◎The original elements of the movie, especially Carol’s famous absurd poem "Nonsense"
, the collaboration between the genius director Tim Burton and the animation genius screenwriter Linda Wolfton, presents us with a difference. Alice on stage and screen drama. However, the elements in the movie basically come from the original work. For Europeans and Americans, as well as "Alice fans" and "Carol fans", this movie is a classic interpretation of the original elements in a new storyline. It is also for this reason that once the movie was released, it won unanimous praise from all walks of life in Europe and America. However, it did not cause the expected sensation in China, which may be related to the fact that ordinary Chinese audiences are not very familiar with the original work and not very familiar with Carol.
Let's count the original elements in the movie:
The main characters in the film naturally come from the original work. The familiar Alice, Mr. White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Big Blue Caterpillar, March Hare, Dormouse, Dodo, Knight of Hearts (J) are all from Carol’s first book Alice, also known as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". The red queen, the tyrant of the fairyland, can be said to be a combination of the queen of hearts in the first Alice and the red queen in the second Alice ("Alice through the Mirror"), the common temperament of the characters in the two originals It's all the same rude and rude. The Red Queen's frog servant and fish servant are also from the original book. You must remember the plot of entanglement of the wigs of the two small animal servants. The pigs used by the Red Queen to make furniture brackets and footsteps connect people with the little pigs of the Duchess’ babies who were later carried by Alice into the woods. The Baird dog is associated with the rat-fearing hound in the original book. Although the monkey used by the Red Queen to carry furniture is not mentioned in the original work, there are monkeys in the illustrations drawn by Carol for the manuscript and the illustrations made by Tanier for the first edition (see "Alice Dreaming in Wonderland, Social Science Press, March 2010). The poker army under the Red Queen is naturally from the first Alice, but the white queen and her chess army are from the second, which is "Alice through the Mirror". The fat brother in the film can be said to be a combination of the "antagonist" brother in the second Alice and the egg-shaped short fat man. The three powerful generals under the Red Queen—Jabberwock, Jubjub bird and Bandersnatch (translated as Big Hairy in the movie) are all from Carol’s famous " Nonsense" Absurd Poems.
Speaking of this absurd poem "Nonsense", I have to mention the classic annotated children's book "Alice in Wonderland" recently published by China Social Science Press. There are many editions of Carol's children's books in China. As an "Alice fan", I basically have these editions on hand. However, this children’s book published at the same time as the 3D blockbuster really shines on my eyes. This is not only the first Chinese annotated version of Alice, it explains most of the symbolic meaning of Carol’s children’s book and presents the Victorian life of Carol. The society of the era, and the book also includes several series of illustrations: including 38 illustrations drawn by the author for the manuscript; 93 illustrations drawn by Sir John Tennell for the first edition; famous illustrator of the golden age of American illustrations Peter Newell painted 80 illustrations for the 1901 edition; there are also 8 color inserts and 5 two-color illustrations by the British Golden Age illustrator Charles Robinson. The illustrations are two-color printing, and the paper is also good. After I got it, I read it to my four-year-old son, and the translation was also good, especially the famous "Nonsense", which can be described as a witty translation. After reading this poem to my child, it really had a different effect, as Alice said in the book-"Somehow, it seems to pour all kinds of thoughts into my mind." My son also Picking up the toy Allegro, imitating the rhythm and rhyme of the poem, he began to write a "nonsense" poem. Haha, this is the effect of classic poems!
Many plots in the film are also related to the original work. The well-known Alice fell into the rabbit hole, opened the small golden key of the garden gate, drank the liquid that can be made smaller in the small magic bottle, and ate the cake that can grow up. Animals, flowers, and insects can speak-these naturally come from the original work. The four pairs of dances on Alice’s engagement ceremony reminds of the "Four pairs of lobster square dances" introduced to Alice by the plain turtle and the griffin in the original book. The red rose requested by Hamis’s mother was mistakenly planted into white roses by the gardener. It reminds people of the plot in which the three brothers of spades dyed the wrongly planted white roses into red roses in order to escape the punishment of the Queen of Hearts in the original book, and Hami The temperament and words of Si's mother are easily reminiscent of the ugly duchess in the original work, and her words of letting out dogs to chase rabbits will remind audiences familiar with the original work of the famous "tail poem". Aunt Yi Jinli, who attended the engagement and was mentioned several times, is just a harlequin who laughed at the audience, but it actually represents a metaphor. If Alice cannot successfully complete the journey of searching for the soul, then this aunt is her future. , And the phrase "He is a prince, but he cannot marry me in order to inherit the throne" said by Aunt Yijinli, which reminds people of the true prototype of Carroll's novels-after Alice Liddell grew up, Once fell in love with Prince Leopold who was studying in Oxford, the prince also failed to unite with Alice for the throne. The talkative twin sisters at the party, in Alice's words after waking up from the dream, are like the rival brothers in the fairyland, but they also remind me of the little white cat and little black in the original "Alice through the Mirror" cat.
The landing point of Alice who fell into the rabbit hole also has a special plot setting: she first smashed through the floor and fell on the ceiling of a room in Wonderland, and then under the action of gravity, every hair grew up, and then fell back. on the floor. This kind of plot setting is also related to the original work. It means that Alice had already passed through the center of the earth when she fell, and fell into a wonderland somewhere on the other side of the diameter of the earth. There is a problem about the movement of objects falling into a hole through the earth. Please refer to the note on page 15 of the social science edition of "Alice in Wonderland". Alice, who has a vague memory, didn't have to spend as much trouble as the original, and entered the garden of wonderland at the end of the seventh chapter. In the film, Alice quickly entered the garden of wonderland with the vague memory of childhood. Here, she first encountered Trojan horse flies and snapdragon flies fighting with each other, and was startled by the green piggy that flashed by suddenly, all of which came from the second Alice. Then I saw the rival brothers and Dodo who love to fight against each other. As for why the twin brothers love to fight against each other, there are also notes in the book mentioned above, and the book translates the brothers into "opposite toot" and "Right, right" is really amazing. It is better than the "right" and "right" translated in the movie. This seems to be mentioned in the translator's preface of that book. As we all know, the Dodo is the incarnation of the author Lewis Carroll himself, but there are not many shots of the Dodo in the film. Then everyone took Alice to find the big blue caterpillar in the original book that gave Alice a little maze.
After being attacked by the Bandel beast in the forest, Alice met the faint Cheshire cat in the original book. After the Cheshire cat took her to the Mad Hatter, the crescent moon in the film turned into wood. The smiling face of the county cat, this has to be mentioned in the notes of the above-mentioned book (see page 73). Now, it’s the turn of the important character Mad Hatter to play. He was the first to recognize Alice and was the first to welcome Alice. He said "I'm thinking about words beginning with the letter M", which reminded us. In the first original book, Dormouse said the words beginning with M, and in the second book, Alice said when she met the White King and his messenger, the word game beginning with the letter H. He also wore the high hat "This hat is 40% off" in the original book. When the Red Heart Knight brought people to search for Alice, the Mad Hatter took the lead in carrying the poem that imitated the "Little Star" in the original book. Later, the Mad Hatter, as an accomplice of Alice, was imprisoned by the Red Queen, which reminds people of the face of the White King’s messenger in prison painted by Tennier that resembles Berant Russell. The March Hare who littered tea sets and kitchen utensils was reminiscent of the kitchen lady who littered kitchen utensils and used pepper a lot in the Duchess's Mansion. There are also scenes of the Mad Hatter and the March Hare putting their pocket watches in their tea cups.
It’s the turn of the film’s very important riddle that has been mentioned many times, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" He himself has his own explanation (please refer to the comment section of the above quote), and the answer is the same as the answer given by the Mad Hatter at the end of the film: there is no answer at all. The most important ultimate plot in the film is that Alice kills the monster Explosive Neck Dragon. You might say that this can't be combined with the original, because in the poem "Nonsense" in the original, it is a handsome male teenager who kills the monster. But I still want to remind you that Sir Tennier’s pictures enrich the content of the original work. In the picture he drew, not only was it little Alice who killed the monster, but the appearance of the monster in the movie was almost a copy of the picture. And when the executioner was cutting off the Mad Hatter's head, the Cheshire Cat was up in the air with his hat on, so that the executioner, the Red Queen, the Knights of Hearts, and everyone present looked at each other in surprise. This also reminds us of the red in the book. The King Peach and the Queen and the executioner discuss the plot of how to chop the head of the Cheshire Cat. There is also the Red Queen who just appeared on the scene questioning who stole her flan. It is also from the original story that the Knight of Hearts who used traditional nursery rhymes stole the queen's flan.
◎The extension of the original absurdity, symbolism, and non-speaking artistic features in the
film. The absurdity that runs through the film is the phrase "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" We have already said this before.
The two particularly important days in the film are named, one is Gribling Day when Alice returns to Wonderland, and the other is Frabjous Day when Alice kills the dragon. They are all self-created words, which continue the creative style of Carol’s original work. In the original book, when the vegetarian turtle told Alice the name of their courses at the school in the sea, the author mostly used self-created words that were similar to the original words. For example, read reading as reeling. Gribling here is a re-creation of the word created by Carol in the original book, which is brillig, which is interpreted by the fat egg linguist as "four o'clock in the afternoon" by the chubby linguist. Tim and the screenwriter only After adjusting the alphabetical order on the basis of this word, it became absurd and absurd, and we know that Alice’s engagement ceremony also started at four in the afternoon, which is the time when she returned to Wonderland. Frabjous here should be created based on the word fabulous, and Frabjous Day is also the "glorious day". The name of the blue caterpillar in the movie is also very interesting. It can be regarded as a variant of absolute, which means that the caterpillar's words are absolutely authoritative. At the end of the movie, the caterpillar "wraps itself as a cocoon" and emerges as a butterfly is a metaphor and symbol for Alice to finally successfully complete her soul-searching journey.
And Bolton made Carol's symbolic meaning go further. The name of the Red Queen is based on the name of Queen Elizabeth, created through alienation. There are more such innovations in the movie.
The non-doctrinal color is a consistent feature of Tim Bolton's movies, that is, there are neither complete good people nor complete villains in the film. The Red Queen in the play has a huge head and a willful temper. She is a unique tyrant in the fairyland. But he always loved the black knight around him, and the reason for killing his husband, the Red King, was because he was afraid that he would leave him. The Red Queen has been asking for most of the movie: Why can't people love her? But Mr. Mad Hatter, who is known for his madness, is the organizer who sent the white rabbit to introduce Alice into the fairyland again and instigated the people in the fairyland to resist the Red Queen. The White Queen, who advocates peace and does not kill any living creatures, prefers to use dead fingers and objects to make Alice a potion to restore her original form. Moreover, her sister, the Red Queen and the Knight of Hearts, were exiled to the wild land under the pretext of "not killing", making the Knights of Hearts rather dead than being exiled.
The "Glorious Day" battle between the poker army led by the Red Queen and the chess army led by the White Queen in the film ended with the victory of the White Queen, who represented the righteous side. This is the same as the chess represented by Alice in the original book. White is also the side with a mild temperament. It has a certain moral preaching color just like defeating the grumpy red side represented by the Red Queen. However, the hysterical words of the Red Queen in the movie remedy this: "I am the eldest daughter, and I was officially crowned!"
There is also the classic dialogue that is also alienated and unspoken. At the beginning of the film, the dreaming little Alice asked her father: "Am I crazy?" His father replied, "I think it is. But let me tell you a secret-successful people are like this!" The dialogue appeared again when Alice, who had grown bigger, tried to rescue the Mad Hatter, and played a role in deepening the theme of the film. The same thing is played by Alice's father's words-six incredible things can happen before breakfast. Alice was thinking about the six incredible things in Wonderland, and she mustered up the courage to kill the strange dragon.
—— Regarding the characters in the play, I still like the Red Queen played by Helena Burheim Carter, who plays various subtle expressions and gestures very vividly. The Mad Hatter played by Johnny Depp’s exaggerated dress, enlarged eyes with special effects, and a vivid interpretation between the clown and the prince, and the Ford dance he performed for the glorious day. The madness, black gloomy black Gothic style pushed to a climax. There is also the blue-striped Cheshire cat, the rival brother, and the voice of Alan Rickman of the caterpillar. It is true and illusory, vivid and mysterious. The actor of Alice, this Australian model is also very well chosen. Not only does she have the aristocratic temperament of the Victorian era, but her model body fits the needs of constantly changing dresses.
——It is strongly recommended that you go to the movies after watching the social science version of "Alice in Wonderland", or if you have already watched movies, then take this book as an overall review. In that case, not only will you see three-dimensional movie images, but you will also follow Carol to find your own multi-dimensional, even infinite-dimensional soul space.
(Bibliography: "Alice in Wonderland", China Social Science Press, March 2010, translated by Fir Shan)
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