Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll

Yes, yes, the latest Johnny Depp/ Helena Bonham Carter/ Mia W. version of the classics by Lewis Carroll just recently got released. In light of that I decided to full read both books: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and what she found there and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I read the books, and I listened to the audio book narrated word for word by that dude Christopher Plummer. So what did I find there?

If you ever watched the 1985 Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, made for TV movie starring Ringo Starr, Beau Bridges, Carol Channing, Red Buttons, Sammy Davis Jr., Anthony Newley, and Jonathan Winters to name a few, you will realize that the movie follows the book pretty closely. There are some songs in it not in the books. I will not review the movie but it helps if you've seen it, or want an accurate non- scary, non-dark version of the book.

The book is a children's book. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the nom de plume Lewis Carroll, wrote the story to tell it to 6 year old Alice Liddell. If anything is dark or creepy about this book is that the author, then in his mid 20s, may have "befriended" an 11 year old. If you do your research you will find "Lewis Carroll" did take some weird pictures of the young girl. So scrapping that creepiness, the book is written for children.

One must remember we're dealing with witty 6-7 year-old children who always had a come back. The story of Alice is a smart but curious girl. She talks to her self a lot, and she enters wonderland and later she goes through the looking glass. Here she encounters many characters who play with words so much - ie. The Mockturtle cries, and talks about his teacher who they called Tortoise. So Alice asks why did they call him Tortoise if he was really a turtle. The Mockturtle replies - "we called him Tortoise, because he "Taught us". 

Now that's a very linguistic joke, you have to say it out loud. Thus the magnificent audio version by Plummer is amazing. Then there's the part in Through the Looking Glass, where Alice tells the flowers she's never talked to a talking flower before, and they reply because all the other gardens have soft beds so the flowers are always sleeping! Very witty and fun the book is if read the right way. I always feel very sad when none of these jokes and wit don't come through in movies. This was the genius of the book after all.

Another thing which was something you do not realize while watching any of the movies is that the two worlds are two separate games. Wonderland has the Queen of hearts. It's all cards. Through the looking glass has the red queen, the white queen, the white knight and red knight, the red king and white king - which are Chess pieces. Two different games, two different worlds. Each of these characters are so different from the other. The nicest person in all her journeys is the White Knight, who although strange is the perfect Knight in shinning armor.

Alice's whimsical thoughts and dialogues with the characters and herself is the highlight of the book. It's the mind of a 5-11 year old, although young they still have wit, and intelligence. It's the perfect afternoon snooze book, with iced tea and lemonade. I found myself laughing out loud multiple times while reading it. It was hysterical, and playful.

So why do we keep making kids movies dark and scary is my question? I hated the Jabberwocky, in the book it is a poem, and nothing else. The Jaberwocky never shows up and tries to kill her. No one tries to kill her, in fact she just needs to cross all the squares on the chess board to become a queen. Get it? When your pawn makes it across the chessboard, it becomes a Queen! In the Wonderland since its a card game, you have the Queen of Spades, Diamonds, etc. and Kings, and Knaves, and other cards, and there's a court in session. I think this goes to help a young child understand the justice system through complex grown up games like cards, and chess.

This is a fun book, and not very serious. I recommend it for fun times, for laughs. It's entertaining and has fun characters, the writing is brilliant. It is thought provoking at different levels, so it just depends on how deep you want to go with it.

Plot: 7/10
Entertainment: 10/10
Characters: 10/10
Writing Style: 10/10
Thought Provoking: 7/10
Recommend: 7/10

Audio book version by Christopher Plummer - Can be found on Audible.com - I give that book a 10/10 because he does the voices so well, and his diction is perfect.