Alice in Wonderland
Originally published on social media on April 12th, 2022
Believe it or not, today was my first time ever watching this film. Nor have I seen any other versions of Alice in Wonderland or read the book. With that in mind, I have some thoughts.
There were six things that I really enjoyed about this film: the music, Dinah the cat, mouse in teapot, the talking flowers, bread butterflies, and best of all the color scheme. I recognized the color design right away: it was a work of Mary Blair. She was responsible for the color palettes and designs for Peter Pan, Cinderella, and It’s A Small World to name a few of her projects. The way she paired colors together was extraordinary and made even the simplest moments of a story divine art.
Other than those six things, I was not a huge fan of anything else in Alice in Wonderland. Alice herself annoyed me, the Cheshire Cat was irritating, and I felt like there were a lot of unnecessary scenes. The thing that bothered me most of all was all the gaps in the story, like why Alice was so determined to follow the rabbit the whole time?
The concept, or the big lesson, was interesting to me: that we need reality with its set of laws and logic, no matter how challenging it seems it times. Also, that the imagination can be a beautiful thing, but living in it is not as great as it seems. My lack of patience wouldn’t let me survive in wonderland for more than 20 minutes. Maybe that’s why I like the Disneyland ride so much!
Here’s some fun facts again from IMDB:
-While recording the voice of Alice, Kathryn Beaumont dressed as Alice to better aid her with "getting into character".
- The Mad Hatter is based on the phrase "mad as a hatter" which has a historical basis. In the hat industry of the 19th century there was extensive use of mercury. Liquid mercury is one of the causes of mercury poisoning, which (among other things) causes brain damage. Among the symptoms are slurred speech, memory loss, and tremors, behavior that can be seen as insane.
-Some historians suspect Lewis Carroll might actually have been Jack the Ripper.
This film was okay, but the storyline is not one I’m too eager to explore again