SPOILER DISCUSSION

1.While most of the denizens of Wonderland and their respective environments can be found to have some basis in the environment Alice was studying in, the most pronounced influences on her dream seem to be her cat Dinah and her sister. The connective tissue between the two characters is the crown that Alice makes which ends up adorning both characters’ heads.

Dinah transforms into the Cheshire Cat and Alice’s sister becomes the Queen of Hearts. There’s a consistency in how the characters are introduced that makes me think they’re analogs of Alice’s interpretations/projections of Dinah and her sister. Alice is first introduced curled against the branch of a tree. This is exactly how the Cheshire Cat is introduced.

Likewise, Alice attempts to emulate her sister when she teaches Dinah manners. She’s trying to be the lecturer instead of the lectured. The Queen of Hearts replicates this maneuver and “teaches” Alice on how to properly curtsy and greet royalty.

Both the Cat and Queen exhibit great powers within Wonderland. The former acts without regards to the Queens’ rules and can create shortcuts between places. The latter finds all her power from rhetoric and manner. Her ability to declare when an a party is guilty and what their punishment should be is what sets her apart from everyone else. If something doesn’t go her way, it becomes illegal and subsequently quashed from existence.

I mentioned the connective tissue regarding the crown earlier. This becomes relevant at the end of the film. The Cheshire Cat appears near the Queen and baits Alice into getting herself into trouble. It’s only when Alice stands up for herself that the Cat uses his powers of chaos for good and opens up the possibility for Alice to escape. He usurps control of the crown at the end.

In this sense, Alice’s relationship with her sister is tied to her identity as a imaginative child who doesn’t care for the rules or the order they afford. Her relation to Dinah is tied to her identity as an rational adult who wants to impose an order and decorum on the chaos around them. These perceptions become amplified within the dream-like Wonderland. The ability to rationally ordain chaos becomes absurd as the Queen of Hearts makes reality coincide with whatever she thinks it is. The lack of regard for sense of rules becomes annoying as the Cheshire Cat seemingly jerks Alice around from place to place.

2.In this tug-of-war between identities, the Caterpillar becomes even more relevant. If the Cheshire Cat is the analog for Alice/Dinah and the Queen of Hearts is the analog for Alice/Alice’s sister, then the Caterpillar is Alice the analog for Alice herself. She’s at a crossroads between childlike wonder and boring adult rationality and is approaching a transformation. If any more proof was needed, the Caterpillar recites the modified lessons based on what Alice is learning and shares her trait of giving himself actionable advice and then ignoring it afterwards.

It’s not a coincidence that the encounter with the Caterpillar happens at the 33-36 minute mark – the halfway point of the film; it’s a formal marker of her journey. He repeatedly asks Alice who she is because that’s the struggle she’s internally dealing with. The Caterpillar is the first denizen to give Alice actionable advice, helping her figure out how to change her size and become more comfortable with her circumstances. It’s when she realizes that change isn’t bad- it’s just a shift in perspective.

The Caterpillar, now as Butterfly, is also the one to help Alice out of her dream state. His hookah smoke creates the portal she runs to in order to get to her sleeping, physical body, now transformed by the encounter with Wonderland.

3.There’s a fantastic set of frame-in-frame shots when Alice goes to the tea party. Her face is framed in the handles of multiple teapots which are brightly covered. The March Hare and Mad Hatter are framed by the same handles. Given the debacles in tea which are to ensue, the framing of the subjects is more than fitting here.

4.Speaking of the visual design of the film, there’s a fantastic consistency in the “establishing” shots of the respective environments Alice traverses to. Each of the above images is consistent with the others despite taking place in radically different environments. The shading and light work in particular helps tie the visual design of the film together and helps give these shots an immaculate texture.

5.The ending is muscular animation work. I wish the creativity afforded in editing scenes here was extended to other parts of the film, but what we get is excellent. The sequence is a little over a minute long but captures Alice going through her entire journey in reverse order. She runs away from the suit of cards and ends up back at the Caucus Race . As she continues to run through the fields, the green grass transforms into a purple tablecloth with a host of tea items. The Mad Hatter and March Hare pop into existence and dunk Alice into a cup of tea which transforms into an ocean similar to the one she cried into existence at the film’s start.

Finally, in this ocean of tea she finds the Caterpillar who repeats his inquiry. “Who are you,” he asks; his smoke filled question creates a path for Alice to run down. She finds the lock which let her into the world to begin with and finally realizes that she’s asleep. The key-lock frame within a frame demonstrates that her issues are all in her mind; she holds the key to resolving them.

6.As she tries to force herself to wake, the colors of Wonderland’s denizens start to swirl and mix together before forming into an image of the sleeping Alice. This moment is a counter-point to the similar start of the film, where the colors of Alice and Dinah merge together to create the image of the White Rabbit which leads Alice into Wonderland. It’s a fantastic “closing” of the dream.

7.Finally Alice wakes up from her adventures and finally gets to enjoy some of the tea that she so sorely missed out on during her encounter with the Mad Hatter and March Hare. Granted, after swimming through an ocean of it, I don’t know how appetizing a cup would sound, but it’s a cute ending regardless.