Parents who visited the recent “Willy Wonka Experience” in Glasgow likened it to an episode from season five of “The Simpsons.” The experience, which cost £35 per ticket and promised visitors dancing Oompa-Loompas and chocolate fountains, instead delivered a poorly decorated warehouse and a small bouncy castle. Fans have noticed the similarities between the ill-fated event and an episode from season five, ‘Bart’s Inner Child’; in the episode, Homer explains to Marge that he plans to open a play park for children in the family’s back garden. Homer dreams of charging $50 to enter ‘Homerland’ which features ‘Trampoline World,’ ‘Mudville USA,’ and ‘Fort Adventure,’ a pile of dirty mattresses.
Since then, outraged parents began demanding a refund for their families shortly after the event opened, describing it as a “farce” run by “cowboys”. The event’s organisers, House of Illuminati, decided to pull the plug just hours into its opening day. Police Scotland also sent officers to the scene after receiving a number of official complaints. House of Illuminati issued an apology and guaranteed to refund all customers within ten days. They described its opening as a “very stressful and frustrating day,” adding: “Unfortunately, last minute we were let down in many areas of our event and tried our best to continue on and push through and now realise we probably should have cancelled first thing this morning instead.”
In a similar vein to the event in Glasgow, the world of “The Simpsons” also features a cigarette-smoking Oompa Loompa in a 2002 episode after Homer attempts to smuggle sugar into Springfield before being stopped by the police. Fans have noticed the similarities between this depiction and the sad Oompa Loompa on show at the event in Glasgow.
“Wonka” is based on Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. Timothée Chalamet plays the lead role of Willy Wonka, in what’s billed as a prequel to the 1971 film adaptation. The film recently crossed the $600million threshold at the worldwide box office, placing it comfortably inside the top ten cinema hits of 2023, and surpassing both of director Paul King’s previous two films, “Paddington” and “Paddington 2.
Read the full article on NME here: Read More