Overview of Alice in Wonderland films in the Pantagraph

Thanks to Dan Craft at the Pantagraph for interviewing me about some of the many Alice in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderlandversions of Alice in Wonderland in film. His article "New 'Alice' is the latest trip through the looking glass." appeared in The Pantagraph today (March 4).  He did a great job of taking some raw material and turning into an entertaining article. 

The sidebar piece about how my parents gave me my first copy of Alice Adventures in Wonderland when I was growing was sweet especially as today is my mother's birthday.  So she made it into the news on her birthday!

As I noted in the article, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a darker vision than the original.  It's been marketed to older tweens and teens, particularly girls, which makes sense considering that Alice is 19 in the film.  I don't think the film  is for young children.  The marketing is consistent with that older audience. We haven't seen many ads on Nickeloden or too much on the Disney channel, either.  The reviews are somewhat mixed, although those who like it are very enthusiastic.

A white stone day, as Lewis Carroll would note

It looks like I was on the mark about the new Alice in Wonderland as a violent version for our times. Thanks to Larry Rohter, of the New York Times cultural desk, for interviewing me about Lewis Carroll and the Alice books and film.  It's great to find myself as one of his sources in his article "Drinking Blood: New Wonders of Alice's World". Rohter notes how Alice is re-interpreted by each generation, and that this one may respond well to a feminist, empowered teen-age girl fighting against a serious of odd characters in Underland, instead of getting married.

When Lewis Carroll had a particularly memorable day, he would write that he 'marked this day with a white stone.'  I would mark being a source in the Times as a white stone day.

Now, I'm looking forward to seeing the film and hope to do it with a lot of Alice fans next Friday.  We'll see if this new twist, using Carroll's original characters, makes sense beyond the spectacle of 3D.

The modern Alice, fighting for what's right.

Oh, and I do want to disagree with Robert Zanuck, one of the film's producers.  He told Rohter, “It’s a piece of entertainment where you have a heroine off to another adventure at the end, and unless I’m wrong, people of all nationalities will just enjoy it as an entertainment and not try to interpret it.”  With Alice, there's always something interesting to interpret.  And judging by the numerous articles about the film, there are many people who are curious and want to reflect on what this Alice is about.  Interpretation is another word for 'critical thinking,' which is what we're trying to teach students from kindergarten through college. Alice does it all the time in the original Wonderland.

Who is fighting the Jabberwock in Alice in Wonderland?

In Tim Burton's new Alice in Wonderland, I think that teen-age Alice character fights the frightful Jabberwock. The Jabberwock in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass. Illustration by John Tenniel.At least that's what I understand from trailers and talking with Ramin Setoodeh, a reporter at Newsweek who saw the previews. In our email conversation, Setoodeh wondered who is fighting the Jabberwock in the original John Tenniel illustration in Lewis Carroll's the second Alice book, Through the Looking-Glass.

The question is interesting because if you look at Tenniel's woodcut our contemporary eyes see a girl with a mini-dress and striped stockings. But Victorian girls probably didn't wear that kind of clothing, out of modesty and fashion sense. Yet, the hair looks very much like a girl's, although some boys had long hair at this time. The facial features sort of look like a girl, too.

In Through the Looking-Glass, Alice reads the poem. There are two lines that refer to a male:

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" (second stanza)

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?/Come to my arms, my beamish boy! (fifth stanza)

These lines clearly suggest that this is a boy fighting. Maybe it's a boy elf. The shoes look very elfish, for Victorians anyway. The entire outfit -- striped stockings, shoes, top and waist pouch -- seems like what an elf or pixie would wear. Then the huge sword would make more sense as an average sword might be big for an elf or pixie.

But it pretty clear that Alice isn't fighting in Carroll's original text. It's not as clear who Tenniel thought was fighting the Jabberwock.

Addendum on Feb 28: In Larry Rohter's article in The New York Times (Feb. 28, 2010), he also discusses this transformation of the Jabberwock image to one of Alice fighting the dragon in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film.

addendum 2 After seeing the film, the ending is a somewhat silly fight between Alice and a Jabberwock, Curiously, Burton's film tries to recreate the original Tenniel drawing in many ways and then it veers off into typical fantasy fight sequence. some may even be frustrated that Alice never tries to practice using the torpal sword. Alice chops off the Jabberwocks's head, a la the Red Queen.

Have you thought that Alice in Wonderland is frightening?

As our household gets excited for the upcoming release of the new Alice in Wonderland film, some people weAnne Hathaway as the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland, holding the Dormouse know or read in forums are admitting that Lewis Carroll's original book was rather frightening to them.  It's hard to pinpoint what some people found frightening, but others specify the oddness of the characters, the way Alice seems to loose control, the original John Tenniel illustrations, or other illustrations or films. 

After talking to a few critics who've seen the film and after watching many of the previews, I'm beKristen Stewart brooding in Twilightginning to think that Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is going to focus on a  darker interpretation  of the book as well as heightened  conflicts.  Each generation re-interprets classics and it seems that the times are right for an Alice that's not intimidated but finds the world of Wonderland in chaos.  She's a powerful teen-age girl who's ready to fight for what's right, or what seems right anyway. This would dovetail with how Disney is marketing this Alice to tweens and teens enamored with the darkness of the vampires in the Twilight series as well as the brainy, but klutzy, teen-age girl trying to find her way in a confusing, dark world filled with unusual, surreal characters.  By the way, it's worth hanging out at your local mall's Hot Topic store just to see how this linking of Twilight and Alice comes together at the tween/teen hangout. Angst and confusion and Day-Glo stripes, cute Johnny Depp and sweet Anne Hathaway (famed modern Cinderella of Princess Diaries). While you're there, pick up a Cheshire Cat hoodie with key zipper so you can look cool.

Not your mother's White Rabbit

Whew!  Grace Potter and the Nocturnals' "White Rabbit" is a white hot version of Jefferson's Airplane 1960s Singer Grace Potter of Grace Potter and the Nocturnalspsychadelic tune.  You can find lots of YouTube versions as the group played the song all over last summer at places like the Gathering of the Vibes.  And it's on the Almost Alice soundtrack for the new Alice in Wonderland film.  Here are two video versions by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals: the group's video for the Almost Alice soundtrack as shown on Amazon and one from the Deep Roots festival in Georgia .

By the way, the Dormouse never said, "Feed your head."  That myth was part of the 1960s fascination with Alice in Wonderland that put a psychadelic spin on the book.  The Caterpillar does smoke a Hookah.  But there's no documentation that Carroll ever used drugs. He may have occassionally drunk red wine. And LSD was developed a century after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was published.

The White Rabbit continues to be late in the new Alice in Wonderland