Jayson’s Reviews > Charlie and the Chocolate Factory > Status Update

- Awful things are happening to children in this wonderland and it's slowly turned from wonderous to dangerous.
(2) Willy Wonka's described as wearing a black hat and sporting a black goatee. Which isn't an image that quite correlates with popular conceptions.
- The black goatee makes him seem devious, devilish even.
- Though the plum velvet coat and bottle green trousers are on point.
(3) The initial scenes in the chocolate factory are just bursting with energy and enthusiasm.
- The whole thing's treated like a circus and Willy Wonka's like the happiest, most manic, ring master.
(4) The Oompa-Loompas are tiny men with rosy-white skin and long golden-brown hair.
- Again, completely different from the image that's been engrained in my head. I'd never have imagined Smurf-sized Tarzans.
- It's fairly clear that Oompa-Loompas were inspired by African pygmy tribes. Though, as with most things here, they're inherently contradictory. For example, they live in the jungle and men only wear deer skins. I'm no zoologist, but I don't think jungle deer are a thing. The place they're native to in no way correlates to the world we know.
(5) For a children's book, the humor here is pretty dark. Especially when it comes to the songs Oompa-Loompas sing.
- They sing about Augustus Gloop being ground up, sliced, boiled and turned into fudge.
- They sing about Violet Beauregarde biting her tongue in two, going dumb, and spending the rest of her days in a sanatorium.
- It's the sort of stuff you'd expect out of The Brothers Grimm, except these are only jokes and don't actually happen.
(6) Willy Wonka warns Mike Teavee not to lick the candy boat because it will get sticky.
- But, it's a boat... it's meant to get wet.
- Though, perhaps the river being chocolate means it won't act as a solvent.
(7) Willy Wonka's whole "nothing to see here" attitude as they sail through the tunnel got some audible laughs from me.
- Cracks are beginning to form in his immaculate facade and we get hints of nefarious goings on.
(8) Charlie and Grandpa Joe are offered cups of river chocolate by Willy Wonka. They're the only ones out of the whole group.
- Unlike the other children, Charlie only takes chocolate or sweets when offered. The children who take without asking suffer humiliating and potentially life-threatening consequences.
- Like fables and folk stories of old, this is very much a cautionary tale for children: listen to adults, don't take what isn't yours, don't be impulsive or greedy. In other words, act like Charlie, and not the others, and you won't be sucked-up/stuck-in vacuum tubes or swell up into a giant blue ball.

Didn't Grandpa Joe used to work for Willy Wonka? You'd think he of all people would know whether the Oompa-Loompas are joking or not. If even he doesn't know...

Juho wrote: "Didn't Grandpa Joe used to work for Willy Wonka? You'd think he of all people would know whether the Oompa-Loompas are joking or not. If even he doesn't know..."

If you just spoiled the end of the book I'll never forgive you!!! Just kidding, I don't care ;)

At this point in the book, the only things we know about Grandpa Joe are that he's 96 years old and spent 20 years lying a bed.

@ Juho, That was in the Johnny Depp movie, not the book

Ari (Head in a Book) wrote: "@ Juho, That was in the Johnny Depp movie, not the book"

Ah, I appreciate the clarification, Ari. For a moment I thought I'd missed something 😁👍