Finally, we have the Oompa Loompas - our Greek chorus. After each tragedy befalls one of the children or their parents (or both) the Oompas recite a poem. "Dear friends, we surely all agree / there's almost nothing worse to see / Than some repulsive little bum / Who's always chewing gum." These poems seem to act in opposition to the basic business sense of Wonka. but, the Oompas are there not to make money, but to fulfill their master's dream. So, they are free to make judgements of others as they do not take part in the commerce. The Oompas are singular to children's literature in that they allow for the kind of criticism often leveled at children by adults to be accepted by the audience. The Oompas, then, in the book, are an acceptable conscience who, though quite morbid, have no intention of helping or teaching children - just pointing out their faults.

The first movie version of this book, retitled Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and released in 1971, restructured the story, removed all of the elements of back-story involving Wonka, the Oompa Loompas, and changed Wonka into a man without child-like pretensions who sings rather than proselytizes. The film took the concepts of the book and made them less cartoonish, less dark, less moralizing and condensed to the point that though the subject matter is the same between book and film, they are really quite different stories with similar beginnings and endings.

For the film adaptation, we begin the story with the announcement of the five Golden Tickets. This allows Wonka to be a mystery. Here, Charlie Bucket is the primary character who we are immediately sympathetic to, and Wonka is simply...

Without knowing why Wonka creates candy or why he's so reclusive, Wonka suffers a bit against the novel Wonka whom we know and sympathize with. The film Wonka, then, has no standing to take moral positions - he's just some weirdo in a factory that makes candy - his position of authority is rather socially shaky. The result, then, is that where the book hammered particular behavioral patterns into children, the movie seems more interested in painting a Technicolor universe.
However, where the book does not succeed visually in really giving us a world to inhabit, the movie succeeds wildly. Perhaps nothing is as iconic as the opening sequence in the factory when the house-of-mirrors like atmosphere turns into the world of chocolate. The songs that pepper the film change the atmosphere as well - and though they fit with the overall look and feel of the movie, they are hardly a substitute for the poetry of the book.

When we look at how these two works compare, we must understand that the film and the novel are separate but equal. For those of us who saw the film (or perhaps even the second film) before the novel, it is Gene Wilder and the orange Oompa Loompas that define the tale. For those of us who read the book first, it is the wild genius of Wonka and the brutal poetry of the Oompa Loompas. In either case, the two versions of the story work as entertainment and both stand as absolute pillars of children's entertainment.

Works Referenced

Dahl, Roald. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. New York: Puffin Books, 1996.

Wolper, David. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Paramount Pictures, USA. 1971