Topic > Adaptation of Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland

In the famous novel Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll expresses themes of chaos, fantasy, and violence, which raise important questions throughout the novel. However, in the many film adaptations of the story, some of these themes are lost or manipulated to create a different meaning. Disney's 1951 version of "Alice in Wonderland" follows the story of Alice's time in Wonderland quite closely, maintaining the themes of violence and disorder but changing the context. The changes made manage to replace Carroll's original Alice with a much more docile version. This character change is so drastic because of the emphasis of Alice's violence in the novel; by removing this part of her character, Alice becomes a new person, thus changing the interpretation of Wonderland and the overall meaning of the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One of the greatest depictions of Alice's violence in the novel is shown in her relationship with her cat, Dinah, who she uses to terrorize and threaten the characters in Wonderland. This is extremely prevalent in his conversation with the mouse, where he continues to raise his cat Dinah to the rodent. In this conversation, Alice begins by describing her pet who "sits purring so nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face - and she's such a lovely thing to nurse - and she's so good at catching mice - oh, I apologize!” Alice notices her misstep too late and scares the mouse with the idea of ​​a hunting cat (p. 21) in an attempt to lighten the conversation by talking about the neighbor's dog and to help the mouse take his mind off Dinah , Alice manages to repeat her mistake again, "...and he'll pick up things when you throw them, and he'll sit down." farmer, you know, and he says it's so useful it's worth a hundred pounds! He says it kills all the mice and - oh dear!' (page 22) This inability to control herself around the mouse and repeatedly bring the conversation back to the primal instinct of these animals shows Alice's fascination with violence does again when she joins the mouse along with another group of birds , where she talks about Dinah, "for she was always ready to talk about her pet: "Dinah is our cat. And she is so good at catching mice, you can't think! Why, he would eat a bird as soon as you look at him! (page 29) Dinah's ferocity is lost in the Disney adaptation, where what we see of the cat is in the opening song of Alice, "In a World of My Own". movie, we have a very different depiction of Alice's ferocious and terrifying carnivore, and instead it's a sweet, fluffy kitten complete with a pink bow tied around its neck. This image of Alice's now innocent cat assures the audience that it could pose no threat to the Creatures of Wonderland, which seems to recreate Alice's desired effect. Disney wants to reinforce this idea of ​​femininity and passivity in which Alice plays the victim. Audiences also miss the entire interaction with the mouse in the Disney film with the entire scene removed from the plot. By removing both parts of this novel from the film, Alice loses any traits that might have an inclination towards a violent nature, allowing her to become more victimized and sympathetic. Alice's fascination with the disturbing and sinister emerges in the novel in subtle ways, helping readers unconsciously construct thisawareness of his evil tendencies. When Alice is just entering Wonderland and we haven't had a chance to see her true character, she lingers on the idea of ​​physical harm longer than one would think necessary. When Alice comes across the liquid labeled “drink me,” she decides to see if it is marked “poison” because she had read several beautiful stories of children who had been burned and eaten by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all because they did not remember the simple rules. that their friends had taught them: such as that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife; usually bleeds; and that, if you drink a lot from a bottle marked "poison", it is almost certain that sooner or later you will not agree with it. (page 13). This passage in itself reveals a lot about Alice. Noting some diction, Alice describes these creepy stories as “cute,” which seems a bit lighthearted compared to the content of her stories. She also explains that if these victims had followed certain rules, they wouldn't be hurt, which seems like Alice feels like these victims deserve the consequences they receive. Going into the description of the stories, Alice seems to focus on the most macabre details, which is not particularly normal for a young girl of the 19th century. This attribute of Alice's is not revealed at all in the film, and in fact this particular quote is almost entirely cut from the film. Aiming to encourage the image of a helpless version of Alice in this scene, Alice says only that she needs to look at the label and make sure it doesn't say "poisoned." This image of Alice is also obtained through the creation of the character of the Handle, who despite being completely absent from the novel, allows Alice to be more childish and victimized by having to explain everything to her and not allowing her to understand things on her own as she did in the novel . Alice's interest and involvement in violence is not just about inflicting it on others. In the novel, as Alice points out the ever-changing growth of the cookie and the drink, she becomes angry and begins to cry. Instead of consoling, however, Alice regrets: "Come on, there's no point in crying like that!" said Alice to herself rather sharply. "I advise you to stop immediately!" She generally gave herself excellent advice (though she very rarely followed it), and sometimes she scolded herself so severely that it brought tears to her eyes; and once she remembered trying to slap her ears for cheating in a game of croquet against herself…” (p. 14). Alice not only occasionally berates herself to the point of tears, but has also injured herself with corporal punishment for cheating while playing croquet. This is extremely interesting regarding Alice's character, because so far in the novel we have no reason to see remorse or guilt in her behavior, but we have several clues about her violent nature, so following Alice's character traits, we see her use discipline as a way to experiment with one's sadistic interests. Once again, we see this taken away from the Disney plot, and we are only given the tears of a confused, overgrown Alice who doesn't have the violent qualities we see. One part of the novel where we witness violence in both giving and receiving on Alice's part is when she becomes too grown up again and gets stuck in the Rabbit's house. As Alice is caught in the White Rabbit's house, she tries to grab the Rabbit, “suddenly he reached out and made a tear in the air. He couldn't catch anything, but he heard a little scream and a fall,” he tried again, “and finally he spread his hand again and made another tear in the air (p. 34). This time there.