Interpretation and Medium (ITAP 6)

Books are fascinating objects. A physical item made up of paper that hold a whole world within it. Containing people who we have never met and places that we have never visited, we can feel safe in these books letting our imagination run wild. Books allow us to be individuals, letting us create different fantasies. Even though we can read the same book and there are no written variations, we all invent different worlds. Illustrators are able to visually show there inventions to other people through the use of drawings. 

Alice in wonderland is a very popular children's story. Author Lewis Carroll and first published in 1865 Alice in wonderland was originally called ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. There are many different interpretations of the novel from illustrations to films. In these illustrations and films you can see how believes, political views and also the technology available at the time have influenced the pieces. 

Sir John Tenniel 1865

Sir John Tenniel created a series of 92 illustrations for ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ in 1865. They are black and white illustrations showing that colour printing technology was not widely available. His illustrations were engraved onto wooden blocks and prints would be made in the wood engraving process. Tenniel is also well known for is political illustrations. His style is very cartoon like which reflects in his Alice illustrations. 

Arthur Rackham 1907

Arthur Rackham created his colour versions in 1907. Rackham would sketch out an outline, lightly block in shapes and details, then finally add pen and indian ink. These illustrations are more realistic than Tenniel’s. They are more sophisticated and childlike. Alice herself is smaller than the animals, which really over exaggerates Lewis Carrols world. However even though the illustrations are colour they are still quite dull and dark. 

Jessie Willcox Smith

Walt Disney 1951

Jessie Willcox Smith’s illustrations are a lot more vivid. These bright and attractive drawings remind me of Walt Disney’s ‘Alice in Wonderland‘. Maybe this is where disney’s inspiration came from. Both Alice’s look very similar wearing the same light blue dress and a white apron.  Alice has now turned into a very childlike character, speaking queens english, gentle, sweeter and more colourful. As Disney’s productions are very popular this is one of the most recognisable versions of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ 

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland 2010

The most recent version of this story is Tim Burtons film ‘Alice in Wonderland’ released in 2010. This film see’s the return of Alice to wonderland, where Alice is the age of 19 and has forgotten her previous visit. As a 3D movie Tim Burtons has over exaggerated the story with his own style. For a disney production, the movie is dark and mysterious. When watching the making of this movie i learn the thinking behind the mad hatter. Both the actor Johnny Depp and Tim Burton largely participated with both of them creating illustrations of what they thought the character would look like. Deep also researched real hatters and found that in the glue they used there was a high mercury content. This would physically and mentally effect them. Staining their hands and eventually mentally driving them mad, “mad as a hatter”. All little details were looked at when creating this character. The mad hatters eyes where vivid bright green lens, with one of the lens slightly off centered. This created the impression that the mad hatter was never looking straight but always slightly further. Also these eyes where enlarged along with the red queens head. 

CGI and motion capture played a big role in the making of this movie. All characters where in some way edited except for Alice, who was 100 percent real through out. This really exaggerates that the world Alice has fell into is not real. 

Click to watch the making of the Mad Hatter

Lewis Carols story through time has been scrutinised, especially now because of what is thought of us of drugs. When Alice first meets the Caterpillar he is sitting on a mushroom while smoking a hookah. He also encourages Alice to eat from the mushroom to change her size. This implies that the mushroom is a magic mushroom.  

There has been a smoking ban in the UK since 2007 and the Caterpillar could be seen a glamourising smoking to young children. In Tim Burtons movie he seems to tackle this problem. The Caterpillar still smokes however with the Caterpillar constantly blowing smoke in her face you see coughing Alice get irritated and say ‘Will you stop doing that’.