So yesterday I was having an Alice vs. Alice moment. That is an Alice in Wonderland versus miniseries Alice moment. Basically because it seems deeply wrong to be comparing two movies and picking the one without Johnny Depp. Especially given that a large part of that decision is based on the character he played — the Hatter.
The Hatter in Alice in Wonderland has always been my favourite. (At any given costume-wearing event I’m usually a pirate or the Hatter. Never the same Hatter twice, though. It seems wrong. But endless variations upon the theme.)
In a lot of ways I don’t even like Alice in Wonderland. The story freaks the hell out of me. The book itself is creepy, the sequel more so. Even the Disney version — that cat is downright disturbing. But the Hatter, ah, the Hatter. He takes that madness and revels in it. He admits morosely that they’re all basically doomed, that nothing makes sense and never will. But he sees no reason at all to be bothered by the lack of reason. Madness is the order of the day. It’s who he is, it’s what he is. And he has an awesome hat. Cause, if you were a hatter, wouldn’t you?
So I was looking forward to Alice in Wonderland, to seeing Johnny Depp as the Hatter. And he was, without question, the best part of that movie. Also it was very pretty. Visually psychotic in all the best ways. But…
But.
They were both interesting to watch as both are more in the Return to Oz mode than attempting to follow the original story. This is going back to Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland, oddly, is much more Through the Looking Glass than In Wonderland and even textually refers to the place as ‘Underland’. So it’s a bit weird that they used the title they did.
The mini series veers even further away from the original drawing a world that has moved on in the time since the events that took place when ‘Alice of Legend’ fell down the rabbit hole. It takes the horror in the political and social structures and pushes them further along their already abstract path. Because Wonderland has always been creepy, modernisation of its parts only makes it more so.
They both have wonderful great casts (I mean, honestly Tim Curry, Kathy Bates and Colm Meaney versus Helene Bonham Carter, Steven Fry and Alan Rickman — and those lists could just go on and on) but it felt like the players in Alice had more opportunity to flex their muscles. In Wonderland was more about watched Johnny Depp be fabulous. Which, you know, he was. But it wasn’t as… gleeful as I was hoping it would be. And Andrew Lee Potts did hat tricks as the Hatter. I mean, honestly. Hat tricks.
And maybe it’s partly because Alice has a happy ending. I was watching In Wonderland and hoping that Alice would stay. Because clearly Underland is the place for her. The Hatter is her dearest friend if not her love. But she goes home. For no reason I could see. Which is just horribly sad. Alice goes home in the mini-series too but… well. It’s better.
The whole lot of characters are delinquent, underhanded, messed up… (Vermin! Saboteurs! Anarchists! Degenerate bag-heads!) There’s just something utterly charming about the heroes taking quite so longer to figure out what they’re fighting for and who and why. And… Mechanical flying flamingos! Cyborg March Hare! An Alice who can fight better than the boys! Heroes who spend their time lying through their teeth and mistrusting one another and chickening out on the hero-ing gig and trying to catch the Jabberwock in a pit trap…
Basically what I’m saying is, if you haven’t watched these two things, you should do that because the comparison is interesting. But if you’re only going to watch one…
Claire
07/10/2011
Ah, thank you for reminding me about how much I enjoyed Alice. I must watch it again, soon.
Wendy
07/10/2011
That’s a question I often ask. “Why did Sara have to go home instead of living in the labyrinth?” (Although at least in that film she didn’t have to give up on ever seeing her friends again). “Why did Alice have to return?”
I realise that it’s all a big metaphor for growing up, one last hurrah before entering adult life… And I agree that some behaviours and paradigms of childhood need to be released to become a functioning adult. But I don’t think adulthood requires leaving behind your dearest friends!
Kandace Mavrick
07/10/2011
Well, the LABYRINTH. I’m all for her taking her friends home with her, but I didn’t want her to stay. Creepy-ass place. Wonderland though… deeply disturbing, but operates on my kind of logic. Still, in the book version I’m plenty happy for her to go home again. But in the 2010 movie… it really seemed like there wasn’t any reason for her to. She was happy in Underland, not happy in her home. The Hatter wanted her to, ASKED her to stay. …and she just didn’t.
And on the metaphoric level, I don’t know. Underland didn’t seem like the escape of a child. Nineteen year old Alice isn’t a child who doesn’t want to grow up, she’s a woman who doesn’t want to be constrained by the mores of her time and situation. Who finds her world stifling and unreasonable. So she escapes to a place where ‘unreasonable’ is the order of the day.
Happiness is where you find it. ‘Should’ is a word that should be eyed with deep suspicion. You don’t have to be child-ISH to be child-LIKE. And I am functioning just fine with my rocket ship sheets.
Wendy
07/10/2011
So long as I didn’t live near the bog of eternal stench I’d be all right. Although, true, Labyrinth friends + real world = win. No real need to stay in that situation.
I’ll have to see the 2010 movie – the last Alice interpretation I’ve seen was from the 80s.
As I’ve said before, totally with you on the child-ish versus child-like stance 😉
Kandace Mavrick
07/10/2011
No, no! Not the movie, the miniseries. BETTER.
I mean, sure, both, if you want. But the movie will make you go, ‘Huh’ and ‘Those were some lovely graphics’, the miniseries will make you… well, as it’s you, I’m guessing fall in love with the White Knight.
Do eet. For srs. I can hook you up. It will all be good.
P.S. Am totally not trying to mind control you right not.
P.P.S. Really unsure why my mind control spells like a texting teenager.
Wendy White
07/10/2011
Oh. Oh! The series, then. (Didn’t see your photo recommendation on my mobile). Although I will make time to watch Depp be Depptastic. At some point. (I keep reading that as derptastic, which I’d also happily watch).
Any ability you possess that would put me in contact with the series is gratefully accepted! As Jared will attest, I tend not to watch things without prodding, my backlog of books-to-read has this effect.
Wendy White
07/10/2011
Now that I think of it, Pirates of the Caribbean is pretty much Depp being derptastic 🙂