That’s a question filmmakers and writers have tangled with ever since the 1964 debut of the tiny, largely unpaid laborers in Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” In Dahl’s original, the Oompa-Loompas were starving African pygmies, subsisting largely on a mash of green caterpillars and tree bark until “rescued” by Willy Wonka. He smuggled the entire tribe out of Africa in packing crates to live and work, and sing and goof and dance, in the chocolatier’s factory.
Wonka is the latest film to try to shake the tiny unpaid labourers from their colonialist roots in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. What do we.
The first book cost seven shillings and six pence (37.5 pence) - but today a first edition of this Methuen book in top condition can sell for far more.
The first book cost seven shillings and six pence (37.5 pence). Today a first edition of this Methuen book in top condition can sell for £3,500 or more.