizing song that replaces the lengthy songs from the book. But it's a catchy tune all the same, and their weird appearance in this version is unforgettable, so I still enjoy their presence even without the original dark wit.

Least favorite thing about them: Their original racist incarnation in the first edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, where they were a black Pygmy people from Africa. It's a relief that both the 1971 film and later, revised editions of the book changed their home country from Africa to Loompaland, and that the film makes them a fantastical orange-skinned, green-haired species, while the revised book makes them white with long golden-brown hair. (Even though neither of those changes make their portrayal fully unproblematic – more on that below.) The 2005 film might be a bit of a regression since, as played by Deep Roy, they once again look like humans of color; but at least their extremely small size and odd voices, and the fact that they all look identical, make it clear that they are fantastical beings, not human.

Three things have in common with them:

*I love music.

*I'm good at making sweet treats.

*I'm fairly short.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I don't like raw cacao beans.

*I wouldn't make such nasty moralizing remarks about common childhood vices.

*I've never worked in a chocolate factory.

Favorite line: Basically all of their song lyrics.

brOTP: Willy Wonka.

OTP: Any couples that exist among themselves.

nOTP: Willy Wonka.

Random headcanon: In all their incarnations, both the weirder versions and the more human-seeming versions, they're actually a supernatural species, similar to fairies or elves. Their work has an element of magic to it, which aids Wonka's creation of so many fantastical, seemingly-impossible treats, and their musical and poetic abilities are magical too, which is why they can improvise clever songs about whatever happens on the spot. (Unless you believe the 2005 film's hints that they wrote the songs in advance because Wonka had the four bratty kids' "accidents" all planned out.)

Unpopular opinion: I don't view them as Wonka's slaves. They work for him by choice and they love him. Yes, their portrayal is problematic, in ways that were especially terrible in the book's original text where they were black Africans. An exotic tribe from a foreign land, "imported" by a white businessman to labor in his factory, whom he pays in food instead of money, and whom he uses as guinea pigs to test his new products, which sometimes do them bodily harm. Even when they're not portrayed as black, it's still problematic. But Wonka does pay them wages, even if they are in cacao beans, and I don't buy the headcanon that he really did enslave them and is lying when he says they came willingly to work for him. Wonka is already a dark-edged, morally ambiguous figure without our viewing him as a literal slaver.

Song I associate with them:

First and foremost, their iconic "Oompa-Loompa" song from the 1971 film, in all its iterations.

Their more elaborate musical numbers from the 2005 film are less memorable as songs, but they get points for using Dahl's original lyrics, and for the way each one uses a different musical style.

Favorite picture of them:

These assorted illustrations:

From the 1971 film:

From the 2005 film: