Alice or Alyss?

With the new Alice in Wonderland movie’s massive popularity, I started thinking about the Alice take-offs that have come out recently.  Before this new version we all enjoyed the Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, but beyond that I’m not sure anyone gave Alice much thought.  However, whether you prefer books or film, here are two rather interesting interpretations of Alice in Wonderland for your enjoyment.

The first is “The Looking Glass Wars” by Frank Beddor.  It is the first in a trilogy exploring what would happen if Alyss (Mr. Carroll clearly misspelled her name in this text) were to have escaped the wrath of Queen Redd to and landed in Victorian England.  In the first of the series, Alyss returns to Wonderland to free Wonderlanders from the tyranny of Redd’s rule.  We get marvellous descriptions of the use of white and black imagination, including the joy and damage each can bring.  The following books are entitled “Seeing Redd” and “Arch Enemy“, these  chronicle the power struggle between Alyss and her aunt Redd.  While catalogued as Young adult books, they are truly riveting, so don’t let the classification keep you away.  In general, young adult books are more tightly edited than their adult counterparts and make good, quick reads.

For a Friday night flick, try the miniseries “Alice“.  The Alice in this program is tough and goes to Wonderland to find Jack, who has given her a precious family ring. Once there, she discovers that Wonderlanders have been kidnapping humans in order to steal their emotions and keep them hostage in a casino.  (Suddenly, all the cards make so much more sense.)  There are enough references to the original Alice in Wonderland that when I chanced upon the program, it felt eerily familiar, so once I looked up the summary, the familiarity made sense.  However, the story is different enough that you won’t know what to expect.

I hope you will enjoy these two very different adaptations of Alice in Wonderland, I think Lewis Carroll would have appreciated the imagination the writers have shown.