ALICE
Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)
Alice is a fictional character who is a Victorian English girl in the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, which were written by Charles Dodgson under the pen name Lewis Carroll.
DevelopmentThe character has been said to be based on Alice Liddell, a child friend of Dodgson's. Dodgson said several times that his 'little heroine' was not based on any real child, but was entirely fictional. Alice is portrayed as a quaintly logical girl, sometimes even pedantic, especially with Humpty Dumpty in the second book. According to Through the Looking-Glass she is seven and a half years old, but seems to conduct herself like a somewhat older child. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland takes place on May 4th, Alice Liddell's birthday. Through the Looking-Glass takes place on November 4th, her half-birthday (and Alice states that she is "seven and a half exactly.")
Character outlineAlice is popularly depicted wearing a pale blue knee-length dress with a white pinafore overtop, although the dress originally was yellow in The Nursery "Alice", the first coloured version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In the illustrations for Through the Looking-Glass her hair is held back with a wide ribbon, and in honour of Alice, such hair bows are sometimes called Alice bands, particularly in the UK.
As Alice was first drawn in black and white her colors would vary from artist to artist; it was Disney who made blue the most popular color for her dress and blonde for her hair. However, Alice has been coloured by Tenniel in a blue dress, with white stripes at the bottom, and her pinafore outlined in red; this look has, perhaps, become the classic and most widely recognized Alice in Wonderland dress in later works.
Tenniel drew Alice in two variants: for Through the Looking-Glass her pinafore is more ruffled and she is shown in striped stockings, an image which has remained in much of the later art.
PersonalityAlice is portrayed as being very curious. She's often seen daydreaming and gives herself advice instead of listening to the advice of others. The closest thing Alice has as a friend is Dinah, her cat, and not even she understands Alice's dreams of finding "a world of her own". Alice is well mannered, polite, courteous, somewhat mature and has the qualities of a woman much older then herself, although once she falls into Wonderland she finds it harder and harder to maintain her composure. She is shown to be determined, but her determination is often overpowered by her temper, seeing as she doesn't give up on finding the White Rabbit until she gets frustrated.
She is depicted as a fairly beautiful young girl with blue eyes, thick blonde hair and fair skin. She wears a blue knee-length dress with a white pinafore overtop, stockings, petticoat, white tights, a black ribbon to keep her hair out of her eyes, and black strap and round toe shoes in "Mary Jane" style.
DevelopmentFor the voice of Alice, Walt Disney wanted one "that would be English enough to satisfy British audiences and preserve the feeling of an English literary classic, but not so English that it would put off American audiences". He found that in a young girl named Margaret O'Brien. However, O'Brien's mother, Gladys, thought that her daughter was worth more then Disney was offering to pay. This led to Disney to announce that Margaret O'Brien was out of the picture, four days after announcing she was in. Disney then turned his attention to another young girl, Kathryn Beaumont. Within hours of her audition, Disney gave Beaumont the part.
Like many Disney animated heroines, Alice was portrayed by a real life actress as reference material for the animators. This was performed by Beaumont, the voice of Alice. Alice was drawn looking a bit older than her story book counterpart, about 11 or 12, but still keeping the wonder and child-like quality of a young girl.
AppearancesWhen we first meet Alice, she is sitting in a tree, with her cat Dinah, making a flower band and ignoring her older sister, who is giving her a history lesson. When her sister tells how her dreams are nonsense, Alice begins to daydream about a world of her own when she suddenly sees a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a large watch. Ever curious, she follows him into a rabbit hole and falls down in, luckily her dress acts as a parachute and soften her fall. Once she lands she follows the rabbit into a large room. At the end of the room she sees a very small door and when she tries to open it, the doorknob suddenly yelps in pain.
The Doorknob then instructs her to drink form a bottle that reads "DRINK ME". Curious of what might happen, she drinks it and shrinks into a very small size, just the right size to enter the door. Unfortunately, the door is locked, so the Doorknob tells Alice to get the key, which is now on the table. Though is too high for her to get the key form the table, The Doorknob then tells Alice to eat form a cookie that reads "EAT ME". Out of options, she bites on it and grows so big her head hits the ceiling. The Doorknob begins to laugh at her and Alice starts to cry, flooding the room. The Doorknob then tells Alice to drink form the bottle form earlier. She does and she shrink once again, landing in the bottle and sailing through the Doorknob's keyhole. She begins to drift to land, where many strange animals are doing a rather useless race around a rock that a Dodo is standing, all to get dry. Alice then sees the white rabbit again and sneaks off to follow him.
She soon comes across Tweedledee and Tweedledum, two bouncy, twin brothers, who recite a the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter. After which Alice sneaks away once again to look for the Rabbit. She soon comes across The White Rabbit's house and is mistaken to be another girl named Mary Anne. The Rabbit tells her to go and find his gloves up in his room. Alice does so and once in his room she eats a piece of pastry that makes her grow big again, filling up the entire house. The Dodo, after the Rabbit goes for him, thinking that Alice was a monster, comes and tries to drive Alice out the house by sending Bill the Lizard down the chimney and then setting the house on fire. Alice quickly eats a carrot from the Rabbit's garden and shrinks to a very small size. Being able to leave the house, Alice chases after the Rabbit again only to end up in a Garden full of talking flowers, after singing to her, a mean flower convinces the others that she is a weed and is rudely kicked out of the garden. She sees a smoke path in the sky and decides to follow it. She soon finds the source of the smoke, A Caterpillar smoking a hookah. After a poetry recital between the two, Alice accidentally insults the Caterpillar and he turns into a butterfly. Before he flies off, the Caterpillar gives Alice some strange advice about the mushroom she is sitting on. Alice breaks off each side of the mushroom and eats one growing unbelievably tall, disturbing a very cranky mother bird. She then bites the other piece of mushroom and shrinks small again.
After getting a handle on how the mushroom works, she returns to her normal size. She then meets The Cheshire Cat, who gives her mysterious directions leading her to The March Hare's garden while he, The Mad Hatter and The Dormouse are celebrating their UnBirthday. After a wacky tea party, the Rabbit appears and madness ensues as The Hatter tries to fix his watch, that apparently is three days slow. Sick and tired of the craziness of Wonderland, Alice decides to go home and abandons her mission about the Rabbit. She becomes lost and looses hope in getting home, stopping to sit and cry. Suddenly, The Cheshire Cat reappears and shows Alice a short cut to a hedge maze where she meets three playing cards, painting white roses red.
After hearing what their queen would do to them if she found out the roses were white instead of red, she decides to help them. The White Rabbit appears again to present the Queen and the very small King. After finding out about the roses and sending the cards to be beheaded, the Queen challenges Alice to a game of croquet, where she cheats with the help of her subjects, humiliating Alice. The Cheshire Cat reappears again and decides to play a prank on the Queen, who blames Alice and sends her to be put to death. Luckily, the King suggest for Alice to appear in a trial for her life. At the trial, the residents of Wonderland are of no help to her situation and when the Cheshire Cat appears again to play yet another prank on the Queen, Alice is once again blamed for it. Before the Queen could say anything else, Alice quickly eats the mushroom pieces all at once, making her grow to the ceiling. She then tells the Queen off about how she's a "fat, pompous, bad tempered old tyrant." As Alice says this, she begins to shrink once again to her normal size and all of Wonderland begin to chase her. She comes across the small door and the talking Doorknob a final time, trying to open before the Queen gets to her. However, The Doorknob informs her that she's already out, showing her through his keyhole and reveals to her herself sleeping under the tree she was first seen in. Alice desperately tries to wake herself up, but is soon awaken by her sister's voice. They both return home for tea, while Alice realizes the maybe order and logic aren't so bad....sometimes.