Alice in Wonderland. It is a tale we have all heard or definitely seen.
It has been recreated over and over again in many different film adaptations, TV adaptations, even comic books. In fact it has been recreated over 40 times in these different forms. The most famous adaptation and most highly prolific is the original animation of Disney's Alice in Wonderland in 1951.
All these adaptations are derived from the stories of Lewis Carroll. The different adaptations have been created from his short stories: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There.
But none of these can encompass the true insanity and creativity of these stories.
"In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again."
It begins with the young child Alice, who expresses that she sees no point in reading a book without any pictures. She becomes intrigued at the appearance of a rabbit in a waistcoat with a pocketwatch. The fact that the rabbit can speak as well doesn't even seem to phase her and as she follows him and shows no reluctance into falling down the rabbit hole to discover where he is going.
From there she is introduced to a strange and chaotic world where logic is futile and nonsense prevails. In fact this world called Wonderland seems to thrive off these manic characters who often treat Alice rudely because she attempts to find logic in what is happening around her. Nothing and no one has a purpose but rather they spend their time doing ridiculous things such as running around in circles or having a tea party that will never end, a cheshire cat who talks in riddles, or being a hot tempered queen who decides every second to cut off someone's head.
"But I don't want to go among mad people" Alice remarked.
"Oh you can't help that" said the cat "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad"
"How do you know i'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be" said the cat "or you wouldn't have come here"
In The Looking Glass, Alice, years later, considers what it would be like if she were to live on the other side of a mirrors reflection. She is transported to the other side and realizes quite quickly that the whole world is set up like a chess board. She again is lost in the insanity of the world with white vs red and she becomes a pawn in the game. As she moves across the board with the desire to herself become queen she comes across a multitude of characters including the queens and kings of each side, the fat twins Tweedle dee and Tweedle dum, the lion and the unicorn, and many other that tell her stories of their history or long poems for explanations for why they continue to live nonsensically. After she reaches her destination she becomes a queen but is offended by the days events of nonsense that she blames on the red queens advice to her in the beginning of the story. She then awakes and realizes she had been asleep the entire time.
It is not just the characters and their actions that are creatively full of nonsense, but the world of Wonderland itself. With food and drinks that alter the body (she becomes crazy large when eating something or sometimes ridiculously small from drinking a potion, often unable to sustain her original size). Yet what I always find so amusing is how rude and condescending many of the characters are. They often are explaining to Alice how she is ridiculous or funny looking, because to them she is the outsider, and are often treating her like she is the illogical one. And Alice herself only seems to ever notice that their actions are odd, not that many of them are animals or flowers and are talking to her.
"You use to be much more "muchier". You've lost your muchness."
This is really what makes it such a great story. Only someone open to creativity can really appreciate a world like this so openly and without question. And we would actually be dying to go their ourselves. It is merely a fantasy but Carroll's imagination paints a very vivid, enticing and excitingly chaotic place for us to travel to.
Alice herself is inquisitive, curious and courageous. She dives right into the world without a second guess as to the consequences. She approaches this strange place with no fear and embraces it for what it is: a mad world that she would have to be mad to dream up. And lets face it, we could all use a little madness in our lives.
STAY TUNED FOR: Beauty and The Beast
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