Alice in Wonderland

Alice is Harry Potter, and Absalom is Dumbledore. Whatever else is going on in this film, and whatever complaints one might have about lack of faithfulness to Carroll’s story, this is a great film for Harry Potter lovers for a simple reason. The entire movie is centered around one question: “Is this real, or is this only happening in my head?”

This is the story of Alice wrestling with the King’s Cross question. Burton set this up nicely by showing us Alice as a young girl, repeatedly having the dream that we all know as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This, of course, means that the whole thing is “not real.” Well, if you listened the last Hog’s Head PubCast, you’ll know to be a bit skeptical about the assertion that the imaginary world of dreams cannot tap into reality.

Alice, who is faced with something of an arranged engagement, leaves her suitor at the gazebo to follow the rabbit down the hole, and she’s immediately faced with many of the characters from her dreams. She is brought before Absalom, who must tell them whether or not she is “the right Alice.” He concludes that she is “hardly Alice,” and everyone takes this to mean she’s the wrong one. [click to continue…]

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