Alice in Wonderland
Ok, This might be me having a durp durp moment, but... let's start at the beginning. Alice in Wonderland. It has been been becoming a huge thing here lately--started to catch cult level attention at around '00 and has just been growing ever since. Now we have Disney's newest version, for which has just been released their official summary.
"From Walt Disney Pictures and visionary director Tim Burton comes an epic 3D fantasy adventure ALICE IN WONDERLAND, a magical and imaginative twist on some of the most beloved stories of all time. JOHNNY DEPP stars as the Mad Hatter and MIA WASIKOWSKA as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror. The all-star cast also includes ANNE HATHAWAY, HELENA BONHAM CARTER and CRISPIN GLOVER."
Seems nice and all, except that there's something in it which bothers me, and it's something that EVERY SINGLE REINTERPRETATION OF ALICE SEEMS TO DO:
reuniting with her childhood friends
What? ... WHAT? No, seriously. Have they read the source material? I am really beginning to wonder how many people out there have ACTUALLY read Alice in Wonderland. Because at this point, they either haven't, or they have a really fucked-up idea of what friendship is. In the original book, Alice didn't make friends, and certainly not with any of the persons listed above. The closest person to a friend of hers, in the book, would be Dinah, followed by (possibly) the white knight and the white king & queen. Everyone else, Every. Single. Character. was a fucking lunatic that either tried to kill her, fuck with her head, or just did not give two shits about her or anyone else.
People seem to forget that the original Alice is not the (relatively dark, actually) version that Disney put out in the 90s. The original is SO FAR from that, that they might as well be on different planets. Alice in Wonderland is an acid trip. It's the literary equivalent of being on more drugs than you could safely pump into your body and then trapped inside an asylum where the doctors and patients are one and the same.
Why the HELL is everyone dead-set bent on making it out to have been some grand and happy time for Alice? I'm not saying "don't like it," or reinterpret it, or whatever... but for the love of god, at least make an attempt to understand the source material first.
((Especially as, in this particular case, it's meant to be a sequel to the original book.))
"From Walt Disney Pictures and visionary director Tim Burton comes an epic 3D fantasy adventure ALICE IN WONDERLAND, a magical and imaginative twist on some of the most beloved stories of all time. JOHNNY DEPP stars as the Mad Hatter and MIA WASIKOWSKA as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror. The all-star cast also includes ANNE HATHAWAY, HELENA BONHAM CARTER and CRISPIN GLOVER."
Seems nice and all, except that there's something in it which bothers me, and it's something that EVERY SINGLE REINTERPRETATION OF ALICE SEEMS TO DO:
reuniting with her childhood friends
What? ... WHAT? No, seriously. Have they read the source material? I am really beginning to wonder how many people out there have ACTUALLY read Alice in Wonderland. Because at this point, they either haven't, or they have a really fucked-up idea of what friendship is. In the original book, Alice didn't make friends, and certainly not with any of the persons listed above. The closest person to a friend of hers, in the book, would be Dinah, followed by (possibly) the white knight and the white king & queen. Everyone else, Every. Single. Character. was a fucking lunatic that either tried to kill her, fuck with her head, or just did not give two shits about her or anyone else.
People seem to forget that the original Alice is not the (relatively dark, actually) version that Disney put out in the 90s. The original is SO FAR from that, that they might as well be on different planets. Alice in Wonderland is an acid trip. It's the literary equivalent of being on more drugs than you could safely pump into your body and then trapped inside an asylum where the doctors and patients are one and the same.
Why the HELL is everyone dead-set bent on making it out to have been some grand and happy time for Alice? I'm not saying "don't like it," or reinterpret it, or whatever... but for the love of god, at least make an attempt to understand the source material first.
((Especially as, in this particular case, it's meant to be a sequel to the original book.))