"Everyone in Wonderland was insane but not stupid." THANK YOU. The whole idea with Wonderland is that it makes sense, but doesn't make the kind of sense we're _used to._ To quote the Caterpillar in the 1999 Hallmark version: "Everything has a purpose, even here."

“If one drinks from a bottle marked poison, it’s sure to disagree with one sooner or later.” Love the book and the movie.

I think the reason this story is so popular for filmmakers is that the original book is so weird in of itself it just allows for all sorts of creative lee-way. _ANY_ interpretation of the story is correct!

"Short story? What version was he -- oh wait, he's probably not reading the annotated Alice...the version where the notes in the margins occasionally get so long they have to stop the story to fill pages with notes." On the plus side, the annotated version walks through how Wonderland is actually a mathematician's fever dream

Okay! If Disney adaptations are now on the table, I'm BEGGING you, Dom, you-beautiful-example-of-manliness-you, to do The Hunchback of Notre Dame! Please!

9:20 The fact that even Tim Burton and Jan Svankmajer's versions didn't include this scene is a testament to the utter nightmare fuel of it all.

I think my biggest pet peeve is when people mistake the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen for the same character. Well, that and, say, making an adaption of an adaption rather than the source material so it all ends up looking incredibly inbred.

If I'm right they actually meant to include the mock turtle and the gryphon, but they were cut for time's sake. Their designs would later reappear in a Jell-O commercial. Dead serious.

I've both read the book and seen the movie. I liked the book's story better, but I did enjoy the visuals of the movie. The movie's Queen of Hearts is actually a mix of two characters from the two books - The Queen of Hearts (obviously) and the Red Queen from Through The Looking Glass. The line "All ways are my ways," is the Red Queen's line, and it's a reference that the queen go on any square on the chess board in a way that no other piece can.

There's even a line in Through The Looking Glass that makes clear it's all a dream. "Are you the dreamer or merely part of someone's dream?"

One of the few books that hasn't been overshadowed by it's famous film adaptation.

In Disney's defense regarding the changes, there's only so many things they COULD do with just one film, and likely would have added more if they didn't run out of time. As for the sequel, Disney likely DID want to make another film, but since Alice didn't do too well in the 50's, the idea was scrapped. Side note, with the 50's box office bombing in mind, is it any surprise that they re-released it in the 60's and gained a much bigger following?

Talk about a film that is still one of my all time favorites and a book that's held up so well for over 150 years

When I first read the book as a teenager, I assumed the part where Alice punts Bill out of the house's chimney was a joke about the Houses of Parliament's ability to pass laws.

I'm glad you showed clips of the 1999 version. I know the Disney film is a classic, but that one is my favorite version, and it is by far the most faithful to the book.

I was always sad they left out the Duchess and the Baby and her poem. I remember in high school we were talking about poetry and I realized that the caterpillar's poem "How Doth the Little Crocodile" was a take on "How Doth the Little Busy Bee" and how excited I was to read the original, only to get bored because there was no crocodiles or fishes in the original.

Jabberwocky is the name of the POEM, not the CREATURE! "Beware the Jabberwock, my son!" "The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame...." "And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?"

6:39, Alice Through the Looking Glass included that in their storyline. And I loved it. I also loved that they made Time an actual person.

One thing that struck me when I finally read the original book is how trollish everyone in the movie was. I swear, in the books everybody just seemed nuts, but in the movie it felt more like they were deliberately fucking with the girl they'd identified as the new kid.

The 1999 Hallmark version is my favorite :) I'm a huge fan of Jim Henson (especially Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, and The Storyteller) and Jim Henson's Creature Shop did the puppeteering on this one. They as well as those cheesy 90's miniseries events like "Merlin" and "10th Kingdom", (which is fitting because it was made by the people who made Merlin) and that one was in keeping with the sensibilities of both. At the time I also really liked the "Magic in the Mirror" series and "Halloweentown", so maybe I'm just a cornball ;)

In the cartoon adaptation, the scene where the flowers ruthlessly turn against Alice horrified me as a child. (I was bullied viciously at that age by my schoolmates.) Even as a grown*** adult, seeing real-life daffodils and especially pansies provokes in me a visceral reaction of disgust bordering on malice. Thanks, Disney.

1:07 into video and I hear in Dom's voice "Bitch please". Thumbs up already. xD

In my childhood I made a point of reading all the books that had been made into the Disney films I so loved. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass were my favorite books over every other original story I read. Really worth a read to anyone who wants a refreshing bit of literature.

You said something about a part of our brains recognizing dreams on some level and I have to contend with you here Dom. I have very vivid dreams to the point that even the most absurdly looney tunes things can happen in my dreams and my brain will 100% believe it. To the point I often wake up crying desperately because I fear for my life or I fall out of bed because I wasn't flying fast enough and my body jerked trying to go faster. My dreams, in particular my nightmares, are extremely exhausting because my brain believes they're completely, authentically real without question.

What needs to be taken in account is that the film was heavily inspired by the Tenniel illustrations of the book (some of which you showed in the video). IIn these illustrations, the King and Queen, while still lookinh more like cards than their film counterparts are three dimensional characters as opposed to playing cards with heads and and feet like he rest of the card deck, so I wouldn't call this a change. Bill is also only portrayed as a lizard in the illustrations. In the book itself his species isn't made clear (as at that moment Alice is caught in the house and can't see what's happening outside). As for the scene with the Duchess, I am quite happy it was eft out as it was the most confusing, frightening and - frankly - weakest part of the book. I'm a little more sad that the Griffon and Mock Turtle had to go, but most of their jokes were based on the school system in 19th century Britain and would have been lost on modern children

Holy smokes! I know what he should do next! Mary Poppins! Just imagine, he'd have to due a green screen routine for the penguin scene! He has to!

I was assuming you'd be comparing all the film adaptations to the book as well as this one, like the 1903 British silent film version, the 1933 Paramount version that caused Disney at one point to shelve his version, the 1966 BBC film version, the 1972 British film version that had Fiona Fullerton, the 1985 Warner Bros. version that was part of a 2-parter with Through the Looking Glass, Jan Svankmajer's 1988 stop-motion with live-action girl version, the 1988 Australian animated version, the 1995 GoodTimes Entertainment animated version and the 1999 Hallmark TV version that had Tina Majorino. Because there are several film adaptations of the book. And nope, I'm not counting Tim Burton's 2010 movie (which was also by Disney) among them because that was an unofficial sequel to the books, like what Steven Spielberg's Hook was to Peter Pan.

I find the change away from the book's insistence that no one is actually executed in Wonderland to be so strange! It seems to have stuck so well in popular knowledge of the story that folks are being beheaded, but I think it's a pretty notable detail that that's not actually intended to be happening! Shifts the tone a bit, IMO :)

A lot of things like the duchess and the mock turtle were planned for the movie, but were cut for both time reasons and to make it flow better as a movie.

The Duchess section was originally to be in the movie but Disney deemed it too confusing and a bit frightening so they opted not to keep it. There is some test animatics which exist on the special addition DVD.

I will say that this is a perfect example of when it's better to sacrifice adaptation accuracy for good storytelling

The Alice in Wonderland miniseries from 1999 is one of my favorite things. I would love to see a comparison of that!

What I found really frustrating was that, while I can tolerantly look at the cartoon and the book as subsequently separate entities, one borrowing liberally from multiple sources, I don't feel I can give that same window of grace to Burton's 2010 version. It very clearly sets itself up as a sort of pseudo-sequel. On the one hand, its usage of Tweedledee and Tweedledum and the mischievous Cheshire Cat both suggest it might be a sequel to the cartoon. On the other, its usage of the Knave of Hearts and the fact the caterpillar was not at that time a butterfly suggests it's more a sequel to the book. As it stands, it's a sequel to nothing and it's just a deeply frustrating film for anyone who actually gives a crap about the original book OR cartoon.

The best adaptation I've seen is the 1985 TV miniseries version. It adapts both books very faithfully, and it has a stellar cast.

All of those small cats in Disney movies and cartoons look like they’re just color swaps of the same model

Through the looking glass is such a good book , personally it's my favorite

I watched this movie once as a kid, alone at night, and then never again. I was terrified of it. Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, sure thing. this madness? Nopenope. I might read the book though!

I think the book was actually asking itself a crisis of, "What the fuck am I doing with my life?" Legend has it, it still does to this day.

This movie scared the crap out of me as a kid. Anything that involved travelling to a magical world where you couldn't get home again when you wanted to gave me extreme anxiety. Wizard of Oz set me off in a similar fashion. I feel so bad for all the aunties and babysitters who thought they were treating me to a fun movie and were instead turning me into a nervous wreck for the rest of the day.

The Alice books were some of my favourites as a child. Funnily enough, as an adult I came across a very adult retelling- using the same story (ish) in order to teach Alice a particular moral- not to judge people for their kinks and fetishes. Yeah. It was actually really interesting and well written, even if it was basically just a kinky Alice in wonderland porn story.

Even as a kid, I think my general reaction to this movie was "what the heck is even going on?" rather than thinking it was actually good or bad. But I am so with you with being glad they left out that whole "titanaboa neck" thing. Ugh...

I'd be interesting to hear him break down the Tim Burton Alice movies. From what I recall of both movies and both books, the first movie was really much of the plot of the second book, so the second movie was completely made up (basically). I mean they don't both need their own videos, but the Dom just does such a good job that I'd like to hear him talk a little about them

Inception gets away with the "it was a dream" ending :P

Fun fact: this and through the looking glass are peppered with accurate scientific theory and fact. Alice, for instance, remarks that milk from beyond the looking glass might disagree with her (a nod to what happens with matter and anti matter). There are other little bits, like the mushroom she ate was originally designed so the top makes one grow big and the bottom makes one shriek. There are also cute little physics theories in, like Alice grabbing a jar of jam and is afraid to drop it, fearing it might land one someone's head

I'd love to see a Stardust lost in the adaptation.

I did read the book when I was a kid and I found it to be an interesting read. Recently saw the Disney film 3 days ago actually and I did like it. Can't wait for the Dom Oscars version of it.

The 1985 adaptation is easily my favorite. Always loved that little unicorn fellow and his cake.

Nice episode on one of my favorite golden age Disney movies & one of my favorite classic books (and frankly one of the few books literature scholars deem a "classic" that I found the least bit readable). Personally, I love the interpretation that Charles Dodson, who was a reverend and a mathematics professor at Oxford at the time, wrote this book as a protest to what he perceived as the absurdity and nonsense of post-Euclidean mathematics, including what we today acknowledge as modern algebra, thereby placing him on my short list of "Historical Figures I'd Love To Have A Drink With" right alongside Theodore Roosevelt and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Edit: It actually took me a minute or two to remember that the Disney version omitted the Duchess, the Grifon, and the Mock Turtle, perhaps a testament to how all of these parts felt to me like needless, unwanted, and frankly irritating padding, even by the book's whimsical standards.

I love the duchess she's actually my favourite character

That moment your binge watching one of your favorite youtubers videos and just enjoying the in depth analysis of each episode. Keep up the great work Dominic!

I'd argue that the bit where Alice kicks that guy out of the house was a literal adaptation of the idiom 'kicking someone out of the house'

As a child I really liked another film adaptation, which is the one in colour you showed while talking about the duchess, maybe even better than the Disney one

The two books are the reason that this is actually a Disney sequel I would've been interested in - there was so much left to do and show. :-)

The Dom should do an episode on "the Godfather". Or "the Hogfather". Or "the Silence of the Lambs/Red Dragon". Or "Goodfellas". Y'know, one of the classics.

The Griffin and Mock Turtle were actually in the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, but only in a jello commercial in 1956

I always thought the Jabberwock was actually meant to be included in the Disney movie. I had the Little Golden Book of the Disney Alice in Wonderland which included a page with a Jabberwock creature that wasn't a malicious, blood-thirsty monster but rather like some of the other characters such as the Dodo or the Mad Hatter. I just found this bit of text on Fandom powered by Wikia: "While the Jabberwock does not appear in the classic animated 1951 Disney movie, he was planned to, voiced by Stan Freberg. The scene was axed fairly late in the game. An illustration of his intended appearance does appear in a Little Golden Books storybook with record. His role seemed fairly non-antagonistic. He would have had eyes that burned, a stovepipe-like nose, orange hair and a third hand on the end of his tail. The Cheshire Cat recites the classic poem, when he first appears."

It would be awesome if you could cover the soviet adaptations (of both books), although it does seem highly unlikely to happen since I doubt that there is an english version.

As far as Disney adaptations goes, this is surprisingly faithful to the source material.

Dom, Disney's remaking the Black Cauldron soon. Now's your chance! (please)

As far as the addition of material from Through the Looking-Glass, my understanding is that "Alice in Wonderland" is officially the title from omnibus editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

I just finished reading the 2 stories and in my GoodReads review I said the same exact thing you did! I called Alice more "motivated" in the film, and while in every story that would be a needed change, here it worked the other way around.... how very Wonderland of Alice to be the exception to that rule.

This is one of my all time favorite Disney movies ever. I'd check it out from the local library all the time when I was younger.

After Disney made so many forced Sequels to their films, it's a wonder that they never made a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, especially when there is literally a sequel book.

I absolutely adore every silent movie version of these books and Wizard of Oz. There's just something to them...

The book is one of my all-time favorites and the film is my favorite Disney movie.

This is my all time favourite animated Disney movie, and playing that song at the end gave me such a blast of nostalgia.

This all just made me recall I recently finished the book Heartless by Marissa Meyer, which is a sort of origin story to the Queen of Hearts. Pity it doesn't have an adaptation, I'd be curious to hear your opinion about it.

I think her investment in the movie was a good choice. It made her a more interesting character than us just observing her "dream selfs" responses to things. That and they were combinding some bits of Through The Looking Glass, where she did seem a bit more invested and assertive. It also seemed to reflect that childhood apathy and perturbance that would arise here and there. I remember reading the sepernt bit in the book and going "oohhhhh!!!!" as it clicked into place why the bird accused her of it in the movie.

The version with Whoopi Goldberg and Martin Short has always been my favourite since I was a child. It followed the book very well and was very enjoyable.

I love this movie to pieces.

I always thought it was a bad adaptation of the book but a great animated film on its own (Disney's version of the Chesire Cat is probably my favorite of all the Disney characters). There's a book that was published about 2 decades or more ago that showed the concept art for "Alice" (Disney had been planning a film version of the book since the late 1930s - so there was plenty of time for artists to render their reactions and ideas based on the two books). The drawings depict characters and situations like the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon. I don't know why they left such characters out while including the pleasant but ultimately pointless diversion of the poem "The Walrus & The Carpenter". Disney cut out a whole bed-building sequence in "Snow White" that had been painstakingly animated because he said it didn't advance the story - yet the "The Walrus & The Carpenter" stops Alice's progress through Wonderland cold. Odd (then again - it's an odd film).

One interesting take on the story is the book _Splintered_ by A. G. Howard, it isn't really an adaptation, more of an inspired work, I do highly recommend it

I insist that the only other stories that can get away with the "it was all a dream" ending are The Wizard of Oz and The Nutcracker, because the dream aspect is set up beforehand (e.g. Clara falls to sleep in the drawing room) and in both, the waking up resolves the story in a way that makes sense rather than being a copout.

Slight nitpick (because I’ve read the book so many times that I have to use my thorough knowledge of it for something): The queen of hearts is never described as a playing card like the soldiers in the book. In the original illustrations by John Tenniel, she does look like the queen displayed on classic playing cards, but she is not a card herself.

You know to this day I'm probably one of the only people to only experience this as the live action film

I like the Disney version and the one with Whoopi as the Cheshire Cat

Are you gonna do some of the other versions of alice in wonderland it's one of my favourite books

I'm still waiting for that Dom oscars

The Dom, you overlooked something kind of important in judging this (I didn't catch it myself until I watched it as an adult), in the title screen it says that this is meant to be an adaptation of BOTH wonderland and looking glass. It explains some of the picking and choosing aspects from both (like how the movie Queen of Hearts is a mix of the book one and the Red Queen) and the omissions from the first book

WHOOT!!! I have always wanted to see Dom do Alice in Wonderland, and its my favorite version no less! YES YES YES!!!

fun fact, the scene where the baby turns into a pig was actually going to be in the 1950s movie, but Disney had trouble animating it properly sonit became a deleted scene

You should do the various adaptations of H.G Wells' The War of the Worlds. Lots to work with

"bitch please" lmao I almost spit my coffee out

This review inspired me to finally read the book Alice in wonderland! I'd seen the movies over time, primarily the 1999 version directed by Nick Willing and the book was quite lovely. Like you said, it just has something about it that compels you to keep reading. I don't think I've ever seen the Disney version of it however and I worry after seeing the 1999 version my expectations of it might flounder. But otherwise I loved your review! Keep up the good work :)

Lol those glimpses from the 1999 movie were a serious blast from the past, I'd completely forgotten I watched that version as a kid way more than the Disney one

I can't wait for when you do Disney's live action version of Alice In Wonderland by Tim Burton followed by his take on Alice Through The Looking Glass.

I nearly lost it when I saw this, I've just recently started reading the book and already noticed a few differences between the film and book such as with Alice herself like you said Dom. Even though I've seen this I'm still going to continue reading the book cuz I do find it interesting but the lack of a plot is annoying me a bit but not enough to stop me. I look forward to the DomOscars with this~!

It seems that most Alice in Wonderland adaptations mash up the two volumes, throwing in elements of Through the Looking Glass...probably because the Tweedles are too cool to leave out. (Oh, and FTR...the Jabberwocky was supposed to be in the movie, though not decapitated, and as a far more comic and benign figure. He showed up in the Little Golden Book.)

I would love the comparisons done for the other film versions. I loved the 1985 and 1999 TV movies the most and they seemed closest to the books too

I love your work Mr. The Dom :)

i didn't even know i wanted this but now I'm pumped to watch it!

Hey The Dom, remember how you said that the wicked witch was that thing you were scared of that no one else seemed to be bothered by? Well, The Chesire Cat was my thing that I was scared of, and it kind of still is. In fact I didn't like Alice in Wonderland very much, most likely from the acid trip that it was. It was just so confusing to me, with the seemingly irrelevant, and jumping plot points.

I would love to see a Lost in Adaptation version for Mary Poppins.

You should think about doing a Jaws lost in adaptation, as by god you'll never believe how much was left out entirely, an how drastically they changed motives and characters. But Its similar so whether its the In name only clause or not will be up to you. Cheers my beautiful host!

I remember starting to read Alice in Wonderland at school, but then told by a teacher to stop reading it. I could be wrong but I think the reason was that she felt it was too long for someone my age.

I'm sooooo happy now, you made my day!

your videos are always really well done, real quality work, man! I really enjoy these and I never miss one, I love the subjects you always choose as well

When I was a child, Alice in Wonderland was the stuff of nightmares. Literally. I had nightmares about it. As a young adult, reading the book was worse. It's VERY obvious that the entire thing was inspired by narcotics, and everything about it makes me deeply uncomfortable in a way that I can't really articulate.

I’ve always loved Alice and Wonderland because I always felt comforted by the dreamlike insanity of it all, I was never exactly sure as to why it felt so familiar until I learned that allegedly Carroll suffered from epilepsy. As someone who suffers from particularly bad epilepsy myself with post ictal mania…nothing has ever made so much sense before in my life. One day I hope an adaptation manages to capture the exact level of distant insanity the books capture.

he should def. do Bambie, it's at leeeast on one of the top ten most fucked up books I've ever read!