I’m not sure there’s a way to satisfy the majority of those whose approval hinges on the depiction of the Oompa-Loompas. Just what the Oompa-Loompas are has been so inconsistant over the 41 years of the story’s existance. The original version of the book described them as “miniature Pygmies,” which was later decided to be racist. In the early 1970s they became these pale, hippie-like creatures with long hair, and the 1998 version of the book I have describes them in a similar way. The 1971 movie, of course, made them orange. Burton’s Oompa-Loompas seem to look like regular white people, made small. At this point, with all the changes, I don’t see what’s wrong with making up a new kind of Oompa-Loompa. If there’s a third movie at some future date, I imagine we’d see something altogether different.
I wonder if Burton’s going to stick with the attempts of the book and the first film to put Wonka’s factory in a non-specific locale? In the book it wasn’t clear where Charlie lived, or where the factory was, or where any of the kids came from. In the movie, you knew exactly where the bad kids were from, but where Charlie and the factory were was intentionally unclear. (The movie was shot in Munich, but the directors did all they could to deëmphasize a sense of place.)
I also wonder what kind of money Charlie’s going to find in the street in Burton’s film. In the original British edition of the book he found a shilling; in the North American version, it was a green one dollar bill (which worked in both the U.S. and Canada back in 1964, when it was originally published.) In the 1971 film you don’t get a good look at the coin Charlie finds, but I understand they used a two mark piece. (When I was a kid I figured it was an American half dollar, since it’s about that size. I guess the audience was supposed to suppose it was whatever coin was familiar to them.)
It just hit me as to how one could incorporate Oompa-Loompas without raising people’s P.C. hackles.
You can’t use a variant of blackface. You can’t simply cast a diminutive ethnic group either, with or without additional prosthetics or hair or whatever (e.g., “The Last Dinosaur”'s casting Japanese extras to play Neanderthals, in 1976). You really have to go a bit further: make the Oompas a humanoid, but definitely not human, species! (You could call this the “Yoda” solution.) They’re intelligent, talking, tool-using elf-like beings with weird-looking ears or something.
This also furnishes a plausible and kosher explanation for their continued service to Wonka, why they don’t want to leave, and why they can’t be known by or integrate into the larger society – society would never fully accept them, and government scientists would insist on studying them (i.e., the “E.T.” reaction). Thus Wonka would truly be a humanitarian by offering them his candy-coated refuge, where they’re happy to be…
I read somewhere that Burton (or somebody connected with the movie) actually trained those squirrels to do what they’re doing, from the time they were wee baby squirrels. That’s not CGI–they’re real squirrels. I can’t wait to see the scene (BTW, there’s a brief look at them in the second trailer.)
The Geese who laid the golden eggs took place of the squirrels. Squirrels are the only animals who can remove walnuts whole from their shell, so Wonka employs them to open walnuts for him. I won’t say anything more…
I think Shirley was referring to the notes from one of Fred Astaire’s first auditions. The casting director (or whoever it was) wrote words to that effect on Astaire’s evaluation form. Of course, time (and Astaire’s productive career) proved the guy wrong.
