Movie: Alice in Wonderland (2010)
There were some parts of this movie that I liked extremely well, and others that I didn't - overall, I would still say that I enjoyed it quite a lot despite the flaws. Some curious feminist issues going on. (SPOILER ALERT)
I was very, very disappointed that Alice wound up slaying the Jabberwock (or Jabberwocky, as they kept calling it). It was as if the text of the poem was taken as a prophecy that had to come true - but she had already violated the prophecy by befriending (rather than shunning) the Bandersnatch! I thought that perhaps she would also befriend the Jabberwock, and it would tell her that the White Queen was really evil, or at least wrongheaded in trying to destroy her sister, and the Red Queen was not so bad after all, and instead of a good-vs.-bad opposition between the two Queens, there would be a reconciliation. Because that would have been a more genuinely feminist kind of ending IMHO, celebrating values such as interdependence and community as opposed to independence and hierarchy. But no-o-o! Apparently the only way for Alice to take control of her life and become a fully adult person is to be actualized in terms of the worst of masculine stereotypes, that is, to come face-to-face with a beautiful, rare, intelligent creature, and kill it.
Speaking of masculine stereotypes, her suggestion to exploit the Chinese market (when she gets back at the end) - wow, I thought the movie was supposed to be challenging Victorian values, not whole-heartedly endorsing them! Furthermore, China was NOT untouched by Europeans or even the British at this point (Opium Wars, anyone?), so she was being woefully ignorant as well as ruthlessly capitalist-colonialist.
The White Queen amazed me. She did exercise power in a feminine way, but always in feminine ways that are considered negative, such as manipulating people to do what she wants, or brewing potions in a very stereotypical-witch way. I thought the punishment she visited upon her sister was the cruellest thing one girl can do to another (social ostracism), and at that point I really lost any sympathy I had ever had for the White Queen.
I actually sort of liked the Red Queen, although the pig thing reminded me of ... is it Suetonius who talks about one of the Roman Emperors who would have a slave killed so he could warm his feet in the entrails? (Oops, no, it was the Pictish king of Galloway mentioned in Godric, but you get the idea. It seemed quite a ghoulish allusion for a kids' movie.)
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the Mad Hatter - I'm not sure what I expected, but I was quite charmed. There were moments when he reminded me of Glitch in a tender-vulnerable kind of way. And I adored Stephen Fry as the voice of the Cheshire Cat, and I was fetched with Reepicheep the Dormouse.
ETA: See the discussion below for some wonderful perspectives and insights that shed a more positive and exciting light on the movie!
I was very, very disappointed that Alice wound up slaying the Jabberwock (or Jabberwocky, as they kept calling it). It was as if the text of the poem was taken as a prophecy that had to come true - but she had already violated the prophecy by befriending (rather than shunning) the Bandersnatch! I thought that perhaps she would also befriend the Jabberwock, and it would tell her that the White Queen was really evil, or at least wrongheaded in trying to destroy her sister, and the Red Queen was not so bad after all, and instead of a good-vs.-bad opposition between the two Queens, there would be a reconciliation. Because that would have been a more genuinely feminist kind of ending IMHO, celebrating values such as interdependence and community as opposed to independence and hierarchy. But no-o-o! Apparently the only way for Alice to take control of her life and become a fully adult person is to be actualized in terms of the worst of masculine stereotypes, that is, to come face-to-face with a beautiful, rare, intelligent creature, and kill it.
Speaking of masculine stereotypes, her suggestion to exploit the Chinese market (when she gets back at the end) - wow, I thought the movie was supposed to be challenging Victorian values, not whole-heartedly endorsing them! Furthermore, China was NOT untouched by Europeans or even the British at this point (Opium Wars, anyone?), so she was being woefully ignorant as well as ruthlessly capitalist-colonialist.
The White Queen amazed me. She did exercise power in a feminine way, but always in feminine ways that are considered negative, such as manipulating people to do what she wants, or brewing potions in a very stereotypical-witch way. I thought the punishment she visited upon her sister was the cruellest thing one girl can do to another (social ostracism), and at that point I really lost any sympathy I had ever had for the White Queen.
I actually sort of liked the Red Queen, although the pig thing reminded me of ... is it Suetonius who talks about one of the Roman Emperors who would have a slave killed so he could warm his feet in the entrails? (Oops, no, it was the Pictish king of Galloway mentioned in Godric, but you get the idea. It seemed quite a ghoulish allusion for a kids' movie.)
I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the Mad Hatter - I'm not sure what I expected, but I was quite charmed. There were moments when he reminded me of Glitch in a tender-vulnerable kind of way. And I adored Stephen Fry as the voice of the Cheshire Cat, and I was fetched with Reepicheep the Dormouse.
ETA: See the discussion below for some wonderful perspectives and insights that shed a more positive and exciting light on the movie!