re: #522 The Vicious Babushka

My kids grew up with “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” as one of their favorite movies. Yes, some parts of it were scary and bad things happened to kids, but they were “bad kids” who deserved to be punished for their psychopathic behavior.

I never watched the Johnny Depp remake, but I heard it was toned down a lot to be less scary.

The original book by Roald Dahl is even more horrifying than the Gene Wilder movie. In it, Wonka was an imperialistic slave owner. He invaded a small African country and captured and enslaved an entire pygmy tribe to work in his chocolate sweatshop. The movie changed the indigenous Africans to a race of Donald Trump mini-mes. The Johnny Depp remake IIRC made CGI Oompa Loompas, thereby depriving Little People of much needed employment.

Actually, the Oompa Loompas were glad to go with him because they lived on caterpillars in their homeland, and he offered them chocolate. Won’t meet current fair labor standards, I fear, but it’s okay for a children’s fantasy.