Maybe This Movie Isn't For Kids Afterall

When I was 5 and saw this movie for the first time I was simply immersed in the enchantment of viewing a Disney Film. Popcorn, candy, and a root beer kept my mouth shut until the movie started rolling. As I sat there and witnessed the calamity and collage that unfolded before me, I slowly dozed off. Must have been the pixie dust.

The message and meaning did not affect me. I didn't identify with a young curious girl. Chasing rabbits was all in fun, but what the hell was that cat doing?

Fast forward to my current age, (25) I am begging my wife to unload some of her videos from her excessive collection. She agreed to sell many on Ebay but only if we viewed the movie before we sell it.

Grudgingly I popped in the VHS. What I sat through was surreal. I then comprehended why I didn't like the movie to begin with. It was not really a children's tale at all. I confirmed my feelings when I read the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

People say it is written for children, however there are jokes in it that may not tweak the mind of children in the upper grades of elementary school. Disney realized this and adjusted their screenplay to accommodate a younger audience.

Did they succeed?
........................................................
(Uh-oh. That smoking caterpiller visited me again. I think I got a second hand high).

I place myself on the pot and plottingly ponder the premise that I passivley presented to you preceding this production. I have callously concerned myself with my counter-conundrums and capriciously arrived at this conspicous conclusion.
........................................................
No.

For Disney to pierce the hearts of youngsters with this movie would be laughable, but then again so was Pocahontas (I will not review that one or I'll be cursing for weeks).

To me this movie is a social comment. Alice is just a vehicle for the message. It all takes place in her mind and is interpreted through her perception.

For example:

When Alice meets with the flowers and gains their acceptance by listening to them speak. They wine dine and moonshine her, but when it becomes Alice's turn to speak they ignore her. When they realize she is not a flower they ostracize her. This is typical behavior of local mormons in my area and this "us and them" mentality directly applies itself to any other culture thus making it universal. Simply Alice wasn't good enough to join the flowers relief society. I found this to be like an impressionistic painting of reality.

Another example:

"The Strange Case of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum" Who are they? Why are they important? When I access the database of my kid memory I remember that these two were sheer madness and the tale they tell pure diversion. However, today I can see that they are also typical of human ignorance. The pair wishes not to hear Alice speak, and Alice cuts them short after their tale revealing her unwillingness to accept messages from an unlikely carrier. The real message here is similar to a greek myth where a craggy old man asks to stay in a poor couples house. They treat him with dignity and only later find he was Zeus. The moral is that you shouldn't judge a cover by its book. That is a very good moral, but the story that the Tweedle brothers tell is also relevant in todays world.

The walrus and the carpenter is a great tale showing how a good walrus can snow everybody, exploit a carpenter, and eat all of his clams too (basically a how to on how to become a distinguished member of the republican party). Yes the time has come for cabbages and kings.

Final example:

The trial that the Queen holds for Alice it obviously tainted. However much like in real life (or O.J. Simpson's trial) we see that it isn't the trial that matters at all. If the plaintiff can muster up enough diversions, the jury and judge will be distracted enough so that the facts will go ignored. Thus justice isn't dispatched and a sad reality is revealed. In the case of this movie power is abused and the civilized order of a court room disintegrates into chaos, the antithesis of the law.



Kids may understand some of the messages, but I think the type of madness that a Disney kid would appreciate falls mainly into the Robin Williams version of the genie in Aladdin.

If you disliked my Epinion and thought it meandered, avoid this movie because it is modeled in a similar disjointed fashion.


By the way we ended up selling the VHS version and buying the DVD. The DVD is super like most Disney DVDs. It has a great documentary about the making of the film, but I seem to remember a different one on the VHS version. No complaints, just curious.