Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
Young Alice awakes from a nightmare. She finds her father in the study speaking to a bunch of disbelieving men. He’s speaking passionately about opening trading posts in exotic places. He sees her and leads her back to bed. He listens to her tell him about the creatures in her dream (a dodo bird, a rabbit in a waistcoat, a smiling cat, and a blue caterpillar). Alice worries that she’s going mad, but her Dad assures her that all the best people are. He tells her that it was just a dream, but if it gets to scary she can always wake up.
10 Years Later
Alice finds herself at a party thrown by Lady and Lord Ascot. Only to find out that the party is meant to be her engagement party to their dull son Hamish. (Her father is now deceased and Lord Ascot has taken over his company). While talking to Lady Ascot about her son’s diet, she spots a white rabbit. She tries to follow it, but finds only her aunt Imogen lost in a fantasy about “her fiancée”. She also finds her sister’s husband Lowell kissing another woman. Hamish finally corners her and gets his proposal out. Alice becomes flustered, sees the white rabbit again, says she needs a moment and then takes off running after the rabbit. The rabbit yanks her by the ankle down a rabbit hole and she finds herself falling.
After what feels like ages, she lands and finds herself in a round hall with many locked doors. Alice spots a table with a small key on top. Behind a curtain is a door that fits the key’s size. Alice now sees a bottle labeled “DRINK ME” which shrinks her to 2 inches tall. But she’s left the key on the table. Under the table she finds a box with a cake that causes her to grow. Eating a little and sipping a little, she works out the right size to go through the door into a garden. All the while, she’s been watched. Some wondering if she is the *right* Alice.
Wonderland is now dismal, the grounds are overgrown and brown, and the flowers are droopy. Alice is re-introduced to the White Rabbit, the Dodo Bird, Tweedle Dee and Dum, and the Doormouse. They take her to Absolum who shows her that she’s destined to defeat the Jabberwocky long ago. Absolem makes his decision that this isn’t the right Alice. Alice tries to wake up from this dream, but out of no where she and the others are pursued by a Bandersnatch and a crew of the Red Queen’s knights. All the animals are captured by the Red Knights. Still thinking she’s dreaming, Alice attempts to stand up to the Bandersnatch, but when this doesn’t work the Door mouse comes to her rescue by sticking its needle in the Bandersnatch’s eye (and dislodging its eye). The Tweedles find Alice and try to pull her into the direction of a path with two directions “QUEST” and “SNUD”. But a JU-JU Bird comes and carries the Tweedles away.
The Red Queen is in her castle enraged that someone stole her tarts. When finding the right frog she has him executed. Her right-hand man Stayne informs her that on Frabjous Day, Alice will slay the Jabberwocky. This sends her into another rage and she orders Alice be found and brought to her. The Knave makes a deal with Bayard (a hunting dog) that if he tracks Alice, he and his family will go free. Alice encounters the Cheshire Cat who heals the scratch left by the Bandersnatch and he says he’ll take her to the Hare and the Hatter.
The Hatter, The Hare, and the Doormouse are all having a tea party. The Hatter is the most pleased of all to see Alice. Now they can get on with Frajous Day and take down the bloody big head (the Red Queen). But the Knave and his men arrive, forcing the Hatter to shrink Alice again and stick her in a teapot. Since Bayard is on their side, he leads the Knave and Knights on a false trail. After they leave its decided that the Hatter will take Alice to the White Queen for safety.
On the way there, the Hatter tells Alice about a celebration for the White Knight, where the Jabberwocky suddenly appeared and killed his clan -the Hardtops-. He was the only one that survived. Two of the Red Knights stop him and he sends Alice off to the White Queen’s castle. The Hatter gets taken to the Red Queen. Alice finds a way to sneak into the garden where she sees a game of croquet being played by the Red Queen with hedgehogs and flamingos. She tries to set the hedgehog free and sees the White Rabbit again (who's now a judge). He gives her more cake which shoots her up to giant proportions. This causes her to burst out of her clothes and catch the attention of the Red Queen.
The Queen decides Um (Alice) will be her new favorite. Inside the castle, she again sees Twiddle Dee and Dum (the Queen’s new “Fat Boys”) and the Hatter. The Hatter distracts the Queen’s questions about Alice by flattering her large head by saying he’d like to design a hat for it. Bayard finds the White Queen and alerts her that Alice is back in the Underland. He apologizes for leading her off the path, but the White Queen says she’s where the Vorpal Sword is. Alice visits the Hatter and he tells her that she must find the Vorpal Sword. The twins lead her to the White Rabbit who knows where the sword is kept.
The sword is being guarded by the Bandersnatch. Alice is able to get its eye from the Doormouse and return it. She spots a trunk, but it’s locked. Then the pain of the scratch it left and her exhaustion kick in and she blacks out in the stables. When Alice comes to she’s face to face with the Bandersnatch. He heals her. She takes the key from around its neck and gets the sword. She goes back to save the Hatter, but he tells her not to use the sword on him. He directs her to go to the Whtie Queen. The Knave orders Alice seized after telling the Queen Alice came on to him. Actually, he was the one that came on to Alice. With the help of the Bandersnatch, Alice escapes and meets the White Queen who helps her get back to the right size. The Hatter is scheduled to have an execution but does a switch with the Cheshire. In the chaos of calling out the fakes in the Queen’s court, the Hatter, Rabbit, Bloodhound, Doormouse, and all the others escape. Alice finally steps up and accepts her role as the Jabberwocky slayer. She does exactly that. The Red Knights turn their allegiances from the Red Queen. The Queen and Stayne as banished. Stayne tries to stab the Red Queen and then himself. He pleads with the White Queen to kill him but she has no mercy. Alice returns to the party, gives everyone some truths, and she and Lord Ascot carry out her father’s plans. She opens a trading post in China.
My Thoughts: Doesn’t it amuse you (readers) when a non-reader looks at what you reading and says “Why don’t you just watch the movie?” which is what a family member told me when he saw I was reading this. I thought about it since I do have this movie and I still might. But I don’t *have* to because even though I hadn’t seen the movie in a while, just by reading this adaptation I could almost *see* what happened in the movie. And to me that means the transformation from images to words held up. This version was somewhat a re-telling. I had some confusion over the Orriculum showing Alice killing the Jabberwocky because I thought it *was* from the past. The Jabberwocky even says *so we meet again*. But if it wasn’t Alice who fought the Jabberwocky then who did? In this account of it (it) doesn’t even sound like the White Knight got a swing in before he was killed. But that was the only hole in the story I stumbled over. It was an easy read, I’m just not sure I liked this version more than some of the older ones I’ve seen.
Rating: 6