Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland Review

After watching Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, I thought I should take my inspiration and channel it into this review. While oriented more towards a depiction of the events within Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with only a spattering of connections to Through the Looking Glass and the poem “Jabberwocky”, it still has a great deal to offer for both children and adults. As a child, it brings amusement at the songs interspersed and the colorful and bizarre characters, especially the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea Party participants. But as an adult who may either have never heard of Lewis Carroll or has read him in depth, there is much literary appreciation in the references to Carroll’s lyrics, prose and general nonsensical logic and sayings. For a film that has long since crossed the threshold into antiquity, it still holds value for comparison to the 2010 reimagining of the Carroll canon into the cinema, though for the purposes of time and expression, I will keep this concise and pointedly in the direction of the creation of Walt Disney himself.

The plot, as already mentioned, follows very closely to the events in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The involvement of Alice’s sister seems absent, though the woman teaching her history may be a much older sister. And Dinah the cat is present, though her involvement, much like in the text, is short and almost unimportant. She does have the amusing qualities of animals in Disney that have not yet stepped into anthropomorphism and yet manifest reactions that suggest they understand us nonetheless. After one of many songs, a theme present in many Disney films even today, Alice sees the eponymous White Rabbit, following him into a hole. She then discovers the bottle saying “Drink Me”, shrinking to 3 inches tall, being directed by the talking doorknob that showed her said bottle to find the key. Unable to reach it, she eats a small cookie with “Eat Me” written on it from a box magically appearing like the key before. She then grows to 20 feet tall and after crying a flood of tears, she drinks from the bottle again, being washed away in the tides through the doorknob’s mouth. Absent from the series of events in the book is the conversation with a mouse about her cat, which predictably upsets the rodent. But continuing on, Alice sees other animals (mostly birds) swimming or boating their way through the sea of tears and eventually attempting to dry themselves off in an endless race in a circle, the Caucus Race from the novel. She then chases after the Rabbit again and runs into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, from Through the Looking Glass, who, along with teaching her logic and manners, tell her the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter, animated accordingly with a variety of additions and changes to the poem. She manages to sneak away as they recite “Old Father William” and stumbles into the White Rabbit again, who instructs her to get his gloves, a reference to a similar account in the novel where Alice is instructed to get the Duchess’s gloves, a character wholly absent from the film. Alice then eats another cookie with “Eat Me” written on it, growing to 20 feet again inside the house. The Rabbit enlists the help of the Dodo seen guiding the Caucus Race from before and he suggests to burn the house down after failing to smoke Alice out with the help of Bill the Lizard. Eventually, Alice snatches a carrot from the Rabbit’s garden which, after being consumed, shrinks her back to 3 inches tall. She then tries to find the rabbit, running into talking flowers singing songs, another reference to Through the Looking Glass. After the song, they realize she is a “common weed” and shoo her away, contrary to what the rose, the only nice flower in the bunch, would have wanted. Eventually she meets the blue caterpillar, with his smoking habits, who eventually helps her after much sputtering about with his hookah and Alice’s attempt to question him. He covers himself in smoke and flies away as a butterfly, giving her advice to eat the mushroom on one side or another to change her size. She grows to 20 feet again and scares a panicking bird who thinks she is a serpent and eventually returns to 3 inches with the other side. After licking the growing mushroom she is returned to normal size. After meeting the Cheshire Cat, voiced by, to my memory, the same actor as Kaa from The Jungle Book, she is guided to the Mad Tea Party, having many inane conversations with the Mad Hatter, March Hare and the sleepy Dormouse (conforming to the original text now, it seems). She leaves after the White Rabbit is thrown out after an incident with his watch and becomes quite lost and frustrated with all the nonsensical creatures in the forest. She then becomes sad and weepy at the thought of never getting home as the creatures all disappear. The Cheshire Cat then directs her through a tree to the Queen of Hearts. She meets a trio of card soldiers painting the roses red for the Queen who hates white roses for some reason. After the Queen’s entrance, she has the cards in question executed off screen and Alice befriends her, the Queen inviting her to play croquet. The Cheshire Cat eventually plays a prank on the Queen and Alice is put on trial before the presumed execution that is waiting for her. The trial progresses as the farce that it is and Alice eats the remnants of the mushrooms, finally having her say about what she really thinks of the Queen before returning to normal size. She then flees from all the manner of characters giving chase as the setting continues to change before her eyes. After the chase concludes in an odd flash of colors, she awakens to find she was dreaming almost the entirety of the story. And her sister, or teacher or whatnot, excuses her laziness and directs her for teatime as the film ends.

Alice is probably the only important character to consider, but there are a few others that bear reflection on. Alice’s initial mannerisms are reflective of the rest of the film’s complete irrationality. As she stipulates about her imaginary world she’s creating, “Whatever something is, it isn’t and contrariwise whatever it isn’t, it is,” no doubt around the point where she starts falling asleep. Her cat, Dinah, is almost too cute with a little ribbon around its neck and its interactions with Alice making it almost human in its level of understanding. And its behavior with flowers would probably make any person, regardless of feelings towards real cats, smile slightly at its antics. Alice’s change as she enters Wonderland is not surprising since it’s a reversal of her external behavior, considering logic and reasoning out things as she communicates with the many bizarre denizens of her mental creation. And she becomes quite morose at realizing she misses home after many misadventures in searching for the White Rabbit. And in the end, the whole internal psychological dynamics are forgotten since we know that she is going to be fine, since she still lets her imagination take over and maintain the childishness that got her into the situation to begin with. The White Rabbit is a decidedly minor character, though he is similar to Alice in her dreams, being quite reasoned and rational about things, only panicking when the obvious shock appears in front of him like a 20 foot tall girl or when someone like the Dodo suggests they burn the house down to get rid of it. But his role is decidedly minor throughout, overshadowed by the Queen of Hearts who serves as the main antagonist. She is temperamental and otherwise a despotic tyrant who changes her whim and feelings at the drop of a hat and generally towers over her husband, literally and figuratively, in ruling whatever kingdom they possess. She isn’t a direct parallel to Alice’s instructor/sister, since their temperaments are decidedly opposite, but Alice could be making a caricature of the authority her sister has over her for the sake of the dream’s absurdity. The Cheshire Cat’s involvement is probably short in terms of screen time, maybe 15-20 minutes at the most, but he does serve as a twisted projection of her memories and experience with Dinah the cat. He guides her through Wonderland the best a cat can and even aids in confronting the Queen of Hearts, which Dinah does in the real world with the flower crown made by Alice.

There are hardly any themes to speak of except the general absurdities associated with Lewis Carroll’s works, twists of logic, aesthetic expectations and the general idea that the entire thing is a psychotropic drug or head trauma induced hallucination. It’s Disney, so you can’t expect bad animation quality in the slightest, so no doubt you’ll enjoy that as well. The Cheshire Cat, always my favorite Carroll character, is presented in a surreal and mindbending fashion that makes any adaptation of Carroll’s works worth watching at any age. Similarly with other violations of general norms of the real world, the animation portrays it in a lighthearted and yet abrupt fashion that gives you the Wonderland experience all over again in action.

All in all, this is more a reflection than a review, since you can’t help but recommend for aspiring cinematographers, animators and the like to watch Disney’s classics, ranging from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella to Bambi and Lady and the Tramp; all made within the 30s-50s period. But even if you have kids in the 2020s, I would highly encourage you to introduce your children to this piece of adaptation that has only been matched by the company’s recent collaboration with Tim Burton. It’s a tad heavy on songs, but they’re probably the best method to introduce young minds to poetry without putting them to sleeps, so it’s tolerable. A solid 5 and another solid 100% (seems like most of my film reviews now are 100%, but I’m reviewing select films to begin with, aren’t I?). Until next time, Namaste and aloha.

Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland Review

After watching Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, I thought I should take my inspiration and channel it into this review. While oriented more towards a depiction of the events within Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with only a spattering of connections to Through the Looking Glass and the poem “Jabberwocky”, it still has a great deal to offer for both children and adults. As a child, it brings amusement at the songs interspersed and the colorful and bizarre characters, especially the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea Party participants. But as an adult who may either have never heard of Lewis Carroll or has read him in depth, there is much literary appreciation in the references to Carroll’s lyrics, prose and general nonsensical logic and sayings. For a film that has long since crossed the threshold into antiquity, it still holds value for comparison to the 2010 reimagining of the Carroll canon into the cinema, though for the purposes of time and expression, I will keep this concise and pointedly in the direction of the creation of Walt Disney himself.

The plot, as already mentioned, follows very closely to the events in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The involvement of Alice’s sister seems absent, though the woman teaching her history may be a much older sister. And Dinah the cat is present, though her involvement, much like in the text, is short and almost unimportant. She does have the amusing qualities of animals in Disney that have not yet stepped into anthropomorphism and yet manifest reactions that suggest they understand us nonetheless. After one of many songs, a theme present in many Disney films even today, Alice sees the eponymous White Rabbit, following him into a hole. She then discovers the bottle saying “Drink Me”, shrinking to 3 inches tall, being directed by the talking doorknob that showed her said bottle to find the key. Unable to reach it, she eats a small cookie with “Eat Me” written on it from a box magically appearing like the key before. She then grows to 20 feet tall and after crying a flood of tears, she drinks from the bottle again, being washed away in the tides through the doorknob’s mouth. Absent from the series of events in the book is the conversation with a mouse about her cat, which predictably upsets the rodent. But continuing on, Alice sees other animals (mostly birds) swimming or boating their way through the sea of tears and eventually attempting to dry themselves off in an endless race in a circle, the Caucus Race from the novel. She then chases after the Rabbit again and runs into Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, from Through the Looking Glass, who, along with teaching her logic and manners, tell her the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter, animated accordingly with a variety of additions and changes to the poem. She manages to sneak away as they recite “Old Father William” and stumbles into the White Rabbit again, who instructs her to get his gloves, a reference to a similar account in the novel where Alice is instructed to get the Duchess’s gloves, a character wholly absent from the film. Alice then eats another cookie with “Eat Me” written on it, growing to 20 feet again inside the house. The Rabbit enlists the help of the Dodo seen guiding the Caucus Race from before and he suggests to burn the house down after failing to smoke Alice out with the help of Bill the Lizard. Eventually, Alice snatches a carrot from the Rabbit’s garden which, after being consumed, shrinks her back to 3 inches tall. She then tries to find the rabbit, running into talking flowers singing songs, another reference to Through the Looking Glass. After the song, they realize she is a “common weed” and shoo her away, contrary to what the rose, the only nice flower in the bunch, would have wanted. Eventually she meets the blue caterpillar, with his smoking habits, who eventually helps her after much sputtering about with his hookah and Alice’s attempt to question him. He covers himself in smoke and flies away as a butterfly, giving her advice to eat the mushroom on one side or another to change her size. She grows to 20 feet again and scares a panicking bird who thinks she is a serpent and eventually returns to 3 inches with the other side. After licking the growing mushroom she is returned to normal size. After meeting the Cheshire Cat, voiced by, to my memory, the same actor as Kaa from The Jungle Book, she is guided to the Mad Tea Party, having many inane conversations with the Mad Hatter, March Hare and the sleepy Dormouse (conforming to the original text now, it seems). She leaves after the White Rabbit is thrown out after an incident with his watch and becomes quite lost and frustrated with all the nonsensical creatures in the forest. She then becomes sad and weepy at the thought of never getting home as the creatures all disappear. The Cheshire Cat then directs her through a tree to the Queen of Hearts. She meets a trio of card soldiers painting the roses red for the Queen who hates white roses for some reason. After the Queen’s entrance, she has the cards in question executed off screen and Alice befriends her, the Queen inviting her to play croquet. The Cheshire Cat eventually plays a prank on the Queen and Alice is put on trial before the presumed execution that is waiting for her. The trial progresses as the farce that it is and Alice eats the remnants of the mushrooms, finally having her say about what she really thinks of the Queen before returning to normal size. She then flees from all the manner of characters giving chase as the setting continues to change before her eyes. After the chase concludes in an odd flash of colors, she awakens to find she was dreaming almost the entirety of the story. And her sister, or teacher or whatnot, excuses her laziness and directs her for teatime as the film ends.

Alice is probably the only important character to consider, but there are a few others that bear reflection on. Alice’s initial mannerisms are reflective of the rest of the film’s complete irrationality. As she stipulates about her imaginary world she’s creating, “Whatever something is, it isn’t and contrariwise whatever it isn’t, it is,” no doubt around the point where she starts falling asleep. Her cat, Dinah, is almost too cute with a little ribbon around its neck and its interactions with Alice making it almost human in its level of understanding. And its behavior with flowers would probably make any person, regardless of feelings towards real cats, smile slightly at its antics. Alice’s change as she enters Wonderland is not surprising since it’s a reversal of her external behavior, considering logic and reasoning out things as she communicates with the many bizarre denizens of her mental creation. And she becomes quite morose at realizing she misses home after many misadventures in searching for the White Rabbit. And in the end, the whole internal psychological dynamics are forgotten since we know that she is going to be fine, since she still lets her imagination take over and maintain the childishness that got her into the situation to begin with. The White Rabbit is a decidedly minor character, though he is similar to Alice in her dreams, being quite reasoned and rational about things, only panicking when the obvious shock appears in front of him like a 20 foot tall girl or when someone like the Dodo suggests they burn the house down to get rid of it. But his role is decidedly minor throughout, overshadowed by the Queen of Hearts who serves as the main antagonist. She is temperamental and otherwise a despotic tyrant who changes her whim and feelings at the drop of a hat and generally towers over her husband, literally and figuratively, in ruling whatever kingdom they possess. She isn’t a direct parallel to Alice’s instructor/sister, since their temperaments are decidedly opposite, but Alice could be making a caricature of the authority her sister has over her for the sake of the dream’s absurdity. The Cheshire Cat’s involvement is probably short in terms of screen time, maybe 15-20 minutes at the most, but he does serve as a twisted projection of her memories and experience with Dinah the cat. He guides her through Wonderland the best a cat can and even aids in confronting the Queen of Hearts, which Dinah does in the real world with the flower crown made by Alice.

There are hardly any themes to speak of except the general absurdities associated with Lewis Carroll’s works, twists of logic, aesthetic expectations and the general idea that the entire thing is a psychotropic drug or head trauma induced hallucination. It’s Disney, so you can’t expect bad animation quality in the slightest, so no doubt you’ll enjoy that as well. The Cheshire Cat, always my favorite Carroll character, is presented in a surreal and mindbending fashion that makes any adaptation of Carroll’s works worth watching at any age. Similarly with other violations of general norms of the real world, the animation portrays it in a lighthearted and yet abrupt fashion that gives you the Wonderland experience all over again in action.

All in all, this is more a reflection than a review, since you can’t help but recommend for aspiring cinematographers, animators and the like to watch Disney’s classics, ranging from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella to Bambi and Lady and the Tramp; all made within the 30s-50s period. But even if you have kids in the 2020s, I would highly encourage you to introduce your children to this piece of adaptation that has only been matched by the company’s recent collaboration with Tim Burton. It’s a tad heavy on songs, but they’re probably the best method to introduce young minds to poetry without putting them to sleeps, so it’s tolerable. A solid 5 and another solid 100% (seems like most of my film reviews now are 100%, but I’m reviewing select films to begin with, aren’t I?). Until next time, Namaste and aloha.

Alice in Wonderland 2010 Review

I recently saw Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in 3D (though I probably would’ve loved it just as much with no silly glasses involved), and I have to say it has both piqued my interest in Lewis Carroll’s works and given a new reflection on the world he created. Not that this is the first adaptation. Disney’s animated version of Alice in Wonderland may be a follow up review to this one and there is also a little known video game called American McGee’s Alice featuring very bizarre and twisted portrayals of characters such as the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter. But onto my review of the recent revival of the classic.

This movie, like many adaptations, blends together characters from both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The involvement of the Red and White Queens and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are both references to Through the Looking Glass while the references to the White Rabbit, the Card Soldiers, the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar and the Mad Tea Party characters are links to Adventures in Wonderland. And the references to the Jabberwocky, Vorpal Sword, Jubjub Bird and the Bandersnatch are all from the poem "Jabberwocky" by Carroll. But enough Carroll fandom explanation for the moment.

The plot involves Alice as a child having nightmares about associated things in a yet unnamed Wonderland, such as a blue caterpillar and talking flowers and the rabbit in a waistcoat. And her father comforts her saying that even though she may be insane, the best people always are. This connects as well with a quote from Mr. Kingsley that “In order to achieve the impossible, you must believe it is possible,” This theme is used since the entire film is based in literary nonsense to begin with. But it does make one reconsider how one judges so called insane people as still holding some insight about the world around us. However much a plot may exist, many things are meant to not make sense, such as the Mad Hatter’s persistent question “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” Alice goes to a party 13 years later (that’s what it says) with her mother where it is revealed she is to be engaged to a Lord Hamish Ascot. She refuses (not in so many words) and leaves, following the white rabbit she has been seeing since she arrived at the party. From there she falls into the expected hole and events pass which remind one of the Disney adaptation. Eventually she meets some of the Wonderland characters we know so well, such as the Dodo, the Dormouse, Tweedle Dee and Dum and the White Rabbit himself. They guide her to speak to the blue caterpillar smoking a hookah or some such smoking object and he confuses them, making her think she’s the “wrong Alice”. They speak of her slaying the Jabberwocky in the not so distant future with the Vorpal Sword and she is not exactly pleased at this news. But the forces of the Red Queen suddenly attack and Alice barely manages to escape from the Bandersnatch. She meets the Cheshire Cat who introduces her to the Mad Hatter and March Hare, and reacquaints us with the Dormouse, much more jovial and happy than the narcoleptic version from Disney. Eventually Alice has to be hidden away again from the Knave of Hearts and eventually, through a somewhat complex series of events, goes to the Red Queen’s castle and befriends the Red Queen and saves the Hatter from being killed. After more events, primarily searching for the fabled Vorpal Sword that she will use, Alice makes friends with the Bandersnatch (I won’t spoil how) she runs away with the sword and all her animal friends and meets the White Queen. After more mixing of strange potions, she talks to Absolem the caterpillar again and finds out that her nightmares were actually a bigger revelation about her connection to Underland/Wonderland (It’s confusing me too). She then takes on the role of the White Queen’s champion and after a drawn out battle that also involves the Red and White Queen’s card and chess themed armies fighting each other, slays the Jabberwocky’s (in an ironic fashion related to a certain character from Adventures in Wonderland. Afterwards she returns to real life, not knowing whether it was a dream or not, rejects the proposal and becomes a successful businesswoman (I won’t spoil exactly what kind of business though, you’ll find that out yourself). And so without spoiling much, I’ve explained the narrative and script, so now I’ll get into characters, at least the 4 most important.

Alice is our main protagonist, played by Mia Wasikowska (at least her adult self is). She’s hardly a conformist and through the progress of the film changes from a reluctant but strong willed maiden to a confident and independent minded woman. She is supplanted by many other characters, such as the Dormouse (a female one) who uses a tiny pin to stab people in the eyes. There’s also Tweedle Dee and Dum, who look like kids with birth defects gone wrong and exhibit so much stupidity they’re used as entertainment by the Red Queen when she’s bored. And of course the Cheshire Cat, who’s very blue and green this time around as opposed to the purple and pink from Disney’s animated adaptation. His voice has been changed as well to a deeper tone which still manages to be depicted as a mysterious and enigmatic type of figure. Absolem the Caterpillar, voiced by Alan Rickman, is a subtly involved character who reveals a plot point I kept as secret as I could in the final third of the film. The Mad Hatter, performed by Johnny Depp, is equally important in his own fashion of motivating Alice to change as well as being the most insane character in the entire series next to his companions the March Hare, a spastic neurotic jittery thing that throws all manner of things around and the Cheshire Cat, who is a surprising ally at times to the orange haired maker of hats. He manifests a bit of bipolar personality disorder when reciting the Jabberwocky poem in a deeper and more Welsh accent of sorts, not to mention with other issues he has in relation to Alice and the White Queen. Speaking of which, the Red and White Queens are both important, though the Red Queen, played by Helena Bonham Carter, serves as the obvious primary antagonist. Her big head seems odd, but this is a world where people pour tea through broken cups and speak in garbled logic to try to make some Zen-like point, so physical oddities like hers are the least of my concerns. She treats animals like crap and the only thing making her a reference to the Queen of Hearts is her constant use of the phrase “Off with their head!” The White Queen, Anne Hathaway’s character, is a latecomer in the film, so her role is subdued by her helping out Alice, not to mention she’s a pacifist who won’t hurt a fly (literally), so all in all, she’s practically neutral in the whole conflict. The Red Queen’s sidekick the Knave of Hearts, depicted by Crispin Glover, also from Through the Looking Glass, is her errand boy, searching for Alice, seeking out the Vorpal Sword and being otherwise in control of everything that needs to be done at the Queen’s orders. He seems to have some sort of fetish for her large head, but then kind of turns on that in the conclusion (no surprise there). Other characters such as the Dodo and the White Rabbit are much more incidental characters, but the Jabberwocky doesn’t really appear much and I’d say he’s still quite cool for however brief his on screen appearance was.

There are only two really important themes that are interconnected in how the movie plays out. The first is quite obvious in the first 10 minutes of the film, with Alice being pressured to conform and her refusal or avoidance of the issue. Throughout the film she insists that she is the arbiter of her own path and this actually works out in her favor progressively, even with the supposedly predestined act of her slaying the Jabberwocky with the Vorpal Sword and all. And in time the idea becomes very easy to understand; one should not live life to please others, but should forge one’s own path and makes choices because you choose to, not because you’re pressured into them. Alice even forgets who she is in relation to Wonderland because of the peer pressure manifest by everyone around her in the real world, so it follows reason that identity is innately understood in the film to be an individual thing instead of a group collision that creates some monstrous figure of hypocrisy. This links indirectly with the other theme that considers both the obvious surrealism that comes with the territory of what may very well be a head trauma induced hallucination, but which also leaves Alice a very changed person. And as her father says, the best people are insane in some way or another, be that in the eyes of popular culture or just insane in that they have occasional visions of anthropomorphic animals and talking flowers and nonsensical creatures like the Jabberwocky. But all in all, the notion that reality and fantasy tread a fine line comes out splendidly in the film’s portrayal, whether you watch it in 3D or not. Effects wise, I can sum it up by saying that either way (2D or 3D) the environment absorbs you in and the characters are of the ilk of computer animation that borders on realism, so that you don’t even care that an animal is talking or that the Red Queen’s head is three times larger than necessary or any of the other “6 impossible things believed before breakfast”, since the movie suspends your disbelief quite early on to begin with.

I’m not really going to complain about continuity with canon, since in order to make a creative and genuinely interesting film in relation to Carroll’s novels, you have to take a lot of liberties and basically mishmash his ideas together. American McGee’s Alice did something quite similar, and frankly it had even more difficulty, since it had to create a gameplay system and weapons, enemies, bosses and a story that’s probably longer than either adaptation by Disney. I didn’t even realize there was a pornographic adaptation of this in the 70s, but heck, I wasn’t born then and I’m not a connoisseur of such things to begin with. If I had to rate this, I would definitely grant it a 5 and probably a 100% recommendation, regardless, since you’d practically have to be a robot to not appreciate the general appeal of Wonderland and associated figures and tropes as well as many things you may have already seen in pop culture even without exposure to Alice in Wonderland. So here’s hoping I will start a review of the 1951 version by the end of the week. Until next time, Namaste and aloha.

Alice in Wonderland 2010 Review

I recently saw Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in 3D (though I probably would’ve loved it just as much with no silly glasses involved), and I have to say it has both piqued my interest in Lewis Carroll’s works and given a new reflection on the world he created. Not that this is the first adaptation. Disney’s animated version of Alice in Wonderland may be a follow up review to this one and there is also a little known video game called American McGee’s Alice featuring very bizarre and twisted portrayals of characters such as the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter. But onto my review of the recent revival of the classic.

This movie, like many adaptations, blends together characters from both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The involvement of the Red and White Queens and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are both references to Through the Looking Glass while the references to the White Rabbit, the Card Soldiers, the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar and the Mad Tea Party characters are links to Adventures in Wonderland. And the references to the Jabberwocky, Vorpal Sword, Jubjub Bird and the Bandersnatch are all from the poem "Jabberwocky" by Carroll. But enough Carroll fandom explanation for the moment.

The plot involves Alice as a child having nightmares about associated things in a yet unnamed Wonderland, such as a blue caterpillar and talking flowers and the rabbit in a waistcoat. And her father comforts her saying that even though she may be insane, the best people always are. This connects as well with a quote from Mr. Kingsley that “In order to achieve the impossible, you must believe it is possible,” This theme is used since the entire film is based in literary nonsense to begin with. But it does make one reconsider how one judges so called insane people as still holding some insight about the world around us. However much a plot may exist, many things are meant to not make sense, such as the Mad Hatter’s persistent question “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” Alice goes to a party 13 years later (that’s what it says) with her mother where it is revealed she is to be engaged to a Lord Hamish Ascot. She refuses (not in so many words) and leaves, following the white rabbit she has been seeing since she arrived at the party. From there she falls into the expected hole and events pass which remind one of the Disney adaptation. Eventually she meets some of the Wonderland characters we know so well, such as the Dodo, the Dormouse, Tweedle Dee and Dum and the White Rabbit himself. They guide her to speak to the blue caterpillar smoking a hookah or some such smoking object and he confuses them, making her think she’s the “wrong Alice”. They speak of her slaying the Jabberwocky in the not so distant future with the Vorpal Sword and she is not exactly pleased at this news. But the forces of the Red Queen suddenly attack and Alice barely manages to escape from the Bandersnatch. She meets the Cheshire Cat who introduces her to the Mad Hatter and March Hare, and reacquaints us with the Dormouse, much more jovial and happy than the narcoleptic version from Disney. Eventually Alice has to be hidden away again from the Knave of Hearts and eventually, through a somewhat complex series of events, goes to the Red Queen’s castle and befriends the Red Queen and saves the Hatter from being killed. After more events, primarily searching for the fabled Vorpal Sword that she will use, Alice makes friends with the Bandersnatch (I won’t spoil how) she runs away with the sword and all her animal friends and meets the White Queen. After more mixing of strange potions, she talks to Absolem the caterpillar again and finds out that her nightmares were actually a bigger revelation about her connection to Underland/Wonderland (It’s confusing me too). She then takes on the role of the White Queen’s champion and after a drawn out battle that also involves the Red and White Queen’s card and chess themed armies fighting each other, slays the Jabberwocky’s (in an ironic fashion related to a certain character from Adventures in Wonderland. Afterwards she returns to real life, not knowing whether it was a dream or not, rejects the proposal and becomes a successful businesswoman (I won’t spoil exactly what kind of business though, you’ll find that out yourself). And so without spoiling much, I’ve explained the narrative and script, so now I’ll get into characters, at least the 4 most important.

Alice is our main protagonist, played by Mia Wasikowska (at least her adult self is). She’s hardly a conformist and through the progress of the film changes from a reluctant but strong willed maiden to a confident and independent minded woman. She is supplanted by many other characters, such as the Dormouse (a female one) who uses a tiny pin to stab people in the eyes. There’s also Tweedle Dee and Dum, who look like kids with birth defects gone wrong and exhibit so much stupidity they’re used as entertainment by the Red Queen when she’s bored. And of course the Cheshire Cat, who’s very blue and green this time around as opposed to the purple and pink from Disney’s animated adaptation. His voice has been changed as well to a deeper tone which still manages to be depicted as a mysterious and enigmatic type of figure. Absolem the Caterpillar, voiced by Alan Rickman, is a subtly involved character who reveals a plot point I kept as secret as I could in the final third of the film. The Mad Hatter, performed by Johnny Depp, is equally important in his own fashion of motivating Alice to change as well as being the most insane character in the entire series next to his companions the March Hare, a spastic neurotic jittery thing that throws all manner of things around and the Cheshire Cat, who is a surprising ally at times to the orange haired maker of hats. He manifests a bit of bipolar personality disorder when reciting the Jabberwocky poem in a deeper and more Welsh accent of sorts, not to mention with other issues he has in relation to Alice and the White Queen. Speaking of which, the Red and White Queens are both important, though the Red Queen, played by Helena Bonham Carter, serves as the obvious primary antagonist. Her big head seems odd, but this is a world where people pour tea through broken cups and speak in garbled logic to try to make some Zen-like point, so physical oddities like hers are the least of my concerns. She treats animals like crap and the only thing making her a reference to the Queen of Hearts is her constant use of the phrase “Off with their head!” The White Queen, Anne Hathaway’s character, is a latecomer in the film, so her role is subdued by her helping out Alice, not to mention she’s a pacifist who won’t hurt a fly (literally), so all in all, she’s practically neutral in the whole conflict. The Red Queen’s sidekick the Knave of Hearts, depicted by Crispin Glover, also from Through the Looking Glass, is her errand boy, searching for Alice, seeking out the Vorpal Sword and being otherwise in control of everything that needs to be done at the Queen’s orders. He seems to have some sort of fetish for her large head, but then kind of turns on that in the conclusion (no surprise there). Other characters such as the Dodo and the White Rabbit are much more incidental characters, but the Jabberwocky doesn’t really appear much and I’d say he’s still quite cool for however brief his on screen appearance was.

There are only two really important themes that are interconnected in how the movie plays out. The first is quite obvious in the first 10 minutes of the film, with Alice being pressured to conform and her refusal or avoidance of the issue. Throughout the film she insists that she is the arbiter of her own path and this actually works out in her favor progressively, even with the supposedly predestined act of her slaying the Jabberwocky with the Vorpal Sword and all. And in time the idea becomes very easy to understand; one should not live life to please others, but should forge one’s own path and makes choices because you choose to, not because you’re pressured into them. Alice even forgets who she is in relation to Wonderland because of the peer pressure manifest by everyone around her in the real world, so it follows reason that identity is innately understood in the film to be an individual thing instead of a group collision that creates some monstrous figure of hypocrisy. This links indirectly with the other theme that considers both the obvious surrealism that comes with the territory of what may very well be a head trauma induced hallucination, but which also leaves Alice a very changed person. And as her father says, the best people are insane in some way or another, be that in the eyes of popular culture or just insane in that they have occasional visions of anthropomorphic animals and talking flowers and nonsensical creatures like the Jabberwocky. But all in all, the notion that reality and fantasy tread a fine line comes out splendidly in the film’s portrayal, whether you watch it in 3D or not. Effects wise, I can sum it up by saying that either way (2D or 3D) the environment absorbs you in and the characters are of the ilk of computer animation that borders on realism, so that you don’t even care that an animal is talking or that the Red Queen’s head is three times larger than necessary or any of the other “6 impossible things believed before breakfast”, since the movie suspends your disbelief quite early on to begin with.

I’m not really going to complain about continuity with canon, since in order to make a creative and genuinely interesting film in relation to Carroll’s novels, you have to take a lot of liberties and basically mishmash his ideas together. American McGee’s Alice did something quite similar, and frankly it had even more difficulty, since it had to create a gameplay system and weapons, enemies, bosses and a story that’s probably longer than either adaptation by Disney. I didn’t even realize there was a pornographic adaptation of this in the 70s, but heck, I wasn’t born then and I’m not a connoisseur of such things to begin with. If I had to rate this, I would definitely grant it a 5 and probably a 100% recommendation, regardless, since you’d practically have to be a robot to not appreciate the general appeal of Wonderland and associated figures and tropes as well as many things you may have already seen in pop culture even without exposure to Alice in Wonderland. So here’s hoping I will start a review of the 1951 version by the end of the week. Until next time, Namaste and aloha.

Batman: Gotham Knight Review Pt 2

Disclaimer (I am not a comic otaku, but I will try my best to do research into as much Batman related lore as I can, since Batman is by far my favorite DC character)

In Darkness Dwells (Madhouse)
This begins with an investigation by Gotham P.D. of a group hallucination in a church, and the abduction of the Cardinal into the crypts and sewers associated with it. Batman gets involved as they track the criminal and gives Gordon a way to communicate with him while he’s tracking the abductor. But it’s protected by quantum cryptology so they can’t trace him it seems (Bouncing off satellites and whatnot). Batman’s already targeted the main villain, Scarecrow, the psychologist obsessed with fear. And the backstory of Killer Croc, the other villain involved, is changed somewhat, though he still has the skin condition and such. The lore about him being flushed down the toilet by his mom for being so ugly is thrown around once. But now he is noted as being part of an experiment by Scarecrow of fear aversion therapy while in Arkham. And Killer Croc’s phobia is identical to Scarecrow’s: bats. Eventually Batman encounters Killer Croc, getting bit in the shoulder in the process, saying he works through such pain (which will connect to the next episode) and eventually throwing what appears to be a grenade in his mouth, scaring him off. The Scarecrow’s fear toxin was in Killer Croc, so now Batman is seeing things, but he gets over it as he moves through the sewers. Eventually he traces Scarecrow to a place near where they used to store corpses, now flowing with methane gas. The Scarecrow has a “cult” of escaped Arkham inmates and is threatening to kill the Cardinal for helping the weak, since he wants to drive them down into insanity very likely. This Scarecrow’s look is very cool, probably even cooler than the version from Batman: The Animated Series. Batman manages to escape with the Cardinal by exploding methane above. He has a moment where he Matrix-style dodges a scythe thrown by Scarecrow and as they’re escaping out a pipe, they almost get cut up by a ship propeller. Batman leaves the Cardinal with the police and he leaves, not accepting their help, saying, “Maybe next time” as he runs away into the shadows again, to nurse what is probably still a bad wound from a 7 foot mutant with teeth sharpened to nails. This one introduces the most Batman villains, but I shouldn’t complain overall when the real message is Batman in a sort of day to day thing, looking deeper into his psyche, not unlike the new Batman film series.





Working Through Pain (Studio 4ºC)
The episode begins with Batman stumbling through the sewers, deeply wounded. He manages to cauterize the wound, making you see the theme of the obviously titled work. The scene then shifts to India (as evidenced by the cows sitting around and people in sarongs by the river), Bruce watching a mongoose and cobra fight it out. He is notified by an informant that he has been rejected by the fakirs (Indian mystics, essentially) for training. The training is still unrevealed, but the fakirs apparently knew he was not seeking enlightenment or truth, and was dishonest with them, which they were able to see through somehow. The informant suggests one more source, a mysterious woman living outside the main village. It is revealed that Bruce is looking for a way to deal with his pain. The woman, called Cassandra, clarifies later that there are two types of pain: exterior and interior, Bruce’s pain manifesting as both in his line of work. The line that pain always scars is interesting and relevant to Batman’s own past as Cassandra stands on hot coals. The theme becomes Bruce learning from her that you don’t make pain work for you, you work through the pain. Cassandra reveals that she was outcast because she deceived the fakirs into thinking she was a boy. But they apparently knew that already and tried to mess with her. But she completed the training and was then revealed to be doing something she shouldn’t, so she was outcast by her village and family (So women can’t do fakir training in India…still sexist a bit I see). They try to indicate Bruce might be romantically involved with Cassandra, which is possible, but not likely, since Bruce seems rarely to get involved with teachers, as opposed to villains or adversaries like Catwoman, Talia al Ghul and Zatanna to my memory. Eventually Bruce tries to defend Cassandra from what appear to be just teen boys threatening her. Bruce takes a stick to the head without reaction as well as a bottle and then fights off the 6 guys. But Cassandra brings him his things and tells him to leave, since he didn’t understand that she didn’t need his help, since they would’ve gotten tired in the end. She reflects that Bruce’s pain is beyond her help and possibly even beyond Bruce’s attempts as well. Prior to this, we see another flashback where Batman waits for Alfred to pick him up and finds a bunch of guns tossed aside in a storm drain along with garbage. As Alfred pulls the drain off the street, he offers his help, but Bruce with all the guns in his hand says he can’t since he appears to be in emotional pain as well, unable to give up the guns that he wants to get rid of from the street and take the help that he needs to heal his physical wound. This one is probably the most revealing of the tragedy manifest in Batman’s life, since it doesn’t explicitly involve his parents’ death, but suggests that it still affects him by his desire to get rid of guns, even those thrown into the sewers.




Deadshot (Madhouse)
The final episode begins with Bruce flashbacking to his parents’ murder, splicing together with Deadshot (a relatively little known Batman villain) putting together his sniper rifle. The next day, still shifting scenes between Batman and Deadshot, we see Bruce working out (like Bruce Lee with one armed pushups) and Alfred bringing the gun collection from the last episode into the room. Bruce reflects that while he doesn’t use guns, he can appreciate why his enemies like to use them, in the way Batman understands his enemies so well (Joker in particular). He even says guns hold the power of “God”; in the loosest sense I’m sure. Deadshot then shoots from probably 2000 meters away and splits a wine glass off at the stem, lodging the bullet in his target’s head. He is then seen speaking to his informant about another mission and as he leaves, he throws a little martini sword and impales a bee on it, making me see a parallel that probably wasn’t completely intended between this villain and Marvel Comics’ Bullseye, the adversary of Daredevil and the Punisher. It’s revealed that Ronald Marshall from “Field Test” hired Deadshot to kill the protestor that he had so graciously named the building after. Commissioner Gordon is the next target for Deadshot and he tries his best to keep safe, wearing a helmet while outside and not wanting to wear it in the car. Batman tries to find where Deadshot is shooting from and with Alfred’s help, finds that he is not only trying to shoot a car from a train going 60 miles an hour, but in between a second train going the opposite direction. Batman stops him and chases Deadshot into a tunnel where they continue to fight. Batman eventually gets the edge and nearly pushes Deadshot into getting his face ripped off by the protrusions from the sides of the tunnel, getting part of his mask torn off. Deadshot is beaten and afterwards, we see Alfred patching up Batman again from a shot that he got in running towards the assault from Deadshot’s hand-mounted machine gun. After remembering that he is fighting so that nothing like what happened to his parents and him will ever happen again, the Bat Signal appears outside the window in the sky and we end with Batman leaving to jump into the fray yet again.

Overall, this series of animations is a good introduction to Batman for newcomers born in the 2000s era. Although admittedly the film is probably for a teenage audience or so with the violence and cursing associated with it, it’s a good follow-up to your kids watching the Batman animated series from the 90s. Not to mention the varied animation styles of 4 different studios well known for series such as Noir and Dot Hack Sign (Bee Train), Ghost in the Shell: SAC and FLCL (Production I.G.), Trigun and Chobits (Madhouse) as well as the involvement of the directors and writers from the Batman Begins film. All in all, a 5 out of 5, and 100% recommended from me, a rarity indeed. Until next time, Namaste and Aloha