Down The Rabbit Hole
Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland is a novel written in 1865 by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. Dodgson created the fanciful tale as a way to entertain his 3 daughters while taking an afternoon boat ride. The girls loved the story and the middle daughter, Alice, begged Dodgson to write it down for her.
The book tells the story of a young girl, 7 1/2 year old Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole and enters a fantasy world populated with all sorts of peculiar creatures and talking animals. Full of plays on logic, the tale has had lasting popularity with children and adults and is considered one of the greatest examples of the genre of literary nonsense.
Alice is a curious, young girl, well-mannered and logical, and given to daydreaming. When she becomes bored with watching her sister fishing, she creates the magical world of Wonderland, full of such fanciful creatures as The Cheshire Cat, The Mad Hatter, and The White Rabbit, to name a few.
Through The Looking Glass..
In the years since the publication of “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” and it’s sequal, “Through The Looking Glass” there have been numerous film and movie adaptations created.
The first of many was a silent production, filmed in 1903, and featured May Clark as young Alice. The entire feature was only 8 minutes long. 
In 1933, Paramount released a Talkie version starring Charlotte Henry as Alice, W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, Edna May Oliver as the Red Queen, Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, Gary Cooper as the White Knight, Edward Everett Horton as The Mad Hatter, Charles Ruggles as the March Hare, and Baby LeRoy as The Joker.
Disney stepped onto the stage in 1951 with it’s animated version, the thirteenth movie in it’s Animated Classics Series. Made under the supervision of Walt Disney himself, this film, and its animation, are often regarded as some of the finest work in Disney studio history.
Disney’s rendition featured Katherine Beaumont as the voice of Alice (She was later the voice of Wendy Darling in Disney’s Peter Pan), and Ed Wynn as The Mad Hatter.
Interestingly enough, the film was met with a lukewarm response when first released. People had a difficult time associating with the Alice character and there had been too many different directors involved in the project, causing some of the scenes to be a little too “over the top” in relation to the base storyline.
However, two decades after it’s original release, after the success of the animated feature “The Yellow Submarine”, Alice In Wonderland sprang into popularity. Mostly because of the association with Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland” and it’s connection with the drug culture, Disney’s “Alice”, along with “Fantasia” and “Three Caballeros” became a hit with the college kids.
In 1999 the fourteenth rendition of “Alice In Wonderland” was broadcast as a TV movie on NBC and later shown on British television.
This version featured Tina Majorino as Alice with Whoopi Goldberg as The Cheshire Cat, Gene Wilder as The Mock Turtle, Martin Short as The Mad Hatter and a host of other famous celebrities. It was also a mix of live action and puppetry created by Jim Henson of The Muppets fame.
Off With Their Heads!
The newest version of Alice In Wonderland to hit the silver screen will make it’s debut on March 5, 2010. Directed by Tim Burton (”Edward Scissorhands”, “Nightmare Before Christmas”), and featuring Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter, you can safely bet this redux will have a darkside.
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