Rory: I remember it being smaller.
Lorelai: Yeah! And less...
Rory: ....off with their heads.
Lorelai: Yeah!
Eat me.
Probably the best line in cinematic history.
Disney's Alice in Wonderland has been re-made, re-imagined, re-vamped and re-invented so many times that I was tempted to compile a list; but then something shiny skittered by so I moved on. Walt's version is still my hands-down favorite, beating out even Tim Burton's attempt. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the Disney and Burton versions are the only adaptations of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, that even come close to doing justice to those amazing books.
Walt Disney personally worked on this film over a grueling period of more than twenty years! He went through three directors, thirteen screenplay writers and dozens of songs before the film was finally released in 1951. Apparently, he still wasn't happy with even the finished product, and the film opened to less than stellar reviews and box office success.
The drug-culture of the 1970's led to a renewed interest in the film. Imagine smoking a fat one while singing along to "forward, backward, inward, outward, come and join the race!" BIG. FUN. Subsequently, Alice was re-released in 1974, and again in 1981. The flick is now almost unanimously praised as one of Disney's greatest films and arguably the best adaptation of the books.
The movie follows Alice as she daydreams instead of studying, follow the white rabbit down his...uh-hum....hole, and has many whacky adventures filled with NONSENSE. Nonsense is a coomon theme of the books, as well as the Disney film. Alice begins by explaining that "her world" would be nothing but nonsense. Even the way in which she say's the word- so casual, so blasé,- is like a kick in the balls to that notion that is in itself utter nonsense: growing up.
Nonsense is a word adults love to use to put down youth and those who enjoy it. It describes an idea that scares "grown-ups". That which can not be explained, planned, rationalized. As Alice puts it, "What it is, it wouldn't be. And contrary-wise, what it wouldn't be, it would." I strive to live a life as full of nonsense as possible.
Alice is faced with many choices throughout the film, usually in the form of whether or not to eat or drink something. Typically against her own good advice, she keeps making the same choices over and over again, which never seem to help her, and often land her in trouble.
Alice inevitably takes me back to my 8-year-old self, sitting cross-legged on my grandma's living room floor, smiling wide-eyed at her ancient beast of a television set, dreaming of my own adventures. Thirty-one years later, it still doesn't disappoint.
The young girl in her iconic blue dress with white apron, chases that damn white-rabbit all over Wonderland. She encounters a cast of outrageously awesome inventions of Lewis Carroll's brilliant (if not warped) mind, including the Tweedle twins, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, the smoking Caterpillar and the Red Queen. Each one offers us a unique and hilarious glimpse into a world of utter nonsense.
Even as an adult I am confused by the themes of the story. We see Alice make every bad choice imaginable, but I've always felt that we- the readers/ viewers- are supposed to learn some kind of moral lesson. If this is the case, it's lost on me, because Alice's adventure looks like too much fun!
If it still needs to be said, I highly recommend this flick to anyone who's been in a cave for forty years and hasn't seen it. A cave full of gold Pippi coins!
Hope you've enjoyed this edition! Check back soon for my review of the first bad movie I've had to watch on this challenge, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Don't forget, I co-host a Gilmore girls podcast entitled Under the Floorboards. Check us out for more fun from Stars Hollow!
You can also checkout my co-host's more intellectual Gilmore girls reading challenge here .
