It is taking me FOREVER to get through posting the books from my class. My life has been so crazy busy. Only two more to go after Alice and I haven't even started reading for pleasure again... I'm so behind on my cross-stitching projects. Yay for old lady crafts.
Written in 1871 by Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass is a winding ride through wacky landscapes with copious characters and fanciful word-play. To be honest, there were a ton of things I just didn't get or understand, but I can imagine kids would have a great time with. Their minds work in a different way than adults.
I'm going to focus more on the adaptations for this post because we watched two different ones in class and were presented with a third during one of my classmates' seminars. First, let's start with the good one, objectively speaking:
Out of the three versions, the 1951 Disney animated feature was by far the best. Although it has its flaws, it was the most widely accepted as a 'proper' and successful adaptation by the class. Even with the added songs, typical of most, if not all, animated Disney films, it was the best at adapting the illustrations into the film medium and using the word-play throughout the film in unique ways. The best scene of the adapted word-play being the one in which Alice meets the caterpillar.
However, I did mention it has flaws. It mashed together parts of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and parts of Through the Looking Glass. This mashing didn't take away from the film, but if you'd read the stories prior to the film, it is noticeable. They also added in some scenes with Alice getting lost in the forest that are not in the book, which I didn't quite understand because there was already so much wacky material to draw from.
Regardless, Disney's Alice came on on top. The bad one is obviously the 2010 live-action Disney film starring Johnny Depp.
More of sequel than an adaptation of the original, the 2010 version sees Alice 'returning' to Underland to help the Mad Hatter and friends fulfill a prophecy about slaying the Jabberwocky. Alice is a backseat character to the Mad Hatter instead of our protagonist. My classmates had a lot to say about the lack of feminism in this film as it appears that Depp's star power was put the forefront of the film.
In regards to the actual depiction of Underland, which is actually Wonderland in this version, things get a little out of control. Despite the live-action, almost everything is CGI or VFX. It is so magical and fantastical that it takes you out of the film because there is just TOO MUCH going on. At least with the animated feature it was still wacky but everything felt cohesive.
Where this movie really fails is right at the end with the absolutely unnecessary dance number. It is uncomfortable to watch. This leads into the truly terrifying version that none of us in the class saw coming.
This poster doesn't even give you a glimpse in the nightmare fuel that is this film. With a live-action little girl and all other characters being portrayed by stop-motion animated taxidermy animals and dolls, this film is so... messed up. I don't know what other words to use.
The Svankmajer film from 1988 is described as 'dark fantasy' according to its Wikipedia entry. It is an Alice adaptation in the sense that everything is there, it just isn't the visual pleasing type that we're used to. It is more uncanny than fantastical, and that is what makes the audience uncomfortable. I think someone in class described it as an 'art house film' meant to subvert expectations.
The strangest thing about this adaptation was the sound and sound editing. Everything was very crisp and sharp, and it made for an unsettling experience. All the scenes were also inter-cut with close ups of Alice's mouth as she sort of narrated what the creatures were saying, almost like everything was coming from her, but not. I cannot even begin to describe what watching parts of this film was like.
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| Illustration by Sir John Tenniel (1865) |
Overall, the Alice adaptations have their ups and downs, but the 1951 Disney version seems to be the quintessential version. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been adapted multiple times for film and television and numerous editions of the book have been published. It is unlikely that another version of an Alice adaptation won't surface in the future. The story, characters and fantastical imagery leave countless options for further adaptation. Whether those adaptations decide to go the route of the fantastical, silly and semi-pleasing imagery that is commonly associated with Alice or the dark and uncanny route like Svankmajer, only time will tell.
Before I hang up my hat on the Alice adaptations, I guess I should endeavor to watch the live-action Disney sequel Through the Looking Glass that came out in 2016. The IMDB synopsis reads: "Alice returns to the whimsical world of Wonderland and travels back in time to help the Mad Hatter." I can only imagine what that will actually entail in regards to the story being close to or far from the book version of Through the Looking Glass. I'm banking on it not being like the book version at all. I have very little expectation after the 2010 adaptation.
I really should try and remain more open-minded...
But nope. I can't.
Not on this one.
