Alice in Wonderland/Fridge

The Books

Fridge Brilliance

• The title of Alice in Wonderland. I'm Swedish, so when I was a kid, before I knew English, I knew it as Alice i Underlandet, which means the exact same thing. However, the Swedish word "under" means both "wonder" and "below", and I always assumed that they meant "Alice in the Land Below", which made sense to me, since she went down the rabbit hole. It wasn't until I started school and learned English that I realised what they really meant.
  • The original title, by the way, was "Alice's Adventures Underground".
  • Woolseyisms yay!

Fridge Horror

• What would happen if the Red King had a nightmare?
  • Who's to say he's not having one now?
• What if he woke up? Apocalypse How Class Z?

The Films

Fridge Brilliance

• The 1999 Hallmark version's use of And You Were There in regards to the guests. Alice only runs to Wonderland because she's terrified of singing in front of "all of those strangers". Those same strangers reappear as the people she meets in Wonderland, who all encourage her singing and continually remind her that it's alright to screw up, with the end of her journey even concluding with "then you don't need us anymore" as she gets over her fear.
• In the new Alice in Wonderland, I thought the Darker and Edgier nature of Wonderland was just for the ever-present Rule of Cool as opposed to the original. Then I had a thought: that Wonderland represents her mindset! Wonderland was whimsical in the first Alice because she was a little kid, and now she's an adult with darker thoughts!
  • That doesn't explain why everyone looks tired, though. :)
  • When Bayard the dog first appeared on the screen, I was a little baffled. I warmed up to him quickly (who couldn't, with those puppies?), but I didn't see the point in adding the dog to the tale, other than as another ally for Alice. It was a few days later when I remembered something—in the first book, Alice meets a puppy! Granted, he didn't speak to her then, but who's to say that wasn't a young Bayard?
  • Also, I was annoyed by the fact that The Knave's eyepatch kept changing color. The it hit me: It's only red in the scenes with the Red Queen and black in every else scene. The eyepatch is a visual representation of his actual feelings: When it's red, he's faking love and adoration for the Red Queen but as soon as she leaves, it changes to black to show, that deep down, his just as cold and cruel ("black-hearted") as any other villain.
  • Also, Mad Hatter's fits of rage. To be honest, they didn't 'bother' me, but they just came behind the tree from one point, for seemingly without any provocation. Then I started to think: He's supposed to have a mercury poisoning, right? I looked up the symptoms and the mystery was solved. The poisoning hyperstimulates the heart and causes insomnia, but slows the adrenaline glands. Adding the state of Wonderland and his own personal demons it's clear, that he is constantly under stress without the way of releasing it, making the Hatter a ticking time bomb. The pressure builds and builds, until he flies to rage from even the slightest thing, even if someone even mentions something unpleasant.
  • Underland/Wonderland seemed like much more of a safer place when Alice was a little girl. Well there's something that should be considered: in the original novel whenever the Queen of Hearts would send someone to their execution, the King of Hearts would pardon them before it could be carried out. With the king dead, well you know the rest...
  • Recently had this breakthrough: It had started bugging me a little that the residents of Wunderland were so set on following a prophesied path. I mean, the whole point of the place is that everyone is mad, so why should they care about prophecy so much? Why not make their own random paths? Then today, I remembered something from "Through the Looking Glass"—Wonderlanders, or at least Looking-Glass Landers, can remember things backwards and forwards. To them, they've already remembered what's going to happen! (Hell, when you think about it, isn't a prophecy sort of like a memory of the future anyway?)
  • How about this one. At the end of the new film, Alice goes to open trade with China. Historically, this was done by the British Army going to war with China in order to sell Opium. Here's the brilliance: The majority of Alice in Wonderland was written by Caroll when he was regularly taking Opium. Alice is retroactively ensuring her own existence!
    • You obviously Did Not Do The Research.
  • This is a very minor detail, but in that scene where the Red Queen orders the frog executed and his children brought to her, she says, "I love tadpoles on toast, almost as much as I love caviar." The first two times I saw this movie, I thought the horrible thing was that she was treating talking animal kids like food. The third time, I realized that she's talking about eating caviar--to a fish! That's just wrong! -Katzsoa
    • Also doubles as something of an inverted You Have Failed Me... - she's threatening her fish servant with the deaths of his unborn children to keep him in line. -zandercan

Fridge Horror

• Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Tim Burton can cause Fridge Horror by simply adding a cameo. To be more specific, the Gryphon makes a cameo as a mural fighting the Jabberwock(y). In the book, the Gryphon tells Alice that the (Red) Queen of Hearts never carries out executions. He isn't in the movie. So either A) the Jabberwock killed him, or B) the Queen had him executed. Either way, a Funny Animal who may be one the only characters in the novel nice to Alice DIES.
  • I think it's symbolic. Kind of like a coat of arms.
  • The White Queen apparently can brew potions that cause you to change size. She is normal-shaped. Her sister, the Red Queen, has a size at least three times larger than normal. Who is the real villain?
  • The one sending the Jabberwocky to kill people.
    • The Knave of Hearts. His arms and legs are a little too long. Did he take the potion? Was the potion connected to some sort of drug, and he took it?