

London Children’s Film Festival 2006: Teachers’ Resource
Alice in Wonderland (Alice au pays des merveilles) (7+)

Introduction

Alice in Wonderland has been adapted many times for the big screen, and this version, made in the late 1940s is little known, largely as a result of having been eclipsed on its release by the now far better-known Disney version. While the colour may now have faded, this imaginative combination of real actors, 3D puppet animation and some avant-garde set design in Wonderland is still as strange and charming as ever. 

Closer to Carroll’s words and Tenniel’s original illustrations than any other version, characters in this adaptation also sing in several scenes. Also, like The Wizard of Oz, reality and dream overlap as some of the people in Alice’s world reappear as inhabitants of Wonderland.

Synopsis

In the gardens of an Oxford College in Victorian England, Alice and her two older sisters are playing fancy dress with one of the young tutors, Mr Dodgson. Soon afterwards, the college prepares for an important visitor, Queen Victoria. When she arrives she is very haughty but also very interested in Mr Dodgson, who she knows to write under the name ‘Lewis Carroll’. 

To get away from the grown ups, Mr Dodgson takes the girls on a boat trip down the river, and as he rows he starts to make up a story about a little girl called Alice. The story tells of how one day, bored as she sits while her older sister reads, she notices a rabbit, fully dressed, dashing past and worrying about being late. Curious, she follows him down a rabbit hole and finds herself in… Wonderland!

Audiences

Alice in Wonderland is suitable for KS2 pupils and contains links to Literacy, Art & Design and History.

Curriculum Links and Suggested Classroom Activities 

Literacy
Before the screening
* Discuss in groups what is known of the original text, mapping the main events and discussing the main characters. What might be difficult about adapting the book for the screen? Think in particular about what is ‘real’ and what is ‘imaginary’, a central theme of the book. 

* Read a chapter of the original text. Investigate it for word play, riddles, rhymes and ‘nonsense’. In Wonderland, where language is turned upside down, anything is possible. Look at the text of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party in Chapter 7. Write a ‘normal’ dialogue between two characters and turn it into nonsense, thinking carefully about how meaning changes with structure, vocabulary and intent.

After the screening
* Compare the film adaptation to the original text, in story, characters and themes. Compare it to other film adaptations.

* Take no more than two pages from the original text and adapt it into a screenplay to be acted out. In screenplays, the characters’ names are in capitals, the text is centred on the page, there are no speech marks and minimal direction for the actors. 

* Compose a nonsense poem or simple rhyme as a shape poem to fit an outline of one of the characters, either about them or from their point of view.

* Did children spot any of the actors ‘reappearing’ as voices of the puppet characters in Wonderland? What did these fantasy characters have in common with their real life counterparts? Identify the common characteristics of animals and each child design an animal character to resemble themselves and write a description of them (clothing, habits, interests, favourite food).

Art & Design
Model animation
* The inhabitants of Wonderland are all puppets in this film, filmed with stop-motion animation like the Wallace and Gromit films. The figures are photographed one frame at a time, with tiny movements made in between. When the film is played, the figures seem to move of their own accord. Compare Tenniels’ illustrations in the original publication with the puppets and actors in the film. What has been changed? Do children prefer one or the other, and why? Children can design their own 3D models of the characters.

The special effects
* In Wonderland, by combining the actress who played Alice with oversize props, as with the ‘Drink Me’ bottle, the filmmakers created the illusion is that she had actually shrunk to a few centimetres tall. Then, putting her among tiny props, as in The White Rabbit’s house, she appears to grow to giant size. Pupils could design and create different size props (tiny chair, huge chair) and explore in-camera special effects, making a short animated film using stop-frame animation with a digital camera in which characters appear to grow and shrink like Alice.

History
* Discuss the Victorian setting of the film. How do the costumes, horse-drawn carriages, behaviour of characters and other elements in the film compare with what is known of life in Victorian England? Find images of these examples and compare them with images from the film from the website listed in ‘Weblinks’, below.

* The film was made in the late 1940s. Which parts of the set design seem ‘modern’, and which seem more traditionally Victorian? Why do you think the filmmakers decided to include such diverse looking sets – how do they help us to understand the story? Think about the room full of doors, the Duchess’s kitchen, the formal gardens, the tea party – how do they compare to what we know from images of Victorian England?



Weblinks

Alice in Wonderland: Film and TV productions over the years
A detailed overview of this film adaptation, including colour stills and information on the production.
http://www.alice-in-wonderland.fsnet.co.uk/film_tv_marsh.htm

The Lewis Carroll Society
An academic site, useful for dates and details about the life of the author and his work.
www.lewiscarrollsociety.org.uk

Film Street website with more information about animation
http://www.filmstreet.co.uk

We suggest that teachers and parents check the suitability of recommended books, films and other media for the children in their care before use. London Children’s Film Festival cannot be responsible for the content of any recommended media, including websites.

Film Details

Country			UK / France 1951
Director 		Dallas Bower
Running time		83 min 
Language		English 

 

 







		© Barbican Education 2006

