Honestly, the film really felt like it was building up to a reveal that the white queen was even worse than the red queen, and then it just... didn’t.

The Tim Burton effect: having the aesthetic of going against society’s expectations but actually reinforcing the status quo

The worst part about the White Queen mocking her sister's "facial deformity", is that in the sequel, you find out it's HER FAULT her sister has that deformity. Imagine being deformed for the rest of your life because your sister got you into a tragic accident, and then she spends the rest of her life talking shit about you for it and using it against you. No wonder the Red Queen wanted to take her down.

I still remember that Tim Burton said he hated Alice as a character. Directors shouldn't direct a movie if they hate the main character.

This wasn't even a story about Alice, this was a story about how Alice fell into Wonderland and then met the REAL main character: Johnny Depp

New theory: aside from the disney cartoon, every single adaption of the book was written by the caterpillar.

This movie is corporate feminism in it's purest form, maintaining all of the aesthetics of feminism while keeping none of the actual messages

My theory about the caterpillar is that when people try to rewrite and adapt the caterpillar they identify too much with the original character and deem him "tough leader" instead of an uncaring asshole who just likes to lecture people on why he is right

Honestly I am *so tired* of adaptations shipping Alice with the Mad Hatter, while retconning him into an actually helpful character. I get that he's the only character who everyone's heard of who's human, male, and not an obese twin, and therefore the only character who *can* be shipped with Alice by mainstream conventions, but... I don't *want* romance in my Alice in Wonderland adaptations. Romantic subplots are boring. I just want a romp through a zany nonsense world.

"...he kisses her, at last." T H A T ' S A Y I K E S F R O M M E B O Y S .

I think the worst thing about the red queen being villified for her big head is that in Through the looking glass, we find out that she wasnt even born with it. Her head swelled due to blunt force trauma. and because of that, of an accident where she got seriously injured, she lost her throne, and was ridiculed and ostracized by everyone around her. But yeah, she's just a villian >:(

I wanna point out that the reason the caterpillar is continually warped into a wise, beloved leader is because the people responsible for that interpretation are, y'know, the exact sort of people the caterpillar originally represented. They read him in the original text as being _correct_ because they empathize with him over Alice.

Tim Burton may have been married to Helena Bohnam-Carter, but it's pretty obvious he's in love with Johnny Depp.

"Is there any good in the Red Queen?" "No." *Releases a sequel with backstory to try and redeem her and make her seem not so bad*

When I first watched the movie, I was expecting the white queen to become the villain. The way she acted resembled the people Alice was protesting against in her world. It was strange how she was supposed to be seen as a good person, yet got away with mocking her sister. The red queen was made into the cruel nightmarish being that the world hated, even the people around her wanted her dead. To me, it didn't feel like the red queen was an actual character, but more of what society would stereotype as what would happen if a "misfit" were to be in charge. The movie felt like it was society trying to make it seem as if the problem would only come from the people that didn't fit properly in any acceptable category, and that they were evil because of that.

Also, after all that 'all the best people are mad' stuff- it ends with her publicly shaming the old delusional aunt. S L O W C L A P

Honestly, I was really disappointed that when the White Queen regained the crown, she didn't drop the facade of being a wacky but nice woman and instead is more terrifying and cold than the Red Queen ever was. I know twist villains are overdone now, but that to me would have been an interesting take on how Alice has been misled this whole time to believe the established order is the correct one. Alice could then free the Red Queen from her chains as they take on the White Queen together. And as another nod to the books, Alice would end up on the chessboard square that "kings" a pawn and gain the crown herself. All the other characters insist that Queen Alice remain to rule over Wonderland, but Alice tells them they don't need to be ruled by queens, they need to follow their own paths and make Wonderland a better place on their own.

The goddamn mad hatter is the central focus of a poster with Alice’s name on it

Honestly, a story about a person who is seen as an outcast because of an abnormal appearance that spirals into mania and only allows people who understand her struggle benallowed in the upper class, only to find out all those people where faking it, and her sister whom she has always rivaled with who is seen as good turns out to be worse than her, is a far more compelling story than any film adaptation of Alice in wonderland

can't believe you didnt mention the red queens lover hitting on alice lmao that really was a weird as hell moment for no reason except his apparent tall women fetish

Further proof of your theory: they keep calling her the Red Queen instead of the Queen of Hearts. Those are two different characters from two different books. The Red Queen is a really helpful, if somewhat gruff, character. She's the one who helps Alice navigate the weird chess scape world of Through the Looking Glass. Whereas the White Queen... other than being a bumbling idiot, her main thing is jailing people for crimes they haven't committed yet. Including the Mad Hatter btw. Like.

changing it to 'the red queen vs the white queen' instead of the queen of hearts vs alice draws a weird parallel to the Russian revolution that I don't know if they were going for or not

You made a point on how the red queen is selfconscious, so she makes her aristocratic underlings wear things to exaggerate their features. This is inaccurate. They wear things to exaggerate their features so that they can dupe the red queen into liking them. This is proven by the fact that she takes a liking to Alice (as Um) because she's so large and that she's upset when the hatter is laughing at the fakeness of her underlings when she's being duped by them. She becomes very angry that they tricked her.

"He kisses her at last." Okay, I thought I was going nuts (joke not intended) whenever I watched this movie because it was clearly setting up some romantic tension between them. That's not to say that I _wanted_ them to hook up nor that they _should_ have, but that all the usual/traditional cinematic trappings were there and I was worried I was somehow imagining them for some strange reason.

I like Tim Burton on a purely artistic level. His stories usually fall flat in some way.

It doesn't help that the Looking Glass film sequel had the whole forehead thing being White Queen's fault. So it makes White Queen's actions insensitive.

I think you mean “ Hercules, except it isn’t the story of Hercules whatsoever and has nothing to do with the original myth at all. Disney just took his name and slapped it onto another buff dude.”

Honestly, the real kicker for me was to see Johnny Depp being portrayed on front of every promotional media for the film that is supposedly about Alice

alice will wear a corset but not socks ok Edit: both are p comfortable if they fit you, but it was funny how ignorant the writers were

Perhaps the blue caterpillar is consistently adapted as the wise mentor because the (usually male) directors see him as trying to educate a young girl on the ways of the world, like themselves, basically.

No lie the whole time I watched this as a kid I thought the white Queen was supposed to be a twist villain, and I was so confused when she wasn’t

I thought the White Queen would be evil after I saw that scene pre-fall of Hamish's mother dressed in white. The house, the people there, the roses, everything was white and it seemed like a direct connection to the White Queen

the difference between tim burtons alice in wonderland and space jam is that i enjoy watching space jam

You know in the Alice in Wonderland inspired ya fantasy novel Splintered, the blue caterpillar is turned into a sexy guy with blue hair that is part of the main characters love triangle. So I mean, it could have been worse.

You know what the funny thing is, though? Caving to external social pressure, while framing it as your own initiative through romantic overtures about freewill, is basically what the dominant ideology of today tells young people to do.

What makes this even worse is that one of the Red Queen’s most “villainous” traits is the classically DEADLY sin of daring to emasculate and undermine the Red King/Knave. And that it’s even implied at the end that his is OWED HIS OWN REVENGE FOR THIS INJUSTICE. Amazing. They could not have got it more wrong.

I feel like if the grand finale twist was Alice dropping her weapons and befriending the dragon, showing that there isn’t a clear black-white way of thinking (either slay the dragon or don’t), it would have wrapped up nicely. The white and red queen could end up working together, letting it be known that it’s okay to continue a tradition, as long as you forge your own path. Alice could’ve united the rebellion and the red queen’s army, then when she goes back to the real world and chooses the “third” option, instead of marriage or staying home with mom, it would make a lot more sense. She ties her family tradition with her own path.

Did anyone else feel like they tried to make Wonderland and these characters LOOK mad, but despite the visuals, they were just... not? They had a normal hierarchy and when you strip the characters down their eccentric clothing and one or two visual quirkiness, they were just bland characters who led a relatively normal life. They can be reasoned with logic and understand it. The same logic, customs and society rules that apply in the normal world apply to Wonderland. That while Wonderland is supposed to be this lawless place where everything is possible for everyone. I feel like Alice, as a lead and as a character, suffered the worst. She is supposed to be this dreamy girl that questions everything with a wide imagination, but here she convinces herself 3/4 of the movie that this can't be real and that she's not who they're looking for. She's horridly close-minded and let's herself be dragged from place to place with little to no change in expression. It's a soulless performance. The presence of Alice alone should be felt throughout Wonderland and be the gears puts turn the story in motion, but making her role part of a prophecy feels cheap. She feels like a side character that just happens to be dragged into saving everyone reluctantly, while the main cast fights for screen time. The only aged up Alice in Wonderland story I honestly really enjoy is Alice; Madness Returns. For reasons I could write an entire essay on, but I've ranted enough.

I could never put a pin on why the ending of this movie felt so wrong. She slayed the dragon, decided to be a "free girl," and went off to run her father's business instead of selling it- it hit all the "yay, happy end!" beats, but it felt OFF. You finally put it into words! The narrative parallels were inverted. Thank you!

What I think is the weirdest about this movie is, that they have good and evil characters. The book was all about the confusing world of adults and society and everyone tries to manipulate Alice and cares only about themselves.

And after all is said and done, the "empowering" ending scene in a movie that beats as over the head with the truncated moral of "the best people are a little insane"... culminates in a joke in which Alice calls out a sad lonely aunt by saying she is mad and needs help. ôÕ So the best people are a little crazy, unless they are old spinsters, in that case they are sick. That's messed up.

As a girl with an enormous forehead, I totally feel this.

alice: “all the best people are :)” hatter: 🧿👄🧿

When you watch Alice Through the Looking Glass and realize that the Red Queen (Iracebeth) is only the way she is because of her sister.The whole thing is that the crumbs from the cookie are on Red Queen's (Iracebeth) side of the room. Why would Mirana (White Queen) eat them there unless she planned on blaming her sister. Even in that movie it seems that the White Queen (Mirana) got preferential treatment compared to the hot tempered Red Queen(Iracebeth). Their mother believed Mirana over Iracebeth and due to the fact that Iracebeth ran from the room I doubt that the favoritism was a one time thing. Later in the film when you see Iracebeth (Red Queen) getting crowned, the crown breaks because her head is too large and some people laughs. Iracebeth gave a warning "The next person who laughs will never laugh again" to which her mother actually raises her voice at her as if Iracebeth is in the wrong. Then a commoner (Mad Hatter) laughs again which makes everyone else in the room start laughing. How traumatic would that be and when she gets justifiably angry (let's face it in most real world kingdoms you would have been executed/severly punished for such a thing). He father actually yells at her and says that "I always hoped that you would show the necessary qualities to become the Queen you were born to be. I realize now that day will never come." Her own father basically gave up on her because she got angry that everyone laughed at her for something that was in no way her fault (her head). I was honestly rooting for the Red Queen in the first movie since the White Queen seemed so manipulative. Either the White Queen can really act, she is just an oblivious fool or maybe she felt so guilty for what she did to Iracebeth (Red Queen) that she just let her get the point of no return so that she could justify killing her to everyone without seeming like the "bad guy". Feel free to comment I love talking about this. If you have any more info or saw something that I missed be it for the Red Queen or the White Queen please don't hesitate to correct any inaccurate statements. Thank you to anyone that read.

Wait, they made the Mad Hatter front and center on the movie poster? For a movie called *Alice* in Wonderland? Why, because he's played by Johnny Depp?

>feminist movie >crazy old spinster trope played as an unironic negative outcome pick a lane know what would have actually been powerful? Using the spinster character to show Alice that she doesn't have to fit into the status quo and be herself, even if it means being a bit of a social pariah

i remember being so confused as a kid when she decided to fight the dragon, it made no sense to where the story was going and even as a kid it confused me... but I still liked it lmao

That's genius. Her turning down the marriage only to take the reins of the family business is actually paralleled with her attempt to break the prophecy in wonderland. Her attempt to break from society actually results in her reinforcing it!!

Not to mention that the Red Queen barely hesitates to invite Alice to her court and got her subjects to make her clothes (even if they had to use curtains). RQ might have made her subjects wear fake body parts, but she accepts those who get ridiculed based on their looks like her.

So what you're saying is, Space Jam is an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland?

Alternate ending: -Alice refuses to fight the dragon last-minute, instead realising that she had to get home - White queen absolutely goes off, secretly the bad guy - Alice and her friends defeat the white queen, realise the red queen is misunderstood - Alice gets back to the proposal and says no - Ends with her walking away from the party The End. You wouldn't even need to reshoot the whole thing.

Hot take: Tim Burton is the very definition of style over substance. He's on point when it comes to looks and art direction, but he leans completely on said art direction and can't craft a compelling narrative to save his life.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the creepy scene with Alice and the Red queen's knight. It was very N O P E.

The foot thing she did at the end made me cringe when I first saw it.

Burton tried to force the “Alice in Wonderland” plot into the the typical Hollywood “in a time of war, a hero will come…” trope…and that just wasn’t going to end well. Like putting cupcake icing on steak.

I can name Barbie films that portray the message "little girls, go against the system/ be adventurous/ be yourself!" Or the entire motto of "be who you wanna be", better than this film. Three Musketeers stands out initially. It consistently amazes me when large budget, star studded films, with established crew, do a poorer job at storytelling than low budget (but still awesome) Barbie films, which have no right to be anything like as good as they are!

And that blue caterpillar's name? *Morpheus* Alice should've been played by Keanu Reeves.

your forehead looks normal to me man, people are very weird in what they judge

Here's what happening when you take a piece about children and more specifically woman and put it in the hands of an unaware detached man: everything becomes a hollow tale about acceptance with "take control, take the action, do your duty" action movie style

Am I the only person that thought the whole “big head” thing referred to her literal gigantic head, not her forehead specifically.

Disney's relationship with this film is mostly rumors. Alice in Wonderland was a commercial and critical failure. Walt -- like Steven Spielberg says when his own films don't go over -- didn't blame the audience, he blamed the movie and said the character of Alice lacked heart. He was trying to figure out why it didn't work, settled on the fact there wasn't a compelling emotional journey for Alice, it was a string of sequences. The closest you get is Alice breaking down in the Tulgey Wood. Anyway, it was a bomb, and coming off the heels of Cinderella, a painful one, especially since so much creativity and work (and money) went into it. It wasn't re-released to theaters in Walt's lifetime not because he hated the thing, he just wasn't going to throw more money at it -- so he aired it on his TV show, Disneyland, instead of theatrical distribution. He did not dislike the movie, he analyzed it to find out why it didn't work at the time. I *might* be wrong on this, but I think Alice in Wonderland was the second (?) episode of Disneyland. Right after he passed away, in the wake of Duning's Yellow Submarine, Fantasia had a re-release and the 60's generation went nuts for it. Fantasia suddenly became a box office smash. The next thing closest to it in the catalog was Alice in Wonderland, so they re-released that theatrically also, with psychedelic poster art in style with the times, and it did well, and Disney re-released it yet again, and also re-issued The Three Caballeros, although in a truncated form. Loaning prints to universities before the age of home video was common practice for all the studios, Disney took note of the attention Alice and Caballeros were receiving, they both were given theatrical re-issue, and they made money (not a lot of money in the case of Caballeros). At the advent of home video, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, The Three Caballeros, the Winnie-the-Pooh shorts collection, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and Fun and Fancy Free were made available for purchase, followed by Pinocchio. Alice in Wonderland has been a consistent home video staple for Disney ever since, and seems to do better and better with each passing generation. Walt would be proud. As for him "not liking the film", sure he wasn't totally satisfied with it, but he wasn't satisfied with anything he made, especially after the war. One of my favorite Stories is when he released Cinderella, a film that saved him from 4 million dollars in debt, and was the most acclaimed/successful since Dumbo, Walt has admitted several times that he thought Cinderella wasn't as good as Snow White. I like that story because not only is that shady as f-, but also it says a lot about Walt's character. He was self-deprecating, a perfectionist, and again, never satisfied with anything. He felt the same way about Peter Pan as he did with Alice, I don't know of any real evidence that he forbade anyone from mentioning Alice, I mean it had 2 theme park rides. I can't think of a single film he made that he was either completely satisfied with and/or he took really seriously. That has nothing really to do with the quality of the film and everything to do with Walt's Personality. Yes Alice did fail because it lacked heart, but that's not a bad thing. Alice in Wonderland isn't supposed to have heart (or not in the way that Snow White does; not to imply that I/anyone else think Alice is a COLD movie per-say, there is a difference). It' the fairy tale for those who like to use their brain, anything resembling heavy emotion would have been self defeating to the tone/aesthetic. Especially when you consider what they had to work with, and coming from a studio that has since become an image obsessed studio that cranks out the same thing every time, making Alice a film that could never be made today. This is one of the studio's greatest achievements.

The sequel realises it was to harsh on the red queen but Alice through the looking glass is my favourite book and I can’t forgive them for basically chucking out that plot to focus on the mad hatters tea party time bs.

Perfect example of when hollywood writes in a "girl power" message in a way that makes no real sense.

fun fact: the original text was kind of a commentary on the world of stigmatised mental illness. Caroll himself had an avid interest in psychology and studied it extensively. the tea party in fact was a sort of way for those set up in asylums to associate with the outside world and people even visited asylums kind of like alice did, except in a dream. dreams were also commonly associated with madness and from that lens, the story is a dream-the symbol of the mad world. (i may not be 100% correct though, just a late off-handed comment)

"A nineteen-year-old gothy rebel who doesn't want to wear stockings MOM!" got me xD

so thats why the film made me feel empty thank you

The lesson that I'm getting from Walt Disney not liking Alice in Wonderland, coupled with Ralph Bahkshi having trouble making Lord of the Rings, is "Don't adapt your favorite book unless you want to disappoint yourself."

The way the story in the movie was rewritten had me wanting to unsee it. The way it ended, with Alice showing 0 character growth, but then going around and telling people how to live their life, just made me SO ANGRY.

Alice in Wonderland is a story of nonsensical and magical events because it is from the imagination of a child, and like a child, we stumble along with her from one unexplainable happening to the next much like a child does in real life. When you age Alice up from 9 to 19, you remove the logic behind the lack of logic and Alice needs to be on neuroleptics. Like, NOW.

14:30 Shocking how all the self-absorbed directors/producers of those versions that take themselves too serious and think they are making Alice in Wonderland "deeper than ever before" "for some reason" see the smarmy caterpillar who thinks it is smarter than anyone else and is so full of itself as being right in these assumptions? Oh, wait... it kind of makes sense, actually. lol

I thought the live action was her returning to wonderland when she was older.

oh great, I always thought that aging up Alice in combination with making an uncannily attractive version of the mad hatter was a really suspicious choice, and boy howdy I sure hate being proven right

There’s this dumb YA novel I read some time ago that was like an edgy book about alices granddaughter or something. In that, the caterpillar was a hot guy that could shape shift into a moth and served as a leg of a dumb love triangle so take that as you will

"He kisses her at last"....... DUDE I thought the whole thing that the Hatter was her father that disappeared years ago and Wonderland was real. WTF EDIT; Can I just apologise for not responding to anyone's comments? Out of everything THIS is the one thing KZfaq doesn't notify me about. And thank you for the 700+ likes ! EDIT 2: For anyone wondering the original script mentions the kiss at 38:00 and thank you for the 1.5 thousand likes!

The ending baffled me even back then as a child. I mean, even if the entire wonderland plot narratively basically worked against the end message I still understood that what Alice is "preaching" then back in the real world was SUPPOSED to be the learned personal development of her adventure and yet even kid me couldn't help her from asking "Wait, where the fluffy unicorn cloud did she learn this?"

38:04 "Oh and one more thing..." *proceeds to break her own ankles*

My greatest frustration with Alice's "not like other girls" characterization is that it places legitimate societal criticisms on the same level as "oh here's a weird thought I had". Rather than having her dislike of corsets and stockings be due to actual critiques of restrictive victorian clothing and the actual harmful effects of corsets, she dislikes them for...????? reasons???? and equates them with wearing a fish on your head because you were told to. Rather than any meaningful motivation, she's just kinda "weird" and "quirky" and ends up reinforcing some of the worst parts of the victorian era. Because, like you wonderfully pointed out, the system is framed as correct. This video was great in many ways, but as a lifelong Carrollian, (and as someone who's been working on a project on Alice adaptations)I really appreciated the way you discussed some of the background of the original work and the challenges in adapting it, as well as your clear knowledge of and/or research on the Alice books and their legacy. #teamredqueen

Man, Tim Burton is so painfully bourgeois.

As an owner of a large forehead, I approve this message.

Tim Burton's works are visually gorgeous, everything looks amazing, but he also has a specific style and his stories fall flat in some way and i dont think his style fit alice in wonderland

As a child, I actually preferred Tim Burton's film over the animated version. Not saying that I was necessarily right, in fact, tiny me was an idiot. I just didn't like how structureless the original movie was. There was no plot, no grounded cast, just lost with an average character in a nonsense world. It made me bored, uncomfortable, anxious, and oddly lonely? Did anyone else have even a similar opinion as a child?

The entire first segment about the Mad Hatter was really interesting, but...is that... ...is that really an Otamatone cover of Pirates of the Carribean I hear in the background? Excellent choice of music, 11/10

THANK YOU for noting the ending with her diving into the exploitation of China during the colonial era, which gets glossed over way too much. Seriously could go into a historical rant about how bad it is.

When I read alice in wonderland as a 10 year old I loved how much she was like me. She loved her cat, she fell asleep while lying in the sun, she would cry and panic when faced with something stressful. She was the epitome of a little girl and so I felt like I could be her, she could be me, or she could at the very least be my best friend. And that fact meant there was a possibility i could fall down a rabbit hole too. So taking that away took away the whole reason I was able to follow along so well with the story. I watched the movie when i was 11 and appreciated tim burton's version for the aesthetics but nothing more than that. The romantic tension between the Hatter and Alice was so strange to me bc in the book he was supposed to be an old guy with a hat and basically has no other role than to sit at a table and drink tea with his equally crazy friends, and that's charming but his role is just as small as theirs. The whole idea of him being important and iconic to the story was just something tim burton came up with. There are loads more iconic figures in AIW that are just as memorable and play a far bigger role in the whole thing, like the white rabbit, the queen of hearts, or the cheshire cat, and all those characters appear more than once at the very least. I feel like it borders on disrespectful to age the character of Alice up so much and make her seem so world weary. Lewis Carroll loved children, he wrote the whole book as a gift to one little girl named Alice who was his friend's daughter. Disney made a bleached version of the story but at least they never took away what made Alice, Alice. (plus they made up for it with the mickey mouse version of alice through the looking glass which i still love dearly to this day)

I feel like the moral they intended was you can't avoid responsibility forever, eventually you have to stop running and make a decision, and that decision should be what you think is right, and in the end if you do, things will then work out for you BECAUSE you made your decision and did what you thought was right..... But no one really saw the deeper meaning and implications of what they were writing because the most they thought about it was "White Queen Pretty And Good, Red Queen Ugly And Bad, Alice Slays Dragon And Becomes Business-Woman! Girl PowerTMCR!".

That explains why the one time I watched this movie, the theme felt a bit inscrutable. Turns out it was because the theme was utterly incoherent. I am bad at subtext.

Hell, they coulda even made it explicit that she was forced in wonderland and she almost ruins her chance to get home, but when she gets home, she explicitly decides against following that path in reality? It would still be a mess, but it coulda maybe worked with what they had? Still hate the "pretty=pure, ugly=evil" stuff tho

This was the monent I realized my self proclaimed Tim Burton fan-ness died. When I watched this opening night...the fantastical died inside me

Feminism according to this film: "Rebel by doing exactly what we need you to do!" Oh wait, is this a meta-commentary on how manufactured outrage (like the commoditization and marketing of punk aesthetic and punk culture) actually serves to embolden, strengthen, and cement the status quo that it supposedly hates even further?

My main beef with this movie is that my favorite character, the White Knight (who is also Carroll's self-insert) is killed off in like the first 30 seconds. Which is kinda appropriate, considering what they do to his work afterwards.

I like your idea of Alice becoming friends with the Red Queen, especially as this is similar to how she would reject marrying Hamish in favour of making a business proposal with Business Man, she would reject the creepy advances of the knave of hearts to make a business proposal with Red Queen - also, female empowerment of riding your own ship can be paralleled by female empowerment of riding a dragon, and who doesn't want more dragon riding? Bonus, if the Queen was evil as part of a prophecised system, Alice could introduce un-eviling as a form of overthrowing the system. "You don't have to be an evil ugly queen" AND "you need to stop calling your sister ugly or you'll get eaten by the Jabberwock" can go hand in hand. Also this lass needed to be thrown into more confusing situations so maybe the vorpal sword vs dragon was actually a mech vs a dragon, but she was given no instructions on how to pilot it. She's a teen so she understands the world better than child Alice, but it doesn't mean the world is easy to understand or instructions will be provided at all times.

If you want a beautifully animated perfect adaptation that adds its own flair watch jan svankmajer’s “Alice” instead

The first time I mustered the courage to ask a girl out, I was in middle School. I suggested we see a movie, but all that was out during the time was the first Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. A week later, my mom drove us to the theater, and because she didn't know what to do in her free time, she got an extra ticket and sat a few rows behind us. No, there wasn't anything close to a second date.

My little cousin got nightmares and would run into his parents bedroom crying because he was afraid and would say "Johnny is gonna get me". At first I laughed but it was a problem that lasted for years. Poor little guy.

Here's an idea for a rewrite: Instead of the prophesy being to slay the jabberwocky, it could have been to slay the red queen. The story beats would remain roughly the same for the first act, though in order to tie the story together more, she could be sent straight to the white queen during the scene in which she's thrown by the mad hatter. The white queen would then gossip about the red queen, dismiss alice's concerns about the mad hatter, and reveal that she arranged a hero's ceremony to take place without even caring what her stance is. The white queen would then offer the potion to make her normal sized again, mirroring the proposal somewhat, before alice crashes the entire thing and rides the bloodhound to save hatter. From there, the scene depicting red queen's better side plays out, and reveals that her actual intentions were to free the people of wonderland and offer them the chance to explore the world, instead of building walls around themselves and shutting out all of the "weird" things. The big battle at the end would probably be replaced with the white queen trying to fit the role of the chosen one herself, but failing miserably. And the red queen simply offering a truce in response, followed by giving alice a flying ship to sail off back into the real world, creating one final parallel leading into the final scenes of the film. This framework could also serve as an opportunity reel the caterpillar's character back into the realm of arrogant aristocrat. Another mild tweak that could be made is for the lonely single woman at the start of the film to actually have an obsession with something, whether it be traveling or otherwise, to both mirror the mad hatter and be one of the reasons alice is actually able to travel at the end of the film.

I just remember losing my mind at how little the movie had to do with the actual Alice in Wonderland. None of the character personalities were even near the original. The whole "Red Queen, Queen of Hearts, same difference" thing was the most frustrating part.

This doesn't stop Alice from being my first crush on a girl.

The juxtaposition of Burton!Alice frantically clawing at protruding roots and Disney!Alice chilling, reading a book just killed me.

I agree entirely. When I saw this movie, I was very confused that Alice thought that the moral was do what you want and forge your own path when it was following the predestined path others wanted her to follow that saved Wonderland

By far my favourite Alice adaptation is Jan Švankmajer's "Něco z Alenky" ("Alice" as it was called in English). It changes a lot of the specifics of the story, but it's filled with beautifully grotesque imagery and really captures the book's sense of comically absurd futility and arbitrariness.