First of all, I never realized that Alice is supposed to be like 8 or 9 years old. I always assumed she was a teenager. So that changed my entire perspective of the movie.
Such an interesting idea for a book/movie! The beginning song sets the stage, sort of like an overture, of what is to come. As Alice says, all nonsense in her world. She sings of talking flowers, talking cats and rabbits, etc. etc. Alice herself is truly an interesting character. Poised and proper, she exudes intellect (contemplating why a “raven is like a writing desk” as well as learning her lessons) as well as naivety (drinking the bottle that says “drink me” without any regard to what it might do). On the way home, sweetie and I got to talking about how another character voiced by Kathryn Beaumont, Wendy, was from the same country and probably raised in the same sort of household, but how both were so very different. I mentioned that it has to do with who is in control. In Alice in Wonderland, she is in control. She decides who she talks to, where she goes and how she handles herself. Wendy is at the whim of Peter Pan. Yes, she ends up leaving the pow-wow, but in essence, she is fully dependant on Peter. Which is perhaps why I like Alice so much more.
There is just so much to comment on here, I’m not sure where to begin. As she falls through the earth, she first reads a book and then sits in a chair. As she sits in the chair, the book flies out of her hands and she makes no attempt to catch it. Perhaps this is indicative of the fact that she doesn’t want to learn her lessons (as can be seen as she plays around and does not listen to her history lesson), but I suppose we’ll never know.
Alice, as she is 20 stories tall, cries such loud tears that she causes the room to flood. This makes so much more sense if I understand that she is 8 or 9 years old, for otherwise, she comes across as a pathetic person who can’t seem to hold it together.
I always understood Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to be idiots; two people who just tell strange stories and odd anecdotes. But their story of the Walrus and the Carpenter (no, it has nothing to do with Buddha and Jesus for you Kevin Smith fans) creeps me out to no end. When the Walrus goes underwater and leads the poor, unsuspecting oysters out, they leave, dancing, laughing and playing with their little dresses. The whole scene scared me so, having images of raped and murdered little girls floating around my head that I don’t blame Alice for running away from them.
In the scene with the flowers, I love the fact that when Alice goes off key, she smiles as if to say “oops” and then goes right along with the rest of the song. It’s so natural for a person who does that to run away and hide in a corner, but she totally takes it in stride. She’s confident and is okay being silly, at that moment. Why the flowers seem to have such a big problem with her being a weed, I’m not sure. Unless it’s the fact that weeds spread and kill flowers, but I think it just has something to do with being different. Yes, all the flowers in the bed are different, but they all come from the same soil. Sort of like a metaphor for people. They run her out of town because they deem her to be dirty, evil. I’ll never understand xenophobia.
The caterpillar has always shocked me in many ways. One, I’ve always assumed the caterpillar to be a girl, even though she calls him sir. He seems to have no control over half of his legs, which is truly interesting and he also smokes from a hookah, something I had never seen in real life until I went away to college. Sweetie mentioned that the whole story is about Alice growing up and, Sweetie says, it is very obvious when the caterpillar asks “whO R U?” and Alice answers with “I’m not all that sure. May I ask whO you are first?” More about Sweetie’s ideas at the end of the post. But back to the caterpillar himself. He seems so intelligent but also extremely arrogant and I’m not sure how to take this. It’s one of the first characters that is not the villain who is arrogant and haughty.
The Cheshire Cat is one of those really odd characters that you can’t quite tell how to place. I had always understood that the Cheshire Cat was the silly and odd cat, but I also had the understanding that the Cheshire Cat represented the devil. Which is a weird thing for a Jew to say, but that’s how I always understood him. I’m not sure why. In any case, the Cat leads Alice to the Queen, who is always misunderstood I think.
The Queen of Hearts is a spitfire, to say the least. I don’t see her as the villain, just as a hot-tempered individual. She is used to getting her way, being the Queen and all, and Alice challenges that. She refuses to sit and take the Queen’s abuse like everyone else and that lands her (and her head) in hot water. Is it bad that I enjoy the way the King is portrayed? He’s sort of the figure head that no one cares about. In a way, I think it’s nice to see a strong headed, powerful woman as the “villain,” as opposed to the ones we’ve seen so far: the evil queen in Snow White, who was about as passive aggressive as you can be – changing her appearance to get what she wanted; Lady Tremain, who was as cold as she was uncaring, but never really barked orders or got out of control. It’s nice to see a woman go after what she wants and not really care who says what about her because she can just off them. I mean, they’re cards, so it’s not like it matters that much. I’d never advocate this in real life, but a cartoon, eh.
I really enjoy how much Alice stands up to the Queen. I mean, she does a pretty damn good job for an 8 or 9 year old girl. She doesn’t break down crying, she doesn’t give in. She fights until she realizes the way out. She’s smart, she’s clever and she’s quick (running from the Queen and all).
Sweetie’s analogy (see, I told you I’d get back to it) is that Alice wants to be a child forever. She doesn’t want to learn her lessons, she doesn’t want to have tea, etc. She wants a nonsensical world of her very own. But when she gets it, she rejects it, realizing that (much like Wendy will next week) it’s time to grow up. When she is in Wonderland, she runs down a path and exclaims, “I hope I’ll be home in time for tea!” and when she does wake up, her sister (I’d always thought it was her baby-sitter) says it’s time for tea. Alice goes, willingly, and decides to grow up.
On one last note, I realized that as a kid, I used to watch Adventures in Wonderland, a live-action Alice in Wonderland TV show on the Disney channel. It was so cool! And now I wonder where those actors have gone to……
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