A few key plot points are perhaps a bit too easily glossed over, perhaps because Dahl is writing for a younger audience than his longer books like Matilda and The Witches - it is a much shorter book than either and feels a bit rushed towards the end. By April 2022, an animated television series for Netflix was turned into a feature film. [20] An animated film, directed by Phil Johnston, is scheduled for release in 2025. [21] Relations to other Roald Dahl books [ edit ] As they is galloping past my cave, Fleshlumpeater is waving his arms and shouting at me, “I is off to Baghdad and mum and every one of their ten children as well!’” The Dahl family and the Roald Dahl Story Company deeply apologise for the lasting and understandable hurt caused by some of Roald Dahl’s statements. Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl’s stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations. We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words.” Edits have been made to descriptions of characters’ physical appearances. The word “fat” has been cut from every new edition of relevant books, while the word “ugly” has also been culled, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The process of editing often focused on individual words or particular expressions, as Dahl kept faith with some of the interwar slang of his childhood, and aspects of his vocabulary up to his death continued to recall the enthusiasms of English prep schoolboys. This was both natural to him and deliberate, and he resisted interference. Gender-neutral terms have been added in places – where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Oompa Loompas were “small men”, they are now “small people”. The Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach have become Cloud-People. The Twits, although it has its moments, is one of my least favourite Dahl books, perhaps the least favourite.You only had to mention the word “cacao” to an Oompa-Loompa and he would start dribbling at the mouth”

The Twits still holds up as one of my favourite Roald Dahl books. Dahl’s speciality is over-the-top baddies and he delivers with Mr and Mrs Twit who’re as grotesque as can be. Quentin Blake’s illustrations are perfect as always - his art is as inseparable from Dahl’s prose as John Tenniel’s is from Lewis Carroll’s. Whoever heard of a woman giant”” shouted the BFG waving the snozzcumber around his head like a lasso. “There was never a woman giant! And there will never be one. Giant is always men!”

For one such child as vile as he/Bad things happen, wait and see!/We cannot say we are surprised,/Augustus Gloop had been advised./ But then he took another sip/And now he’s going on a trip. Oompa-Loompa bowed and smiled, showing beautiful white teeth. His skin was rosy-white, his hair was golden brown, and the top of his head came just above the height of Mr Wonka’s knee Hundreds of changes were made to the original text – and some passages not written by Dahl have been added. But the Roald Dahl Story Company said “it’s not unusual to review the language” during a new print run and any changes were “small and carefully considered”. a b Cumming, Ed; Buchanan, Abigail; Holl-Allen, Genevieve; Smith, Benedict (24 February 2023). "The Writing of Roald Dahl". The Telegraph . Retrieved 20 March 2023.

Ntim, Zac (18 September 2023). " 'The Twits': Animated Feature Adaptation Of Roald Dahl Book Set At Netflix, First Look Revealed". Deadline . Retrieved 29 September 2023. were caves everywhere running into the cloud, and at the entrances to the caves the Cloud-Men’s wives were crouching over little stoves with frying-pans in their hands, frying snowballs for their husband’s suppers In The Witches, a paragraph explaining that witches are bald beneath their wigs ends with the new line: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.” The adult me is a great fan of dark humour and I do wonder if this budding element of my personality was what responded to The Twits. Knowing much more about Dahl now, the undeniably unpalatable elements of his person such as his well documented antisemitism, make it slightly more difficult to appreciate the dark undercurrents in his fiction. But I definitely found the macabre, sinister and disturbing aspects of his work refreshing.

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a b c Dellatto, Marisa (20 February 2023). "Roald Dahl Books Get New Edits—And Critics Cry Censorship: The Controversy Surrounding 'Charlie And The Chocolate Factory' And More". Forbes. Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. ISSN 0015-6914. Archived from the original on 28 February 2023 . Retrieved 27 February 2023. Mr. Twit puts a frog in Mrs. Twit’s bed and says that it is a Giant Skillywiggler… Draw what a Skillywiggler might look like. Brodesser, Claude (4 February 2003). " 'Twits' pic pleases Cleese". Variety . Retrieved 21 January 2012.