Alice's Adventures in Wonderland first appeared in 1865, with John Tenniel's engravings accompanying Lewis Carroll's timeless story. In 1907 the copyright for Alice expired and there was a rush of illustrated editions to challenge Tenniel's version. The most successful version was illustrated by Arthur Rackham ; in the first six months after its publication 14,322 copies of the six shilling edition were sold. Forty years later, in 1947, his Alice was on its 12th edition and has stayed in print ever since. It is a story which never fails to capture the imagination and I have a habit of buying any new version or old or foreign copy that I find. Not surprisingly then I will definitely be going to see Tim Burton's version of Alice when it opens next month. Alongside Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter will be the voices of Paul Whitehouse, Michael Sheen, Barbara Windsor and Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat.
For all those cat loving paper engineers out there visit the Alice 2010 blog and scroll down to the post for Friday Feb 5th to download the PDF to make your own Cheshire Cat (Sorry about the long winded way of doing this but if you like Alice the rest is interesting too!)
6 comments:
Wow that is such an interesting history of Alice in Wonderland. I am also looking forward to the film and have seen several previews of it on the internet! I am now off to look at the paper cat!!
Lucy xx
P.S. I have been busy with your beads today. :P
How interesting. Lewis Caroll had a house in Guildford (where we lived most of our married life until going to France) where his sisters lived and where he visited often and he is in fact buried in Guildford having died whilst visiting his sisters in their house there. There are a couple of sculptures in the town including one of Alice stepping through a sheet of glass just behind the Chestnuts (the house he rented for his sisters) and another of Alice chasing the white rabbit alongside the River Wey in the town centre.
I don't think I'll be attempting the paper Cheshire cat just now!!
Jane
Always fascinated by all influences of Alice, including "The White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane. I always found Tenniel's Cheshire cat rather intimidating as a child, but I am definitely tempted by the paper scupture. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter seem to be a perfect cinematic couple, although I was not that taken with Sweeney Todd. (The Sondheim's music was not my taste)
Did you see the Saturday Telegraph Magazine? It featured a wonderful cover picture of Johnny Depp in costume as the Mad Hatter......... So very, very Tim Burton................ It is on my list of films to seee.........
Stephen Fry is going to make an excellent Cheshire Cat! Nice bit of background information here and interesting to read Jane's comment too.
I think Tim Burton's version will be quite dark but, as always, very atmospheric.
Jeanne x
I love Lewis Caroll's books about Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. We went to see the movie in 3D with great expectations. Maybe that was the mistake. Expecting to see 3D like Avatar or an adventure as good as Mr. Caroll's. Came out of the theater with a headache and disappointed by the story line. Although the cast was excellent.
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