After our contextual studies lecture on Transmedia storytelling and world building I had a think about which franchise I could focus on for my presentation. I was originally planning to focus on the Batman franchise as it has a wide range of different transmedia products but we had already heard a lot about this franchise due to examples of it being used in one of our lectures by our Tutor Sharon. I thought it would be best to steer clear from this franchise due to the amount we had already been taught about it so I had a look into other options.
Instead I decided to go with a different a example of transmedia storytelling that I knew a lot of different products have come from. Due to my knowledge on this topic I also knew I would be able to get a lot of interesting points from it. The franchise I chose was the well known literary tale of Alice in wonderland which started off as a novel by the British author Lewis Carroll. I knew that I would be able to show a strong example of world building if I focused on the 1951 Disney cartoon production of the story and also the Alice madness returns video game produced in 2011 as they are both strong adaptations of the story.
After this I decided to do a large amount of research into the franchise, focusing on a different transmedia products to make sure I had variety in my writing. I also wanted to look into possible hidden meanings of the story to give my presentation to find areas of the story that I had looked into before and to get deeper analysis instead of skimming the surface with descriptions.
The notes I made about areas of the franchise and the world building aspects are below.
In what way has the story of Alice In Wonderland’ been expanded and altered using transmedia storytelling and world building?
- Introduce the story of Alice in wonderland and how you will be looking further into the story and it’s different media coverage
- Mentioning what transmedia storytelling is
- Talking about henry Jenkins and his theories
- Find plenty of quotes
- Link back to the story and then focus on the soft Disney version. Focus on art style
- Move onto the Tim burton movie and discuss that
- Then finally talk about Alice in wonderland
- Mention the jump in style, theming, mood, and designs from cartoon to game and how this effects the world of Alice in wonderland.
- The jump in target audience from child to young adult
- Evolution of characters – card soldiers and Alice herself
- Mention how the story is so well known and has had many different re telling that perhaps spicy horse thought it was about time so see Alice in a new light.
- Possibly focusing on, instead of Alice ‘dreaming’ the whole event, she was having some sort of break down in her mind.
- Could also be focusing on the darker side of Victorian England.
- Spicy horse’s Alice could be an example of looking at Alice in a new light or, through a looking glass as It were.
- How Alice in wonderland is popular in japan and influenced some of the Animes they produce
- John Tenniel completed the original illustrations
Evolution of Alice
- 1951 - Disney
- 1972 – mill creek entertainment
- 1985 - Columbia pictures
- 1988 – Burbank films Australia
- 1995 - good times entertainment (Japanese origin)
- 1999 – Hallmark entertainment
- 2000 - American McGee’s Alice (features Alice in wonderland and through the looking glass)
- 2010 – Tim burton and Disney (a mixture of Alice in wonderland and through the looking glass)
- 2011 - American McGee and spicy horse
Animes that have been
influenced by the story (ALL SERIES BELOW WERE PRODUCED IN 2006)
- Ouran high school host club
- Black butler
- Pandora hearts is heavily inspired by Alice in wonderland and many of the characters are based on ones from the novel.
Music video
Gwen Stefani whatcha waiting for?
- Alice talks about her wonderland being a place of nonsense
- Her experience is all a dream
- Even though the 1951 film was directed at children, it still had some dark moments. For example when the walrus eats the innocent oysters or when the cards at the palace get beheaded by the queens order.
- A large amount of Alice in wonderland productions contains musical numbers that were written just for the story.
- Soft pastel colours are used in a large amount of the environments until she reaches ‘tulgey wood’ where the colour palette becomes far darker to give a creepier mood to the scene.
A hidden meaning in
Alice in wonderland could be about Alice maturing and her fears about growing
up.
Examples of this are (mainly from the 1951 Disney
production):
- Changing size could represent puberty and her body growing
- The cruelty of the flowers and creatures could be a presentation of bullying or how people may treat her in the future.
- The ‘drink me’ potions could be representations of alcohol
- The story of the oysters could be Alice’s fear and learning about death.
- Caterpillar could represent smoking and drug use
- Her constant sharp temper could be a sign of maturing and entering her teenage years
- The journey through tulgey wood could represent her feeling lost and confused about herself as she loses sight of the path but soon ends up finding it again, only for it to be erased in front of her.
- Painting the red roses red could represent the tainting of her innocence in later life.
- The queen of hearts could be a representation of how a teenage girl may see her mother is she is being ‘unfair’
- Looking after the duchess’s child could be a representation of introducing Alice to the worry about motherhood or childhood.
Pasted from wiki:
The
manuscript was illustrated by Dodgson himself who added 37
illustrations—printed in a facsimile edition in 1887. John Tenniel provided 42
wood engraved illustrations for the published version of the book. The first
print run was destroyed (or sold to America) at Carroll's request because he
was dissatisfied with the quality. The book was reprinted and published in
1866.John Tenniel's illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell, who had dark hair and a short fringe.
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