Alice in Wonderland or Weirdoland

Last night Tony and I settled in to watch the 1951 Walt Disney classic Alice in Wonderland. You know the movie with the Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, Queen of Hearts, and those seemingly lovely flowers that sing All in a Golden Afternoon. Yeah, this movie is nothing like what I remember it being as a kid.

OK, so it has been awhile since I've been a kid, but you can kind of remember what watching cartoon movies was like. They were entertaining and enjoyable and you never got the context. We didn't care, we were kids, we were entertained, we laughed at what we understood and stared with blank expressions at what we didn't. Watching Alice in Wonderland then was just a fun thing to do, laughed at Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, and for me I'm sure I ran around screaming, "Off with their head!" Last night, I was dumb founded but what I was watching.


I felt comfortable watching the beginning, Alice being a terrible kid by not listening to her sister's lesson for the day and instead daydreaming and sing some song about what her imaginary world would be like. And then that damned White Rabbit comes hopping along with the famous,
"I'm late / I'm late / For a very important date. / No time to say "Hello, Goodbye". / I'm late, I'm late, I'm late." Alice takes off after him, what the hell prompted that? He didn't invite her along and she just figures she'll tag along and then she takes that plunge down the rabbit hole and all hell and confusion breaks loose.
 

There is no story to this movie!!!! It is just a jumbled mess of some girl wandering through heaven knows what world full of weirdos. And hello, the drug references? Were we brainwashed as children to think she was just eating cakes or had our eyes just not been open to that vice yet? The Cheshire Cat makes no sense and is just plain mean. Seriously, nothing makes any sense. That Queen of Hearts is a bitch and a cheat and should have her own head removed. Then it turns out to be a whole fucking dream! Kind of like that one season of Dallas with the shower that the whole previous season was a dream. You got screwed. As an adult watching this movie I felt screwed over because it was just a clusterfuck of nonsense.

Don't go ask Alice.

There are other classic Disney movies that have stood the test of time when I watch them. Alice in Wonderland is not one of them in my opinion for me. Oh well. I'm sure it was great when I was little, but now, not so much.

**All pictures were sourced from IMDb and are the copyright property of Disney.**