The Enormous Crocodile

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The Enormous Crocodile

First edition
Author	Roald Dahl
Audio read by	Stephen Fry (on the CD release)
Illustrator	Quentin Blake
Cover artist	Quentin Blake
Language	English
Series	Roald Dahl
Genre	Picture book, children's
Publisher	Jonathan Cape (London)
Publication date	1 November 1978 (43 years ago)
Media type	Print (quarto hardback, paperback)
Pages	40
ISBN	0-224-01579-6
OCLC	4620532
LC Class	PZ7.D1515 En 1978
Preceded by	Danny, the Champion of the World
Followed by	The Twits

The Enormous Crocodile is a British 1978 children's story, written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake.

Plot[]

The story begins in Africa in a big, deep, muddy river, where the enormous crocodile (the title character) is telling a smaller crocodile, called the "Not-So-Big One", that he wants to eat children for his lunch. The small crocodile objects, because real children taste "nasty and bitter" in his opinion compared to real fish, and because of what happened the very last time the big crocodile tried to eat real children. The bigger crocodile leaves the big, brown muddy river anyway, and announces his intention to first Humpy-Rumpy the hippopotamus, then Trunky the elephant, then Muggle-Wump the monkey and finally the Roly-Poly Bird. The jungle animals are all horrified and disgusted, thereby insulting him, hoping that he will fail miserably and will himself be killed and eaten alive, after which the beast briefly and unsuccessfully attacks first Muggle-Wump the Monkey in his tree and the Roly-Poly Bird in his (newly-constructed) nest.

First of all, the big crocodile heads to a coconut tree forest, not far away from an empty town, where he disguises himself as a small coconut tree using several fallen tree branches and coconuts, hoping to eat Toto and Mary, from town, but is unknowingly exposed by Humpy-Rumpy the Hippopotamus, who catches the crocodile with his head and "sends him tumbling and skidding over the ground".

Later on, the big crocodile heads to a children's playground located outside an old school and disguises himself as a see-saw, with the help of a stray piece of wood, hoping to eat an entire class of children who want to ride on the see-saw itself, but is unfortunately exposed by Muggle-Wump the Monkey, who tells the class of children to "run, run, run!" and that the crocodile wants to eat them up.

Fearing that he might get caught and killed, the big crocodile goes to a busy funfair and, when nobody is nearby, he quickly disguises himself as a wooden crocodile on the attraction's roundabout by sandwiching himself between a brown lion and a yellow dragon (along with a red tongue sticking out of its mouth,) hoping to eat a girl called Jill who wants to ride on him, but is exposed by the Roly-Poly Bird from the jungle.

Refusing to give up, the big crocodile finally goes to a quiet picnic place located in a forest just outside the town. When nobody is looking, the crocodile picks a beautiful bunch of coloured flowers and arranges it on one of the many tables. From exactly the same table, he sneakily takes away one of the long benches and hides it in the area's bushes and then disguises himself as a long, wooden four-legged bench with all four of his legs, hoping to eat four children, (2 boys and 2 girls) who are going out on a picnic together, but is unfortunately exposed by Trunky the Elephant.

Having had enough of the crocodile's clever tricks, Trunky crossly picks the crocodile himself up by his tail. After having a short conversation about his behaviour, Trunky swings the crocodile around in the air by his tail, slowly at first, then a little faster, and then a lot faster, and finally very fast, before throwing him into the sky with his trunk. The dizzy crocodile is sent flying through the sky, through Earth's stratosphere, and into the Universe. The crocodile flies past the Moon, past the other planets, and then past the stars. The story ends as, with a tremendous BANG! the flying Enormous crocodile crashes headfirst into the Sun in the middle of the Solar System where he's "sizzled up, like a sausage", killing him.

Style and publication date[]

The Enormous Crocodile is in the style of a picture book in contrast to Roald Dahl's other story books, illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was published on 1st November 1978.

Home Media[]

In the 2005 UK Four Enchanting Stories by Roald Dahl DVD release, the story was narrated by Roger Blake, who also provided all the characters' English voices, whilst on the 1990 stand-alone VHS tape release, the story was narrated by Dave Benson Phillips (from the Fun Song Factory,) and on the stand-alone Compact Disc release by Stephen Fry, as well as in the accompanying Jackanory Junior episode by Sir Lenny Henry. The story will be adapted by Magic Light Pictures for Christmas 2023 on BBC One.

Voice Cast (UK)[]

• Chantal Strand as the Narrator.
• Timothy Spall as The Enormous Crocodile (title character).
• Michael Rosen as Trunky the Elephant.
• Maria Darling as Muggle-Wump the Monkey.
• Richard Pearce as Not-So-Big One.
• Sir Lenny Henry as Humpy-Rumpy the Hippopotamus.
• Rob Rackstraw as Toto, Mary's Brother.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Mary, Toto's Sister.
• David Walliams as the Roly-Poly Bird.
• Sally Hawkins as the old School Girl.
• Josie Lawrence as Jill, the girl at the Funfair.
• as the First Child in the Funfair.
• Simon Pegg as the Second Child in the Funfair.
• Hugh Skinner as the Third Child in the Funfair.
• Rob Brydon as the Boy in the Picnic Place.
• Alexandra Roach as the Girl in the Picnic Place.

Connections to other Roald Dahl Stories[]

• Muggle-Wump the monkey also appears in The Twits in which he is accompanied by a whole family of Muggle-Wumps. A monkey which looks like Quentin Blake's illustration of exactly the same character also appears in The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me.
• The Roly-Poly Bird makes a surprising appearance in The Twits and he can also be seen in Dirty Beasts.
• A recipe outlining how to make your own edible Enormous Crocodile appears in Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes.

References[]