Saturday, July 26, 2008

Alice in Dazed and Confused

So, I recently came across information that Tim Burton is making an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland and then Houdini confirmed my suspicions (read his two cents).





I am a HUGE Alice fan. And I must say I really, really love the Disney movie for a variety of reasons, but I do agree with Houdini on this one - read the books. It seems that Burton wants to make a movie about a little girl trippin' on acid, which is not the beauty of the story. Fail.

And finally, I dislike the Disney Princesses line of merchandise because it excludes Alice (for obvious "not a princess" reasons). I would so buy Alice merch if it were available. They are loosing out on approximately $4 to $55 from me.



- isn't Pocahontas a princess?

11 comments:

TheGreatHoudini said...

Well, you'll probably be able to find plenty of Alice merch at Hot Topic after this movie comes out.

er1n said...

LOL! Finally, my dreams are coming true...

Courtney said...

While I agree that Alice isn't about the drugs that Lewis Carroll may have been on while writing it, I'm not quite so adamant as you guys that Alice is a light-hearted children's story. I, personally, think a lot of the story is terrifying. Sure, it's about the wonders of the world as seen through the eyes of a child, discovery, etc etc etc, but, in a lot of ways, childhood is the scariest time of life, simply because it seems like anything is possible. I'm actually excited to see how Tim Burton does this. He's good at clever, slightly dark stories done in entertaining ways- which is mostly what Alice is. At the same time, I'm not nearly as attached to the Disney version as you are.

TheGreatHoudini said...

Oh dear. Look, I hate to be an Alice snob but, well... I am.

Number 1: The idea that Lewis Carroll wrote the Alice stories on drugs is unsubstantiated at best and an outright lie at worst.

Number 2: It is just a children's story. Carroll knew a little girl named Alice Liddell and wrote the stories for her. End of story. They were never meant to be dark and gothic like so many think they are.

Oh, and for the record I greatly dislike the Disney version of Alice. It's a horrible frankenstein of Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

I'll have to let you borrow my annotated versions of the stories sometime.

Courtney said...

Granted, I haven't read the stories since, say, fifth grade. I know that they were written as children's stories for Carroll's neighbor or little friend or whatever, but I still think they're terrifying. Haha I'm treading on thin ice here, I know, as the both of you love some form of Alice, but the Cheshire Cat and the caterpillar and the scene with the cakes are things of my nightmares. That's all I'm saying. Book or movie, it's scary.

fatpinkchicken said...

Everyone is right, here. Because it is a basically just a kid's story but at the same time, like many older kid's tales, it's pretty damn scary.

Just look at any number of old fairy tales and other older children's stories.

fatpinkchicken said...

Also, Pocahontas is a princess, but since when was Mulan one? And the princess merch completely sucks, because while you can buy a Tink shot glass, you cannot buy a Disney princesses one.

TheGreatHoudini said...

I don't know, I guess I'm just not getting what people think is so darn scary about the Alice stories.

fatpinkchicken said...

If I suddenly became an abnormal size, I'd be freaking the eff out.

Courtney said...

Have you ever heard/read the story of Tailypo? Not actually related to the Cheshire Cat at all, but in my mind, they are very similar. The unknown can be wonderful or whatever, but it can also kill you and your hounds. That's all I'm saying. Also to be remembered, my greatest fear is clowns. So, yeah. My fears may not be everyone's. And ditto to Heather's last comment.

Anonymous said...

The book is one of the wittiest yet strange i've ever read. Tim Burton just wants to keep that intact. if you can read that novel and not think that every character can have a darker side then you are just fooling yourself. similarly, i feel that the evil queen of hearts has a good side, but she's quite too mad to let it show. they're all mad, and the madness is what makes the story great. Houdini, you really should pop a chill pill: nothing is ever "Just a childrens story". everything has a deeper meaning. childrens stories most of all, but to say "just" implies that the lessons and abstract ideas are not important. Alice merch will blow my mind when the movie comes out. to sign off i will just say that Lewis Carroll thought out every line in that book and made it all make sense in the eyes of a child and the eyes of an adult, which makes it transend from being "just a childrens book".