Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There tell the adventures of a child named Alice who navigates a strange world called Wonderland, who is brave in the face of conflict and who always wakes up form the dream just before any real consequences or triumphs can happen.
Tim Burton and Disney’s Alice in Wonderland continues the classic children’s story in an unexpected way. Alice is now a 19 year-old woman on the way to her surprise engagement party. She is portrayed as a sickly-pale, sullen woman who detests the conventions of her wealthy family lifestyle. Her mother is horrified that she is not properly dressed when she sees she is without corset or stockings, and when she is dragged off to dance with her unattractive suitor, she does not play the role of a pleasant and accommodating woman, she stares at the sky while birds fly overhead and says she wonders what it would be like to fly. When he proposes, she is about to say yes because (as her sister told her), ‘he is a lord, she doesn’t want to be a burden on her mother and what else will she do?’ Luckily, the white rabbit leads her to the rabbit hole.
All of the Alice stories are based in illogical fantasy, and the sense that it is okay to do things differently than expected. In this film, Alice has a memory of having a reoccurring dream of being in a strange land and telling her father she thinks she has ‘gone round the bend’. He tells her ‘the best people are usually a little mad.’ She repeats this later in the film to the Mad Hatter as a way to tell him she like him just the way he is, and that he should not feel ashamed that he is different. This dare-to-be-different message mirrored on Alice, all the Underland characters and ultimately on the viewer.
Throughout the film, Alice is shown as brave. Unlike the earlier story, she does not cry so much in her giant form that she creates a flood and when she become tiny, is swept away by her own tears. At first her bravery is a result of her believing it is all a dream. When she realizes it is real and she can get hurt, she still decides to stand against the frightening dragon Jabberwocky as the Champion the White Queen needs to take away the evil Red Queen’s power. Young, delicate Alice puts on the armor destined for her and fights the dragon, and wins.
Alice is shown a normal young woman who has the imagination to do things differently. She is brave and becomes the heroine of Underland through her fast thinking and physical strength. She decides to go back to her home and proceeds to reject the marriage proposal (you’re not the man for me), tells her old pining aunt that no prince is coming and joins her late fathers business as partner and sets of alone on a boat to live her life the way she wants to.
Tim Burton and Disney send a powerful message to the children and adolescents who see this updated Alice in Wonderland. To get what you want in life- you don’t have to be a mean aggressive masculine woman like the Red Queen and you don’t have to be a sweet passive feminine woman like the White Queen-you just have to be brave and be yourself.
