Chilly Beans: Alice in Wonderland

Ever since I was a little girl I loved the story of Alice in Wonderland and watched the movie often. Disney's version was the best, I thought. I enjoyed the story line, and often believed myself to be just like Alice. As I grew older, my love for the story of Alice in Wonderland remained the same. I thought Lewis Caroll was a brilliant writer and I often wondered how he was able to create such a fantastic topsy-turvey world with such amazing characters. Lewis Caroll was also from a large family, seven (7) girls and four (4) boys in total. I am also from a large family with seven (7) boys and four (4) girls. Coincidence? Perhaps.

It wasn't until I was much older that I gained an even greater fondness for this man. In the summer of 1999 I began to get migraine headaches. Unfortunately I still have them today and they are, if I do say so myself, quite painful. There are times when I have them that I am not able to make sense of anything. I can relate to Lewis Caroll in this instance because he too, suffered from migraines and wrote Alice in Wonderland during his migraine episodes. It has also been said that he suffered from epilepsy. Either way, I am sure it was not a good experience to go through, so the fact that he was able to create these amazing stories is even more impressive.

The story of Alice in Wonderland has been told over and over again. About a year ago I came across some books in the library that promised to be just like the Alice in Wonderland story, but with a twist. The trilogy, called The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor, is based loosely on Lewis Caroll's original creation of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The story claims that those two books are nothing but lies and that this is the true story. It features twists on the original story, such as the white rabbit actually being Alyss's (spelled differently in this book) tutor, Bibwit Harte, and that the Mad Hatter is actually a very agile, sober bodyguard named Hatter Madigan. There are three books in the series so far; The Looking Glass Wars, Seeing Red, and Hatter Madigan. Hatter is my favorite in this set of books. I love how authors can take a timeless tale and put a spin on it that you never saw coming. You can start the book with one viewpoint of your favorite, beloved characters, and end up with a completely different one by the time you finish. Great books. I highly recommend them.

So imagine my sheer excitement at having little teasers of the newest creation by Tim Burton. Disney has been working with Tim Burton on a new version of Alice in Wonderland coming in March of 2010 in 3D. This, my friends, looks like an amazing movie. I can't hardly wait. The imagery alone is breathtaking, and the characters as well. They recruited such actors as:

Mia Wasikowska as Alice