Paul, Alice Comparison

Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland is such a seminal text, it is no wonder that it has been adapted numerous times. Perhaps the most famous adaptation is the 1951 animated feature from Disney. This version combines scenes from Wonderland and its sequel, adding in some musical numbers. Nearly four decades later, Czech director Jan Svankmajer released his grim take on the story. Both versions feature more or less the same events as the other. However, they differ in the way the stories are told. One significant shift between the different versions of Alice in Wonderland is the way the story is framed in reference to reality.

For instance, the Disney version of the story it is not clear when Alice is awake and when she is asleep until the end. At the beginning of the film, Alice runs away from her sister and chases the white rabbit down the rabbit hole. Assuming that the viewer has not read the book and is not familiar with the story, this would be taken as “reality.” Because the bounds of reality within the work have not yet been established, it would be reasonable for the viewer to assume that the events which unfold are real.

In Jan Svankmajer’s adaptation, it is clear from the beginning that the story is a work of Alice’s imagination. The film begins with Alice and her sister sitting on the bank of a river, with Alice tossing rocks into the water. We then find out that Alice is actually sitting in a dingy apartment with a doll for a sister and a cup of tea instead of a river. Throughout the film, we see Alice’s mouth speaking the non-dialogue portions of the story. The elements of the original Alice in Wonderland are retold in the film using the objects in the room around her. The message here is that the film is the little girl’s reading of Alice in Wonderland filtered through her everyday life.

The two versions have one storytelling element in common, though. At the end of the Disney Alice in Wonderland, the fantasy world that we have accepted as being real is revealed to be a dream when Alice sees herself sleeping. Conversely, the end of Alice, where the white rabbit is missing, causes the viewer to question whether what they just saw actually happened.

The differences between the reality/fantasy framework speak more to the aesthetics of the Svankmajer version that to the Disney one. What is interesting about Alice is its blending of real and imaginary. We take the fantasy elements for granted in the Disney adaptation because it is a children’s animated movie that gives itself entirely to the fantasy. It asks us to reevaluate what we know about fantasy and reality in ways that the Disney version does not. The Disney version seems to be more concerned with telling the story and moving between musical numbers than it does with making the audience think. This is because the Disney film was made to be viewed widely by children, not the cineastes that will probably end up seeing Svankmajer’s version.