Litwit Lounge discussion

Has anyone seen the recent release of the Alice in Wonderland movie? I just saw it the other night and had some questions about it and the book(s). For instance, is the entire movie a sequel to the book or are any parts derived from the original story? Does that story also portray Alice as being empowered?

Reggia, I haven't seen the new movie (or any movie version), and it's a long time since I read Alice in Wonderland --I was a grade school kid at the time. But from what I remember, I don't recall any aspects of the story that gave me the impression at the time that she was empowered, or being portrayed in an empowered light!

Thanks, Werner, I suspected not but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate the movie. In fact, I liked it very much. I liked the previous one more than I expected as well. Funny, because I had a very shortened version (short as in Golden-book short) that I used to hide from my son so I wouldn't have to read it. LOL, I just didn't get it and maybe I still won't now but I did get quite a bit out of this movie. :-)

It incorporated some quotes that I believe did originate from the book, "Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast," and "I can slay the jabberwocky!" Although I don't know that for sure, and hope someone will correct me if I am mistaken.

Well, "Jabberwocky" is a poem from the book, though the only place the creature is actually called a "Jabberwocky" is in the title. In the poem, it's the "Jabberwock".

I loved the movie a great deal for its inventiveness and its blending of some of the original funny scenes.
On an aside, the Tweedles look remarkably like trailer park denizens from the backwoods of Arkansas and Anne Hathaway looked like she was wearing makeup for a vampire movie. That lipstick was just too much.
I thought the reference to "My little Jabberwocky" was simply illiteracy... although the use of the letter "y" does make it sound like a diminutive, albeit improperly. Still I was impressed with the visual effects in the movie, although I thought it odd that the issues were transposed from the playing cards (which they were) to the great climactic battle as something else...very Lord of the Rings.

One of the great sources for discussion of Carroll's ideas is in a book, probably now long out of print called, "The Annotated Alice." I spent months as an undergraduate developing some of the ideas I learned in it in my writing. I also followed his math puzzles and read his weekly math contests and they were real brain teasers!

Thanks, Callista. Now knowing that it is a poem, I was able to look it up and find a reference to the slaying of the: Jabberwocky

Hi Rhonda, good to get your feedback. Yes, the makeup on Hathaway when everything else was so pale and white was too much of a contrast -- seemed almost grotesque or creepy, in any event. (Of course, the vampire look seems to be much in vogue...) Appreciate your mention of The Annotated Alice; it undoubtedly will make my perusal of Carroll's story much easier going -- thanks!