Carroll vs Burton

Lewis Carroll or Tim Burton?  Which of the two are TRULY MAD? And not angry mad but the crazy mad, as is a key characteristic in both their Alice in Wonderland stories.  First off I want to make clear that Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland is not the version of the book but a SEQUEL of Alice’s adventures after Carroll’s adventures for Alice.  Many people don’t get that fact and discriminate Burton’s version of Alice’s Adventures.  Burton likes to take classical movies and books and twist them but he does keep the key concepts.   Though it is hard to compare the two. 

Going back to the clip of the tea party from Burton’s film, I saw that he kept true to the fact that the setting of the tea party was in the same place as written in the book.  The tea party was set up by a tree in front of the house, and the same three characters were present: The Mad Hatter, Mad Hare, and the Dormouse.  There are tremendous difference between Burton and Carroll’s tea party scene.  In Carroll’s story, Alice invites herself to sit at the table as in Burton’s Alice is brought to the table by the Mad Hatter.  Carroll’s characters are angrier in a sense.  The Dormouse is always asleep; the Mad Hare is more talkative and rude, as well as the Mad Hatter and more like the Cheshire cat in being that Alice got more questions than answers. The Dormouse is also classified as a male and the tea party atmosphere from the three feel like they enjoy having a tea party that never got old. 

Burton’s tea party scene was different.  As mentioned before Alice was invited to sit upon their tea party as the Mad Hatter was awaiting Alice’s arrival. Instead of the usual “Mad” the Hatter seemed taken by Alice, meaning infatuated in a sense.  Also he seemed sane.  Though the Hare was the same but he seemed more mental in Burton’s version.  The Dormouse was completely different. The Dormouse is a female, and not really sleepy at all but more noble and knowledgeable than the others. Something I found funny though was in Carroll’s version the Dormouse was being stuffed into a teapot but in Burton’s it was Alice who was put into a teapot to be hidden from the Queen’s soldiers and also the song was sung as well about the twinkle of the bat.  From his tea party, I got a dark feel from it. Also the characters especially the Mad Hatter looked like the tea party was something that he didn’t enjoy anymore.  Also I believe Burton was dead on of the Cheshire cat.

When it comes to the Carroll’s book and Burton’s movie, there really is no comparison because basically they are about two completely different aspects of Alice’s life and stories at that.  I look at the sequel movie as an extension of Carroll’s vision of this girl named Alice and her adventures and her transition into growing up to really growing up. *What I noticed in the two stories is that in Carroll’s book Alice is more dependent on learning from the various characters that she happened upon and in Burton’s movie it’s reversed.  Alice still is there to find her true self but it seemed that the other characters were more dependent on her and learning from her instead.