Stylishly Reborn Alice In Wonderland Film Studies Essay

Stylishly Reborn Alice In Wonderland Film Studies EssayThe original version of Alices Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll is a well-kn receive(a) fairy tale for describing a fantasy world populated by peculiar creatures. A girl namedAlicewho falls d sustain a rabbit kettle of fish connected to afantasy world set forth as Wonderland. The newly released movie Alice in Wonderland in 2010 by the director Tim Burton portrays a nineteen-year-old Alice who, 13 days after her previous visit, returns for the first time as a young girl. Tim Burton has a recognizable and distinctive style and thematic content which turn his spiel into anoeuvreand themselves intoauteur which means that Tim Burton slightly changed the original Alice to his style of Alice by adding some different story in the movie. Burton is unmatchable such(prenominal) filmmaker, a director who has take in the status of auteur. By portraying grown up Alice, Tim Burton addresses some of both(prenominal) sad and br ight sides of the adults company in a stealthy means described as Underland in the movie with visual elements under the predominant perspective in the shape of fairy tale. In other words, on that point are unavowed sides of Alice in Wonderland such as the exercise of drugs, sex activity utilizations and social hierarchy buried under the fairy tale. This paper analyzes how Tim Burton expresses visual elements to imply recondite meanings of the dark and problematic side and some of the bright side of the adults factual society.Kim 2The movie Alice in Wonderland, released in 2010, brought freshness to the storyline and came out with even hiddener meanings implied visually keeping the perfect story of Alice in Wonderland by the director Tim Burton. The film adapts many elements besides Carrolls book, rendering it digressive and derivative in the storyline. The movie should not be considered only as a fairy tale for children. Because of the directors style and narrative choice s, the movie contains more actual emotional fraternity by utilize high quality techniques such as camera movements, colors, angles and lightings. The movie remains a fairy tale but under the sur vitrine of the story, it also contains deep psychological structures expressed by the director Tim Burtons style of visual elements such as graphics, camera movements, the production line between light and shade, and textures in the frames having some deeper messages such as the use of drugs or the dictatorship according to the social class. These visual elements allow the director to represent some hope for the future in truth society and some of the corrupted adults world hidden under the innocence of a fairy tale.I have naturally thought that no matter what is shown on the movie screen, Alice in Wonderland should always be for innocent children with generous of imagination. However, the movie Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton should be regarded as a story of illustrating some split of corrupted society with the aesthetic visuals shown on the screen. Cleaver and Erdman, who wrote Changing Images Of Alice, reported that analysis of images of Alice found that although the characterofAlicewas presented differently through time, there were no study changes to the story (Screen 12). The reason is because there had been no remarkable changes in the story of Alice in Wonderland other than Tim Burtons version of it. Tim BurtonKim 3tried adapting some new commove of views by illustrating Alice as a nineteen-year-old girl which implies that she is going to be an adult and enter the adults society soon so that Tim Burton give the bounce address deeper messages into the movie with his own style. Daniel Sieden who is engaged in education scholar said that Tim Burton explained the goal of the movie Alice in Wonderland is to try to make it an engaging movie with objective emotional connection that he had never felt in other Alice stories (Examiner). The reason why Tim Bur ton made the film is because to make the original Alice in Wonderland even unique with his own story line making it as Alices second trip to Wonderland which is changed to Underland for grown up Alice. Tim Burton sets up the situation that she does not remember ever being there in the past. Alice mistakenly called Wonderland to Underland in the movie so it is called Underland through the movie which I think was great transition word from Wonderland which implies more childrens world with full of curious to Underland which more implies adults dark side of the real world. By setting Alice not remembering visiting Wonderland, Tim Burton connects emotional attachment of being in real Underland reflecting the real world in his style. Moreover, according to Niemiec, author of A Wonderland Journey Through Positive Psychology Interventions, said that though it is a continuation of the classic story in many respects, it is also a unique tale in its own right.Aliceis now a 19-year-old, in the movie and she must watch whether she wants to accept the marriage proposal of Hamish, the son of a lord.As she wanders away from the engagement subtracty to reflect on the proposal, her curiosity leads her down the rabbit mass intoWonderlandwhich was referred as Underland in the film.Alicesemergence as a heroine is not only about helping others but also about identity, autonomy, competence, and self-development.Burtons version is superior in creativity andKim 4depth, as well as more resonant with the themes of positive psychology (2). As Niemiec mentions, Tim Burton described well in fantasy way by setting up Alice as a grown up woman. Tim Burton added a chain of a connection between teenagers turning to adults and entering the real grown-up world.Tim Burton pursues his own style of Alice in Wonderland not only with the story of it but also astonishing visual elements generated based on the computer-animated skills. He uses a categorisation of formal structures such as camera m ovements, angles, lighting styles, colors, shot framings and visual transitions in each scene in his movie. These various uses of the techniques support discovering some hidden meanings such as the use of drugs, gender roles, and social hierarchy under the surface of the storyline. Throughout the whole movie, there are hundreds of scenes that represent the adults society such as the use of drugs, gender roles and social hierarchy. There are some brief examples demonstrate the use of drugs, gender roles and social hierarchy. Simply, smoking Caterpillar is one of the scenes that shows the use of drugs. For the gender role,First of all, the genre of Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton is an adventurous fantasy. Therefore, there were a lot of scenes that can never happen in the real world even if the movie actually reflects the real world. Thus, there were a lot of scenes that can be interpreted to the use of drugs. When I decided to remark Alice in Wonderland in my own argument, I pers onally thought that the film has some sort of allegory for a drug trip which I had never thought of when I read the original Alice in Wonderland in a book when I was a child. It was hard to not serve all of the use of drugs once I realized they are in the movie expressed well by visual elements. According to the Unreality Magazine, actually manyscenes can be interpreted as the uses of the drugs in Alice in Wonderland such as cocaine, nitros oxide, LSD, crystal meth, marijuana and some more. Almost both scene implied some universal drugs that are big problems in the real world. The way of drawing each scene with the various uses of colors, camera movements, and angles, some characters in the movie can be discovered as using drugs by some changes of their behaviors. For example, almost right after entering the Underland, Alice looks for the Caterplillar called Absolem. The Caterpillars house was hidden by a potty which seems to be a smoke from cigarettes. At this moment of the sce ne, the audience can notice that the Caterpillar is definitely smoking a cigarette. When Alice meets the Caterpillar, the Caterpillar is holding a piping while he talks with Alice. Alice coughs several times because of the smoke from the cigarette. This scene is fairly obvious that the Caterpillar is smoking a cigarette which contains nicotine. Also, Tim Burton sets Alice and the Caterpillar face each other while talk to each other when the Caterpillar is smoking. This scene reflects the real world that adults smokes in front of people while talking with some people even if they are children no matter how young they are. It implies that adults do not really care the danger of smoking cigarettes to growing up children. This scene addresses problematic side of the corrupted world. People do not actually realize cigarettes are also a kind of drugs. Therefore, they just smoke cigarettes in front of children and the scene shows how adults are not aware of children.Unlike some of the oth er movies of my childhood such asThe Little Mermaidor viewer and the Beast, Alice had no inclination to find her way to Prince Charming. She instead embraced a childlike curiosity that got her both into trouble and out of it. The gender rolesplayed out in Disneys newer, live action version ofAlice in Wonderlandare a bit different than both Carolls original book and Disneys original film, however.The fact that the newAlice in Wonderland features a much older Alice, on the verge of marriage, exposes a bit of our societys infatuation with portraying a much older image as halcyon (can kids just not be kids anymore?) This idea of marriage helps exemplify the gender roles present, however. There is much pressure on Alice to not only sweep up the geeky red-headed aristocrat, but his mother also assumes she will fill her proper gender role by spouting off all of his dietary needs at the very start of the film. Alice seems to go along with it at first, but later catches her sisters husband cheating-this seems to be the turning point in her attitude, and possibly the cause of her travel rapidly away after the proposal.It is important to note that withinAlice in Wonderlandmost of the leadership roles are fulfilled by women-the Queen of Hearts is, of course, the particularly uncouth ruler. The White Queen, on the other hand, is the softer, feminine queen that is slowly gaining discreet support. The gender roles of these two queens are very important, especially when you take into experimental condition the effect their predicament has on Alice. The Queen of Hearts demonstrates that in order to get ahead you must take on a violent and fear-inducing persona-traditionally virile in our society. The White Queen embraces no such violence, and states a few times within the film that acting violently is against her vows. However, she has no qualms sending others to do her dirty work-hence sending Alice to slay the Jabberwocky (cutting off his head, no less).Though the main leadership roles ofAlice in Wonderlandare held by females, it seems the brains behind the operation in both cases happen to fall with men-the passing Knight for the Red Queen, and most ironically the Mad Hatter for the White Queen. This gives the gender roles an interesting place. The Red Queen is comically shown to be quite stupid-and rather nave as well. The manipulative Knight rules Wonderland through the Queen. The White Queen may be the ruling figurehead try to rise up in power, but it is the Mad Hatter that leads and organizes the resistance against the Red Queen. Really, the White Queen does little other than stand as a symbol.I commended the makers ofAlice in Wonderlandat first for allowing the White Queen to retain her femininity, but it was because of her particular lack of action that I was a bit saddened. She needful Alice to save her kingdom and stand as her champion, but again, Alice had to take on masculine traits in order to do this.Now, I have no problems with f emales embracement courage within childrens movies. Empowering girls is a great action to take, but I feel at the same time that it is a bit archaic that in order to succeed one must take on masculine characteristics. In this way, the gender roles withinAlice in Wonderlandare a bit hegemonic in nature-perpetuating the idea of masculine as ideal in our society. This ideal is bear ond in the end of the film. I loved that Alice did not end up marrying, and became a part of the company her father left behind-a positive message showing that Alice indeed has the adventurous nature of her father. But forsaking the traditional female gender role to embrace a more masculine version also isnt the answer.What would have been the proper ending forAlice in Wonderland? There is no easy answer here. I dont believe that the ending was improper, or sexist. It is obviously attempting to empower young girls to seek new horizons, which I entirely support. My suggestion is perhaps to not make the contr ast between feminine and masculine quite so sharp. It shouldnt be settle down and be a housewife vs. adventure with your fathers trade route and see the world, after slaying a hideous creature. Gender roles today should be much more fluid in their interpretation, I believe. Why such a stark dichotomy between masculine and feminine withinAlice in Wonderland, as well as our own culture? Im not saying we should perpetuate historical female gender roles, but we shouldnt demonize them either. The point is to consider all gender attributes to be equal, and just as likely within every person.Alice in Wonderlanddoes a good job of showing females embracing masculine characteristics (in both positive and negative ways), but they do little in showing men with fluid gender roles, positively embracing typically female gender attributes.I thinkAlice in Wonderlandmade a good swither at empowering young girls to overcome their traditional gender roles to broaden horizons. I believe by giving the W hite Queen highly feminine traits, and the Red Queen negatively violent traits, we see a step in the right direction in getting away from idealized aggressive masculine traits. Though there are some obvious issues, I would sayAlice in Wonderlanddid a relatively good job in promoting healthy gender roles to the youth of our culture. But more work is still yet to be done.