Disney has presented many fantastical worlds that I have longed to
enter. I’ve wanted to soar over the island of Neverland with Peter Pan
and ride a carousel horse through the countryside in Bert’s chalk
drawing, and I always thought the Hundred-Acre Wood would be a mighty
nice place to settle down. However, one place I never particularly
wanted to visit was Wonderland.
Yes, the Lewis Carroll story
is richly imaginative. Yes, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel became friends
after appearing together in an elementary school adaptation of the
classic. Yes, it was a major influence on LOST. However, none of
that changes the fact that it Freaks. Me. Out. If I’m going to go
tumbling off into a magical realm, I’d prefer one that feels a little
less antagonistic.
Alice in Wonderland is a weird story. Jon Scieszka, the prolific author of such skewered tales as The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales,
seems an inspired choice to retell it for the recent picture book
edition of the Disney version, which is illustrated with concept art
created by iconic Disney artist Mary Blair when the movie was being
developed. Like the comparable editions of Cinderella and Peter Pan,
this is missing a couple of characters, but the main ones are accounted
for, from the big-grinned Cheshire Cat and the terrifying Queen of
Hearts to the dopey Tweedledee and Tweedledum and the batty Mad Hatter.
Scieszka writes with a rambly style here, capturing Alice’s confusion
and the way that her mind darts from one subject to the next. He also
frequently directly addresses the reader, encouraging identification
with Alice. In fact, the book begins with a question, and it’s one that I
imagine countless children could answer in the affirmative: “Have you
ever tried to listen to a long, boring schoolbook on a warm, lazy day?”
The look of the book is very eye-catching, with different colors
serving as the backdrops for each page of text. Shades of pink, green,
yellow, blue and purple alternate, sometimes with illustrations creeping
toward the text, sometimes with nothing but the words on the page. Most
paintings take up a full page, however, and these are very vibrant and
sometimes a bit alarming. The Walrus looks downright malevolent as he
marches a line of curious oysters off to their doom, and fierce flowers
appear on several pages. On the other hand, the small painting of Alice
and the White Rabbit standing side by side against a pale pink backdrop
is thoroughly charming.
While I don’t like it quite as much as the other two picture books featuring Blair’s concept art, Alice in Wonderland
certainly allows readers to feel that they have fallen into a
dreamscape just like Alice, who, Scieszka notes, spends such a long time
in the air during her descent through the rabbit hole that she is able
to mentally do all the homework she was avoiding under the tree (though
most of it is incorrect).
“You know how it is with some
people,” Scieszka writes toward the end of his tale. “Sometimes they get
too grown up to understand.” Alice in Wonderland is a tale about
holding onto the gifts of a vivid imagination. That is a notion I can
certainly get behind, even if Alice’s mind happens to be a pretty scary
place.
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