Alice's Adventures In Wonderland was not a comfortable book for me when I read it as a child. I loved The Secret Garden and other books that took you to a magical place but were only a tiny bit scary. Alice seemed quite confused by her trip to Wonderland in the book and was as scared of the Cheshire cat as I was. Yet, I am still fascinated by the story of Alice and wanted to go see the movie.
Adolescents would be attracted to this movie at first because of the amazing visual artistry. 3-D has become very hot right now. Tim Burton is popular with adolescents because he takes a dark, slightly creepy look at childhood fantasy when he makes a film. The book Coraline was very popular in the middle school library and the creepy movie version became popular (even though Coraline was a younger, more bored and stubborn, Alice-like character.) Many teens would have seen Edward Scissorhands or the Nightmare Before Christmas and be expecting more of the same with Alice In Wonderland.
They would like that Alice is now in her late teens and has a pale, Victorian beauty. They would relate when Alice finds herself in an embarrassing and confusing situation(a public marriage proposal) and wants to run away. The ending, In my opinion, was created by Burton with the teen audience in mind. He probably thought that a slay-the-dragon action sequence was necessary. I preferred the very end, when Alice shows her brains and resourcefulness by going into her father's business.
Review by Orchid
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I agree with a lot of the things you said above. I also went to go see the movie thinking that it would have to be fabulous because Disney and Tim Burton got together. However, I was a little disappointed. I thought it was going to be a lot better. However, I can see why it appeals to adolescence. I teach 7/8 and I heard a lot of them raving about the movie and how cool it was.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your post! :)
Interesting... I don't care to see this movie, personally, so it's enlightening to "see" it through the eyes of others. It is also one of the classic stories that I have not read. I own the Disney movie, but the real Alice in Wonderland, the non-sanitized version, is too discomforting for me.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Kim Ellen. I have no desire to see this film. In fact I'm put off by the way Disney has put so many good tales into cartoon form, for instance making Pocahontas look like a show girl in Vegas. I do know that is not how Alice was done.
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