Alice in Wonderland

It's as magical as its real.....or as real as its magical

A couple of months back, Diksha and I had decided that we'd watch a movie together every Sunday, and the project kept getting stalled until this Sunday. She chose, magically I'd say, Alice in Wonderland.

Mia Vasikowska, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathway and Helena Carter as Alice, The Mad Hatter, The White Queen and the Red Queen

Why magically?

Because 'Alice in Wonderland' has been a significant part of life for as long as I can remember. Right from when I read it as a story book, through to the unabridged version in college and then as an imaginary world through each day since. One book that's been an influence even beyond my otherwise list of Richard Bach, Kahlil Gibran, Ayn Rand.......

Tim Burton, the director has taken liberties with the story, but it's still very Lewis Caroll in terms of characters, it's the story that's kind of changed. This one is placed in time, it has a past, present and future. Lewis Caroll's isn't, his story just 'is' ........time is completely relative there. But by virtue of putting it in a time and space frame, the movie's simple and easy to understand.

Also showed me a prudish side of myself. Just because the book meant so much, I had up until now refused to see the movie. :)

Visually it's a real treat; would have loved to catch it on the large screen.

The movie's in essence a story of self discovery..... one got out of a stretched imagination....like actualizing full potential. And loyal to Caroll, the analogies are  abstract and philosophical.  

Alice has a recurrent dream through childhood, and one day it becomes (her) reality. It's sweet how she's so used to it being a dream, she keeps trying to wake up but doesn't as it's a level of reality, one that will stay till she can find herself.

Her fall through the rabbit hole..... it just goes on and on, clashing against obstacles soft and hard, like going deeper and deeper into the subconscious mind till you get to core, like the real you, at least the key to the real you, the key to the magical place.

And then of course there's the brilliant portrayal of the mad hatter by Johnny Depp, he was amazing. It's also a great blending or weaving together of animation and real in the movie itself. The caterpillar and the rabbit appear as real as the mad hatter and red queen.

There's Absolute, a caterpillar who is always smoking the hookah, and seems the voice of wisdom, and in the end turns out not absolute after all.

It's cute how, when he welcomes Alice, he calls her 'hardly Alice'. And when she's like, I'm Alice, why do you keep calling me 'hardly Alice'...he's like...you're hardly you, you've lost too much of your 'muchness'. Then halfway through, one time he calls her 'Almost Alice'.......until in the end she's 'Alice'.

And end of movie, Absolute turns into a butterfly........ he's a caterpillar after all. A beautiful symbolic capture of the Heraclitus, 'the only constant is flux'

Loved it !

Recommendation....If you connected and if you believe in the magical...surely watch .