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Alice Liddell’s personal copy of “Alice In Wonderland”, the story she inspired, will be auctioned next month along with other rare first edition fantasy titles including “The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz“, “Winnie The Pooh“, and “The Tale Of Peter Rabbit“. The first edition Wonderland text has been part of the private collection  of former U.S. professional football player Pat McInally. The auction, featuring primarily children’s literature, is expected to generate over $1 million in sales.

Alice first stepped onto silver screen in 1903, portrayed by May Clark in Alice in Wonderland. The 8 minute silent film was written and directed by Cecil M. Hepworth, who played the Frog Footman in the film, and whose wife played both the Queen of Hearts & the White Rabbit.

The Edison Company released a ten-minute long adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in 1910.

Alice In Wonderland (1910)

A full length silent feature followed in 1915, directed by W.W. Young & starring Viola Savoy as Alice.

In 1923, Walt Disney directed and starred in Alice’s Wonderland, a short cartoon based on Alice In Wonderland in which Alice, played by Virginia Davis, visits an animation studio where she is shown various cartoon scenes. Later that night, she visits a cartoon wonderland in her dreams. This short was the first of Walt Disney’s famous Alice Comedies, series of animated cartoons created by Walt Disney in the 1920s, in which a live action little girl named Alice and an animated cat named Julius (who bears a striking resemblance to Felix the Cat) have adventures in an animated landscape. Click the image below to watch Alice’s Wonderland on YouTube.

Alices Wonderland (1923)

Walter Lang directed a silent movie adaptation in 1928 entitled Alice Through A Looking Glass.

Alice Through A Looking Glass (1928)

In 1931, Alice found her voice in cinema history’s first talkie version of Alice in Wonderland, directed by Bud Pollard & featuring dialogue written by Ashley Ayer Miller. Alice was played by actress Ruth Gilbert.

Alice In Wonderland (1931)

Christmas of 1933 saw Charlotte Henry play Alice in this rendition directed by Norman Z. McLeod. This version also featured many elements from Through The Looking Glass & featured Hollywood legends W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, Cary Grant as The Mock Turtle, and Gary Cooper as The White Knight. It also contains an animated version of The Walrus and the Carpenter by cartoon legend Max Fleischer. You can watch the entire film on YouTube.

Alice In Wonderland (1933) - YouTube

Speaking of Max Fleischer, Betty Boop stepped through the looking glass in the 1934 animation Betty in Blunderland. In the cartoon, Betty falls asleep while doing a white rabbit jigsaw puzzle and “awakens” just in time to follow the rabbit into Wonderland.

• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 1 of 3)
• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 2 of 3)
• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 3 of 3)

Walt Disney’s 1951 animated Alice In Wonderland also incorporates elements from Through The Looking Glass, including The Jabberwocky and The Walrus & The Carpenter. Kathryn Beaumont was the voice of Alice.

Disney's Alice In Wonderland (1951)

1966 was an amazing year for Wonderland with the release of four Alice inspired films. United Productions of America (creators of Mr. Magoo) released a 52-minute animated feature called Alice of Wonderland in Paris, in which Alice, now a celebrity due to her Wonderland adventures, dreams of visiting Paris. A talking mouse named Francois uses a magical mushroom to shrink Alice & together they explore Paris as Francois narrates a series of Parisian themed short stories. The cartoon has little connection to the original stories other than a brief mention of Lewis Carroll’s book & the magic mushroom. The characters were voiced by actors Carl Reiner, Allen Swift, Howard Morris, and Norma MacMillan who played Alice.

Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966)

Hanna Barabera’s Alice in Wonderland, or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? also aired as a TV special in 1966. It featured the vocal talents of Sammy Davis Jr. as the Cheshire Cat, Zsa Zsa Gabor as the Queen of Hearts, Mel Blanc as the Caterpillar, Harvey Korman as the Mad Hatter, and starred Doris Drew as Alice.

A live action BBC made-for-TV movie directed by Jonathan Miller aired on December 28th, 1966 as “The Wednesday Play” Alice in Wonderland & starred Peter Sellers (King of Hearts), Sir John Geilgud (Mock Turtle), Michael Redgrave (Caterpillar), and Anne-Marie Mallik (Alice). Music for the film was written by Ravi Shankar & the Caucus Race scene features an uncredited performance by a very young Eric Idle (Monty Python).

A musical rendition entitled Alice Through The Looking Glass also aired on NBC television in 1966. The full-color feature boasted a star studded cast featuring Judi Rolin (Irish Whiskey Rebellion) as Alice, Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island) as the White King, Agnes Moorehead (Bewitched) as The Red Queen, Tom & Dick Smothers (The Smothers Brothers Show) as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Jack Palance (Ripley’s Believe It or Not!) as the Jabberwock, and Jimmy Durante (It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World) as Humpty Dumpty.

Another musical version emerged in 1972. Written and directed by William Sterling, Alice’s Adventure’s In Wonderland starred Fiona Fullerton as Alice, Peter Sellers as the March Hare, Dudley Moore as the Dormouse, Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit, and Michael Jayston as Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson.

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland (1972)

The first pornographic version, Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy, was released in 1976 (it had to happen eventually) combining Lewis Carroll’s characters with elaborate song and dance numbers, offbeat comedy, and sexual content.

Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (1976)

Terry Gilliam’s Jabberwocky was released in 1977. It featured several of the comedic geniusses behind Monty Python’s Flying Circus including Gilliam, who also directed, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin who stars as the reluctant hero who, through a series of clumsy, slapstick misfortunes, is forced to hunt down a terrible dragon, the Jabberwock, after the death of his father.

Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky (1977)

• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 1 of 3)
• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 2 of 3)
• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 3 of 3)

Alisa v Zazerkale (1982)

Alicja (aka Alice), starring Sophie Barjac, was also released in 1982. It’s an unusual modern interpretation in which Alice falls in love with a jogger called Rabbit who is being plotted against by another character named Queenie… Other Wonderland characters involved in the tale include the Cheshire Cat, Caterpillar, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Griffin, Mock Turtle, and the Duchess.

Alicja (1982)

1982 saw two more Alice’s brought to life on the small screen. Meryl Streep portrayed her in the Emmy Award winning Alice at the Palace, costarring Betty Aberlin, Debbie Allen, Richard Cox, and Michael Jeter.

Alice At The Palace (1982)

Annie Enneking also took the role of Alice in a 1982 television production of Alice in Wonderland, which was adapted from a stage play performed by Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis. This production borrows elements from both Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. The sets and costumes are colorful and well designed, but observers have complained that “it’s slightly spoiled by the actors bellowing their lines as if they were performing for a live audience several hundred feet away rather than the whisper-sensitive microphone“.

Alice In Wonderland (1982)

Fushigi no Kuni no Alice, an anime adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, aired on the Japanese network NHK from March 26, 1983 to October 10, 1984. The series was a Japanese-German coproduction between Nippon Animation and Apollo Films. Of the 52 episodes produced, only 26 ever aired in the United States.

1985’s two-part TV musical Alice in Wonderland covers both stories & stars Natalie Gregory (Oliver & Company) as Alice. In this rendition, produced by Irwin Allen, the Jabberwock materializes when Alice reads the poem The Jabberwocky. The beast then pursues her throughout the rest of the show, which boasts an enourmous, star-studded cast including Scott Baio (Charles in Charge), Red Buttons (The Poseidon Adventure), Sid Caesar (Your Show of Shows), musician Sammy Davis Jr. (Cannonball Run), Roddy McDowall (Planet of the Apes), Telly Savalas (Kojak), Shelley Winters (Pete’s Dragon), musician Ringo Starr (A Hard Day’s Night), Beau Bridges (My Name Is Earl), Lloyd Bridges (Airplane!), Ernest Borgnine (The Wild Bunch), Carol Channing (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Patrick Duffy (Dallas), Merv Griffin (The Merv Griffin Show), Arte Johnson (Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang), Harvey Korman (The Carol Burnett Show), Karl Malden (Captains Courageous), Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), John Stamos (Full House), and Jonathan Winters (Mork & Mindy).

Also released in 1985 was the Gavin Millar film, Dreamchild, in which a reporter attempts to uncover the ‘true story’ of the Alice tales from an 80 year-old woman who may or may not be Alice Liddell. Featuring grotesque, aged versions of the Wonderland characters (designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop), the film explores the relationships adults have with the fictional characters from their childhoods. It stars Ian Holm as Reverend Charles L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll).

Caterpillar from Dreamchild (1985)

In 1986, the BBC produced four 30 minute episodes of an Alice in Wonderland TV mini-series, written and directed by Barry Letts & starring Kate Dorning as Alice.

Alice Through The Looking Glass was adapted into an animated TV movie in 1987. Janet Waldo was the voice of Alice, Mr. T was the voice of the Jabberwock, Phyllis Diller played the White Queen, and Jonathan Winters performed the parts of Tweedledee & Tweedledum. You can see the entire show on YouTube.

Alice Through the Looking Glass (1987)

In 1988, Jan Švankmajer created Neco z Alenky, a bizzare surrealist fantasy that merged live action with stop motion animation. Kristýna Kohoutová plays the role of Alice and the English dubbed version features the voice of Camilla Power. It was released on DVD in English as “Alice” by First Run Features.

After an decade long absence, Alice returned to the screen in 1998’s Channel 4 movie, Alice Through the Looking Glass, starring Kate Beckinsale in the role of Alice. Ian Holm, who played Lewis Carroll in the 1985 film Dreamchild, returns to play the White Knight.

Ian Holm as The White Knight

Tina Majorino (Napoleon Dynamite) stepped into Alice’s shoes in the 1999 Hallmark TV movie Alice In Wonderland. Following her down the rabbit hole were costars Ben Kingsley (Sneakers) as Major Caterpillar, Martin Short (The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley) as the Mad Hatter, Whoopi Goldberg (Jumpin’ Jack Flash) as the Cheshire Cat, Peter Ustinov (Lorenzo’s Oil) as the Walrus, Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) in an amazing performance as the Mock Turtle, Christopher Lloyd (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension) as the White Knight, and Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) as the Queen of Hearts. This Emmy Award winning rendition first aired on NBC and was later shown on British TV’s Channel 4. It merged elements from Through the Looking Glass including the talking flowers, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, The Walrus and the Carpenter, and the Chess theme including the snoring Red King and the clumsy White Knight.

Gene Wilder as The Mock Turtle (1999)

See Gene Wilder as The Mock Turtle singing Beautiful Soup on YouTube

The Mock Turtle sings Beautiful Soup!

Wonderland returns to the small screen December 2009 in The SciFi Channel’s upcoming Alice. The movie is scheduled as a two-part, 4 hour television event & comes from the creators of Tin Man, The SciFi Channel’s recent Wizard of Oz inspired epic. Alice features the acting talents of Tim Curry (Legend), Matt Frewer (Max Headroom), Kathy Bates (Dolores Claiborne), Colm Meaney (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Harry Dean Stanton (Pretty In Pink), and stars Caterina Scorsone (Common Ground) in the role of Alice. For more information, see our previous post: Alice – The SciFi Channel Movie.

Wonderland fans around the globe are currently biting their nails in anticipation of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. Due out March 5th, 2010, Alice In Wonderland will star Mia Wasikowska (Amelia) as Alice, Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands) as The Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club) as The Red Queen, Alan Rickman (Die Hard) as The Caterpillar, Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) as The White Queen, Christopher Lee (Dracula) as The Jabberwock, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as The Knave of Hearts, Stephen Fry (Kingdom) as The Cheshire Cat, and comic Matt Lucas (Shaun of the Dead) as Tweedledee & Tweedledum. For further details, read our previous article: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland – March 5th, 2010.

Mia Wasikowska in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Other 2010 releases are rumored, but information on these films has been intermittant and sketchy at best. If stories are to be believed, we’ll soon see musician Marilyn Manson’s production, Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll, in which Manson himself plays the author. Lily Cole (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus) is slated to portray Alice in the fantasy/horror film.

Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll (2010)

Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll (2010)

Not much has been said recently about the “strangely familiar, yet utterly wicked tale” that is American McGee’s Alice, but the Internet Movie Database does currently list the video-game turned film as being in production and nothing has yet been stated on McGee’s site about the project being scrapped. With luck, 2010 will see Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) take on the role of Alice as she battles her way through McGee’s twisted take on Wonderland. In related news, a sequel to the video game itself has also been announced.

Sarah Michelle Gellar in American McGee's Alice (2010)

For a complete list of film adaptations, see the following sites:
Alice in Wonderland Films on Wikipedia
Through The Looking Glass Films on Wikipedia
Alice character profile on the Internet Movie Database
Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson profile on IMDB
Films influenced by Alice in Wonderland

• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 1 of 3)
• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 2 of 3)
• Alice in Wonderland: A Cinematic History (Part 3 of 3)

Ralph Steadman, a British caricaturist and cartoonist, is best known for his work with “gonzo” journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Steadman brought Thompson’s articles and stories to life with frenzied, inksplattered illustrations of the reporter’s misadventures (eg, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas).

Steadman is also renowned for his political and social caricatures and cartoons. During the 1960’s, he worked freelance for numerous publications including Punch, Private Eye, The Daily Telegraph, The New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine. He was voted Illustrator of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1979. In addition, Steadman also illustrated a number of classic stories including George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and of course, Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland.

Alice illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Ralph Steadman’s Alice In Wonderland was first published in 1967 & contains 47 pen & ink illustrations. Steadman’s drawings, a startling departure from the traditional illustrations, remain faithful to the book’s satirical tone while revealing the artist’s own passion for irony. Steadman’s fresh illustrative approach breathes new life into the classic story, creating an original, modern vision through the artist’s dynamic and audacious images.

Steadman explains, “It is difficult to explain in words what the pictures are trying to say, and therefore my explanations are not precisely what I had in mind because they add shades of meaning which are not there. The reader can only interpret them in his own way, bringing his own observations to bear on the image he is looking at, so that he may agree or disagree with what I have tried to convey. When I set out to draw an idea, part of that idea is not yet formed and only takes shape and reveals itself as the drawing progresses. Consequently, the drawing acquires a life of its own and virtually takes over the direction it will follow — or so it seems.”

The King & Queen of Hearts by Ralph Steadman

Steadman’s King & Queen of Hearts (above) form the center of a larger courtroom scene (part of which is shown below). Steadman describes this as “The Monarch having evolved or developed into a shapeless mass of hangers-on, the State, H.M. Forces, the Church, the establishment walking on one pair of very well-worn legs. The King and Queen born into it and enveloped in it and lost in it, obliged to go through the motions automatically but surprising even themselves by their own outbursts.”

Courtroom scene illustrated by Ralph Steadman

The White Rabbit by Ralph Steadman

” Worried by time, hurrying and scurrying. Sane within a routine, slightly insane but more engaging when the routine is upset. Today’s commuter,” says Steadman about The White Rabbit.

A Mad Tea Party by Ralph Steadman

He describes the Mad Hatter as, “the unpleasant sides of human nature. The unreasoned argument screams at you. The bully, the glib quiz game compère who rattles off endless reels of unanswerable riddles and asks you to come back next week and make a bloody fool of yourself again,” and says the March Hare “is always standing close by. The “egger-on” urging the banality to plumb even greater depths. He always seems to be around to push someone into a fight.” As for the Dormouse, Steadman says he’s, “Harmless and nice. The man anyone in the office can take a rise out of. If you tread on his face he will smile right back at you.”

Personally, I think the Mad Hatter & March Hare bear a strange resemblance to Hunter S. Thompson and his crazy lawyer sidekick, Dr. Gonzo (Oscar Zeta Acosta)… for obvious reasons

Alice In Wonderland cover design by Ralph Steadman

The Card Guards as illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Steadman took inspiration for his Card Guards from British workmen, “Bickering about who splashed who and standing in the stuff all the time anyway.”

The Pool of Tears by Ralph Steadman

Steadman explains that the animals in his illustration of The Pool Of Tears “remind me of people I know, rather as Lewis Carroll apparently created them around friends and associates. The reader can place his own interpretation on them. It was never my intention to set everything in concrete.”

The Cheshire Cat by Ralph Steadman

Steadman designed his Cheshire Cat to be “an ideal TV Announcer whose smile remains as the rest of the programme fades out.” On a synchronistic note, Ralph Steadman was born in Wallasey, Cheshire.

Serpent! scene as illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Alice & the pig baby as illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Advice From A Caterpillar as illustrated by Ralph Steadman

Steadman defines the Caterpillar as a “young intellectual. Smoking hash, pedantic, who thinks he has something to say and sheds his opinions as easily as his skins.”

Wool and Water illustrated by Ralph Steadman

In addition to illustrating Alice In Wonderland, Ralph Steadman went on to illustrate Lewis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass (see Wool & Water above), as well as The Hunting of the Snark.

Steadman is well known among the British public for his illustrations for the catalogues of the off-licence chain Oddbins. He also designed the labels for Flying Dog beer and Cardinal “Spiced” Zin’ wine, which was banned in Ohio for Steadman’s “disturbing” interpretation of a Catholic cardinal on its label.

Steadman also illustrates Will Self’s column in The Independent newspaper. Johnny Depp’s anthology of songs, Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys (2006) contains two contributions from Steadman; he sings lead on “Little Boy Billee“, and sings backing vocals on Eliza Carthy’s song “Rolling Sea“.

Ralph Steadman currently resides in Kent, England with his wife Anna Steadman.

Self Portrait by Ralph Steadman

For more artwork by Ralph Steadman visit
ralphsteadman.com

For more Alice In Wonderland inspired artwork
don’t miss Dali In Wonderland,
The Alice Art of Kenneth Rougeau,
and be sure to visit our Alice In Wonderland Art Gallery

I stumbled across some funky music yesterday while hunting for information on the upcoming SciFi Channel Alice in Wonderland movie & thought I’d share. Australian artist Pogo composes electronic music by sampling and remixing ambient sounds recorded from films. Here are a few video mixes from Pogo’s Youtube selection beginning with his Wonderland inspired Alice. Enjoy the grooves and try not to drive yourself crazy making out the lyrics, which are an astoundingly well-managed mashup of mixed up noises and fractured phrases.

Bangarang by Pogo - (Hook/Peter Pan)

Scrumdiddlyumptious by Pogo - (Willy Wonka)

 
Mary’s Magic by Pogo - (The Secret Garden)  

 
Ingenuity! by Pogo - (Around The World With Dot)

 Find more by Pogo on Youtube, MySpace, facebook, Blogspot and last.fm

music by Pogo

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Surrealist Salvador Dali was certainly one of the most influential & well known painters of the 20th century, but it’s not so widely known that he was also a gifted filmmaker, photographer, writer and illustrator. Eccentric by nature, it is no surprise that Dali was drawn to creating works to illustrate stories that touched upon his own surrealistic sensibilities, such tales as Dante’s Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, Macbeth, and of course Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland.

Dali created a series of 13 lithographs depicting Alice’s adventures (published in 1969 by Press-Random House), each vibrant and bizarre with a dreamy, almost child-like splatter-art feel to them, a bit like Ralph Steadman without the psychotic edginess (I love Ralph’s work). Alice, depicted as a girl jumping rope, is shown in each colorful image of the series as she travels through a dreamlike world of nonsense populated by an unusual cast of unlikely characters.

Down The Rabbit Hole by Salvador Dali

Alice by Salvador Dali

The Pool of Tears by Salvador Dali

A Caucus Race and A Long Tale by Salvador Dali

The Rabbit Sends In A Little Bill by Salvador Dali

Advice From A Caterpillar by Salvador Dali

Pig and Pepper by Salvador Dali

A Mad Tea Party by Salvador Dali

The Queen's Croquet Ground by Salvador Dali

The Mock Turtle's Story by Salvador Dali

The Mock Turtle's Story by Salvador Dali

Who Stole The Tarts? by Salvador Dali

Alice's Evidence by Salvador Dali

Dali also later sculpted a 15.7″ tall x 35.4″ wide bronze statuette of Alice jumping rope beside one of the artist’s signature stylized crutches.

Alice In Wonderland bronze statue by Salvador Dali

If you’re twitching with anticipation & pacing the floor waiting for the March 2010 release of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, you may want to tune in to The SciFi Channel* this December to see Alice as imagined by Nick Willing, creator of the Emmy award winning, Oz inspired mini-series, Tin Man. Willing’s reimagining finds Wonderland nearly a century and a half older & far more evolved. 

Says Willing, “The White Rabbit is very different. It’s not just one character; it’s a secret organization that works for the Queen of Hearts and abducts people from our [real-world] land, so they can gamble in the Queen’s casino. The ‘oysters,’ as these human beings are called, are put to play there so their emotions can be drained by the Queen. That is the currency of Wonderland. You can feel whatever you want when you want to feel it. Just take a sip of lust or euphoria.”

SciFi Channel promo for Alice

When reinventing the fantasy world of Lewis Carroll, writer/director Nick Willing did strive to stay true to the original spirit of the stories. “It’s got to be funny. The original is very funny. It’s still very fresh. It’s got to be full of surprises. It’s got to have a very, very strong visual flair. These are all touchstones that drove me when I was developing the show.” 

The White Knight (Matt Frewer), Alice (Caterina Scorsone) and the Mad Hatter (Andrew Lee Potts)

Alice will reintroduce several classic Wonderland characters & features an impressive cast including Tim Curry (Legend) as the Dodo, Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) as the White Knight, Caterina Scorsone (1-800-Missing) as Alice, Andrew Lee Potts (Primeval) as the Mad Hatter, Kathy Bates (Dolores Claiborne) as the Queen of Hearts, Harry Dean Stanton (Pretty In Pink) as the Caterpillar, and Colm Meaney (Star Trek: The Next Generation) as the King of Hearts.

While the character names may be familiar, they too have been updated to suit Willing’s modernized vision of Wonderland. Willing describes the new Alice character as, “…not a little girl. She’s a woman with all the kind of female problems that come from falling in and out of love. So that’s one very different character.” He goes on to say that the revamped Mad Hatter is “…a little nuts, but he’s pretty solid, too. He’s a ducker and diver, as we say in England. He’s got a lot of street cred. He’s the guy that helps Alice try to find the man she loves, who’s been abducted by the White Rabbit.”

The Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates) & The King of Hearts (Colm Meaney)

Matt Frewer described his character, the White Knight, as “…a cross between Don Quixote, Baron von Munchausen and the Cowardly Lion. He’s mad as a box of frogs, as Nick [Willing] wrote, and there’s a kind of a gap between who he is and who he pretends to be. Therein lies his madness.” “He’s a knight of old, and the knights in this version have died off. He’s the one remaining crusader who will champion Alice’s cause. That’s the idea. He’s actually gone mad, as a result of too much time on his own. He’s basically a sort of separate case that is wandering about and looking for a fight. Alice provides it.”

The SciFi Channel*’s Alice is scheduled to air in December 2009 & will be a 4-hour movie shown in two parts.

The SciFi Channel - because SyFy is retarded...

* = I just can’t bring myself to call The SciFi Channel by their new name. SyFy just looks like a bad typo. I’d rant about it for awhile, but there are already plenty of other nerds up in arms & raising hell about the recent SciFi channel name change.

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland movie trailer

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, written by Linda Woolverton & based on the world of Lewis Carroll, is scheduled to hit theaters March 5, 2010 in both traditional 2D & Disney Digital 3D. Combining live-action, computer animation and stop motion, Burton’s film adaptation takes place a decade after Alice’s initial adventures. It is rumored to begins when Alice, now 19 & having forgotten Wonderland entirely, flees unwanted romantic advances at an unpleasant party among snobbish socialites. While escaping, Alice once again gives chase to the White Rabbit and falls head over heels back into Wonderland where she is reunited with old friends, faces her old foes, and discovers her destiny; to end the Red Queen’s evil reign. 

Mia Wasikowska as Alice

Among the star studded cast are Mia Wasikowska (Amelia) as Alice, Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands) as The Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club) as The Red Queen, Alan Rickman (Die Hard) as The Caterpillar, Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada) as The White Queen, Christopher Lee (Dracula) as The Jabberwock, Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as The Knave of Hearts, Stephen Fry (Kingdom) as The Cheshire Cat, and comic Matt Lucas (Shaun of the Dead) as Tweedledee & Tweedledum.

Mia Wasikowska as Alice

Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen

Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter

Anne Hathaway as The White Queen

Tim Burtons Alice In Wonderland video game art

Disney Interactive Studios is also developing a video game adaptation of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. The game is being designed for the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS gaming systems, as well as for Windows PCs. It is scheduled to release at or around the same time as the film. For more screenshots & other Alice game news, see our previous post: American McGee’s Alice II.

Mia Wasikowska as Alice in the Garden of Live Flowers

Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter

Alice In Wonderland marks the seventh big screen collaboration between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Depp’s next project with Burton, a reimagining of 1960s horror drama Dark Shadows in which Depp will play vampire Barnabas Collins, is slated to begin sometime following Depp’s completion on the fourth installement of the Pirates of The Carribean movies.

Helena Bonham Carter as The Red Queen

Matt Lucas as Tweedledee & Tweedeldum

Anne Hathaway as The White Queen

Interview with Tim Burton at ComicCon

Interview with Alan Rickman, The Caterpillar

American McGee's Alice

Electronic Arts and the Shanghai game developer Spicy Horse have announced an upcoming sequel to American McGee’s Alice, the twisted third-person action game set in an edgy, psychotic version of Wonderland. While news on the film version of American McGee’s Alice (slated to star Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar) has ceased, the video game sequel is confirmed and currently in development for PC, Playstation3, and the Xbox 360.

Conceptual art for American McGee's Alice 2

“This new project is a dream come true for me and the fans who’ve kept the Alice flame alive,” said American McGee, senior creative director at Spicy Horse. “EA gave us creative latitude and support on the original game which resulted in something beautiful and daring. This trip through the looking glass promises to be even more exciting.”

cover art for American McGee's Alice

“EA Partners is thrilled to team up with American McGee and Spicy Horse on the next installment of the Alice franchise,” said David DeMartini, senior vice president and general manager of EA Partners. “American McGee’s interpretation of Alice was an instant classic, and EA Partners is ready to help him bring his innovative vision for the franchise to even darker, more exciting places.”

I, for one eagerly anticipate the return of my favorite rendition of the Cheshire Cat & can’t wait… so I’ve blown the dust off of my old Alice disc and started playing again this morning It’s still wicked fun & runs better these days at higher settings than it ever did even with low settings on my PC way back when… On a side note, I wonder if the film has been scrapped completely or merely set aside, and how much of that might have to do with the upcoming Tim Burton film version of Alice In Wonderland?

American McGee's Alice - the movie?

Keep your eye on American McGee’s blog, forums, and of course right here for more updates on Alice 2 as information becomes available.

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland video game art

Update:

In vaguely related news, Disney Interactive Studios is currently developing a video game adaptation of Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland for Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Windows PC. 

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland video game art

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland video game art