As Corbin states, in her article the Oompa-Loompas were smuggled by Wonka from Africa (53). They were originally hired because his employees were stealing his recipes.
The racial innocence does not just come from the fact that there was a need to change how the skin color Oompa-Loompas looked like, but the original fact that they became the workers in Willy Wonka’s factory. Change in perspectives and events that occur affect how people view a text. Finally, in the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) Tim Burton portrays the Oompa-Loompas as brown skin people (48).Īfter reading Corbin’s research article about the historical and political contexts behind Dahl’s book I can understand why changes were made. In Dahl’s 1973 revision he depicts the Oompa-Loompas as white. Yet, in 1971 Mel Stuart’s film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory the Oompa-Loompas are portrayed as little people with orange skin and green hair. However they begin to change throughout the text and filmed texts as stated by Corbin: The Oompa-Loompas were originally seen as “black Pygymy people from Africa” (48). According to Corbin’s research article in the Berkeley McNair Research Journal, the depiction of the Oompa-Loompas has changed since the book has originally published in 1964 throughout the various revised texts and films (48). As this group of people travel through the factory they occasionally see the little workers called Oompa-Loompas. At the factory he is accompanied by his Grandpa Joe, other children, and their adult companions. This book is about a young boy named Charlie Bucket who is poor and wins a golden ticket that brings him to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. One text I found that highlights racial innocence in a contemporary children’s text is Roald Dahl’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. “The Jungle Book.” Walt Disney Productions. King Louie sings “I wan’na be like you” maybe because he wants to be looked as a man as someone normal, and not someone who is sub-human. Throughout the clip, there are a few more scenes that appear to be racist but are hidden within the acceptable norms of society. I wonder if this was also done on purpose to deliver the notion that African-Americans are ignorant or uneducated. In the subsequent scene, King Louie offers and gives Mowgli two bananas while displaying three fingers on his left hand. Has the writer done this on purpose considering that King Louie is an ape? I believe there’s a subliminal association made between African Americans and apes. Jazz music is an African-American classical music genre. Scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables and nonsense syllables. There’s this particular scene where King Louie, who has met with Mowgli, is singing the jazz song “I wan’na be like you.” As he is singing the lyrics of the song, he also sings “Doo-Doot-Doot-Doo-Doot-Deel.” But in jazz music, this type of singing has a term: Scat Singing. It was fun and entertaining but I didn’t find a hint of racism (not that I knew what is was back then) when I watched it. He drew them so ridiculously, that I could not tell that they were supposed to be people, much less representative of a group of people, which I believe Herge was trying to cover up.Īs a kid, I liked watching The Jungle Book because it was a production where the main character Mowgli would interact with animals typically found in the jungle. The reason they were drawn this way was because the author of Tintin, Herge, was very imperialistic. They were never explicitly stated to be Congolese, but it became obvious through the story. I assumed that the characters were just some brutes living in the forest, without a nation or any sort of government. As a child, I honestly did not even understand that they were human. When Tintin gave a man medicine, they automatically thought of it as magic and hailed him as a sorcerer. The Congolese were depicted as dark-skinned, thick-lipped brutes who could not form a proper sentence. While there, he meets some of the natives, the Congolese. In one of the books, Tintin stumbles upon a diamond smuggling ring operating in the Congo. You can get any of these quests apart from the ones you have already completed.I grew up reading about Tintin and his little dog, Snowy.
As I promised take this dough, / Eeny meeny, miny, moe. If you do I'll give you dough, / Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.Įeny, meeny, miny, moe, / You did what I told you to. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, / Catch the horse by its shoe.