Saturday 16 April 2011

Alice and Red



Hmm I notice I haven't really blogged much about Little Red Riding Hood or Alice in Wonderland despite them being my two big interests, and certainly the themes of my blog. I guess it's because there are so many other blogs out there that have it covered, some of which I read. From a blog all about Alice in Wonderland merchandise to ones that cover all fairytales and then general websites with numerous helpful essays, book lists and more telling you all about the history and meaning of these tales, never mind the books that you can easily find for this too.

For my part when it comes to Alice in Wonderland, the best book for finding out the meaning behind the quirks, characters, quotes and imagery of both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is 'The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass: The definite Edition. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland an Through the Looking-Glass', which has a complete edition of both novels with numerous sidenotes detailing everything from where the Cheshire Cat comes from and why he disappears to what the Jabberywocky is. It's excellent for learning more about Alice in Wonderland if Google hasn't served you enough and it's readily available in two editions on Amazon.

For Little Red Riding Hood there are several novels, most are expensive, but they are becoming more available with the recent movie release, I have some in my waiting list but I have not read any yet. Some include 'Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex, Morality, and the Evolution of A Fairy Tale' by Catherine Orenstein and 'Little Red Riding Hood: A Casebook' by Alan Dundes.

When it comes to other versions of the two they are many including games, books and movies. With Alice in Wonderland, American McGee's Alice is one of the best, it's a dark, gothic horror version with double meanings for the characters (noted best in the accompaning booklet) and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it and await the sequel 'Alice: Madness Returns'.

When it comes to alternate novels, I've only read the first of The Looking Glass Wars series by Frank Beddor and it didn't thrill me enough to want to read the sequel Seeing Redd, perhaps because it is too much the child's novel for me, I don't particularly like the love interest Dodge Anders and I did not consider the book particularly memorable. Wikipedia offers an extensive list of other novel adaptions connected to or inspired by Alice in Wonderland (along with comics, manga and film) but I have never felt a real desire to pursue any of them, I guess I'm thoroughly satisfied with the original or rather none have caught my interest.


Comic book wise the extensive series by Zenescope are brief, bloody and quite brilliant, though definitely aimed at men, though as a female I found I could still enjoy them. Starting with 'Return to Wonderland' then 'Beyond Wonderland' and finally 'Escape From Wonderland' with 'Tales of Wonderland' offering back stories to the characters. It follows Alice's daughter Carroll 'Calie' Ann as Wonderland drags her into its mad world.

Manga wise I've only read Heart no kuni no Alice, also known as Alice in the Country of Hearts, Alice gets taken to Wonderland by Peter White where she has to involve herself with the people of Wonderland and the events taking place there if she wants to go home. It's very much oriented at girls with the typical pretty boys who instantly fall in love with the heroine. Many of the characters are psychotic and the plot is somewhat directionless and yet it's quite a good adaptation even the characters do drift quite a bit from their original forms. It's certainly different and not to be taken seriously.

Television wise go for Alice by the Syfy channel, earlier reviewed here and movie wise, Disney does it best with its original 1951 animated film and Tim Burton's 2010 not quite a sequel. I would also thoroughly recommend the 1999 version with Martin Short, Whoopi Goldberg and Christopher Lloyd amongst others.



When it comes to Little Red Riding Hood, the only game I'm aware of is American McGee's, which isn't out yet. Comic book wise Zenescope again, with their Grimm Fairy Tales, which has Little Red's tale in the first edition, and their latest Grimm Myths and Legends series, which further expands upon this.

Book wise I've got them all to read, including 'Sisters Red' by Jackson Pearce and Low Red Moon by Ivy Devlin. Of course there's also The Bloody Chamber collection of short stories by the fantastic Angel Carter, which includes 'The Werewolf, The Company of Wolves, and Wolf-Alice' the latter of which has a little bit of Alice in Wonderland there too.

Film wise The Company of Wolves is the best, it's haunting, gothic and full of symbolism headed by a great cast including Angela Lansbury and Stephen Rea. Apart from that and the latest Hollywood blockbuster I can only think of The Brothers Grimm in 2005 with Heath Ledger and Matt Damon and includes Little Red, the wolf and the famous 'big eyes' line, and of course Trick r Treat (2009) with Anna Paquin dressed as Little Red for Halloween, followed by a pretty good werewolf segment.

2 comments:

Amy Asphodel said...

Oh, I ADORE The Company of Wolves! ^^

March Hare said...

Definitely one of my favourite werewolf movies!