After viewing multiple Alice in Wonderland movies as well as reading both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, one of the main differences in the viewing experience as a whole was a result of the mood. In Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking Glass, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as well as the Disney Alice in Wonderland movie, an overarching mood of magic, illusion, and brightness ring true. However, when comparing these to Funk Meyers Alice in Wonderland, much of this mood is lost, thus creating a whole different viewing experience. As a way to compare the two, I am going to take two different scenes throughout two of the text, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderlands and Funkmeyer’s bizarre rendition and juxtapose them in terms of mood and its creation.
In Funkmeyer’s Alice in Wonderland, the opening scene is a very chilling start to a previously children friendly story. When Alice in sitting in the grass throwing stones into the water, the movie immediately shifts. First off, the expression on Alice’s face mirrors the tone for the rest of the movie. She does not look confused, nor does she look timid. Her facial expression is one of intensity, slight dark curiosity, but most of anticipation. Next, the repetition and quietness of Alice while she throws the rocks into the water is an opening scene out of a horror movie. The mood is so strong that if a viewer did not know the story of Alice they would not eliminate the possibility of a killing, rape, or some other dark, intense action. The speed at which she throws the rocks and the way the rocks hit the water are at a slow, still pace, a speed that is present throughout the entire movie. As each rocks splashes into he water, Alice does not change her expression. Her face is still, and so is the sound. As she reaches for more rocks in her dress, the camera pans to the left to view the person next to her. The mood is one of questioning, quietness, and slowness.
In Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland the first scene is written with a gentle, more children friendly tone. To begin, there is no emotion of a rock. This object is replaced with a chain of daisies for which Alice is putting together. The rock is a symbol of a hard, rough, colder exterior while a daisy is associated with warmth, summertime and gentleness. In addition to this, the tone of Lewis Carrol’s first five sentences give power to Alice. By this I mean that his narrative is one that reflects on Alice and the power for her to make her own decisions. This is apparent when it says, “so she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and…” (9-10). Contrast this to the lack of knowledge that Alice is even sitting next to her sister in the opening scene of Funkmeyer, never mind, have power of her own, it is clear that the tone is completely different. Carrol’s way of giving status to Alice through her decisions is completely lacking in Funkmeyer’s version where it is shown that Alice is miserable, depressed, and has nothing left to do but aimlessly throw rocks into the water in a repetitive motion.
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