As if he never got around to seeing Jan Svankmajer's version from the 1980s.
ping
Did the real ebert say that, or the computer animated ebert?
Suggestions of paedophilia
Dodgson’s friendships with young girls, together with his perceived lack of interest in romantic attachments to adult women, and psychological readings of his work – especially his photographs of nude or semi-nude girls[37] – have all led to speculation that he was a paedophile. This possibility has underpinned numerous modern interpretations of his life and work, particularly Dennis Potter’s play Alice and his screenplay for the motion picture, Dreamchild, and even more importantly Robert Wilson’s Alice, and a number of recent biographies, including Michael Bakewell’s Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1996), Donald Thomas’s Lewis Carroll: A Portrait with Background (1995), and Morton N. Cohen’s Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1995). All of these works assume that Dodgson was a paedophile, albeit perhaps a repressed and celibate one. Cohen claims Dodgson’s “sexual energies sought unconventional outlets”, and further writes:
We cannot know to what extent sexual urges lay behind Charles’s preference for drawing and photographing children in the nude. He contended the preference was entirely aesthetic. But given his emotional attachment to children as well as his aesthetic appreciation of their forms, his assertion that his interest was strictly artistic is naïve. He probably felt more than he dared acknowledge, even to himself.[37]
Cohen notes that Dodgson “apparently convinced many of his friends that his attachment to the nude female child form was free of any eroticism”, but adds that “later generations look beneath the surface” (p. 229).
Cohen and other biographers argue that Dodgson may have wanted to marry the 11-year-old Alice Liddell, and that this was the cause of the unexplained “break” with the family in June 1863.[38] But there has never been significant evidence to support the idea, and the “cut pages in diary document” (see above) implies that the 1863 “break” had little to do with Alice, but was perhaps connected with rumors involving her older sister Lorina, or possibly their governess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll
Ebert is right that the book was not really suitable for young children. I tried to read it when I was small, and it scared the heck out of me. So I doubt the movie would be good for kids either.
Still I might be persuaded to see it, if only for Johnny Depp. Yes, I know — liberal, “turned his back on the US,” etc. etc. But dang, he can play weird very well.
bookmark
As if he never got around to seeing Jan Svankmajer's version from the 1980s.
"The tension of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland emerges when Alice’s fixed [stodgy Victorian] perspective of the world comes into contact with the mad, illogical world of Wonderland. Alice’s fixed sense of order clashes with the madness she finds in Wonderland. The White Rabbit challenges her perceptions of class when he mistakes her for a servant, while the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Pigeon challenge Alice’s notions of urbane intelligence with an unfamiliar logic that only makes sense within the context of Wonderland.
"Most significantly, Wonderland challenges her perceptions of good manners by constantly assaulting her with dismissive rudeness. Alice’s fundamental beliefs face challenges at every turn, and as a result Alice suffers an identity crisis. She persists in her way of life as she perceives her sense of order collapsing all around her. Alice must choose between retaining her notions of order and assimilating into Wonderland’s nonsensical rules."
I sympathize with Alice's identity crisis as I try to adjust to Obama's Marxist Radicaland. Assimilation is not an option!
While I don’t have much use for Ebert’s political views, I respect and enjoy his opinions as a film critic. I’m glad he’s been able to continue his work in spite of his illness. I thought Tim Burton ran out of gas a while ago - it’ll be interesting to check out his Alice.
Read (or listen) for yourself:
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/results
I hadn’t read it until I did so as an adult and was aware of the pervy allegations, but even so, I think kids will only follow the literal plot.
who knew FreeRepublic had so many Lit. Majors...
‘Twas brillig and the snidely tomes
Did Ebert and Siskel on the web.
All flimsy were the movie tropes
And the gnome wafts on Depp.
I prefer the Tom Petty Version. It was only three minutes long.
I read and re-read Alice (Wonderland/Looking Glass) many times over the years and loved it every time. Disney’s version was ok but not one of my Disney favorites. I saw Burton’s Alice over the weekend and enjoyed it very much. It was dark and more mature, it was a return to ‘Underland’, not Wonderland as Alice had thought it was in her younger years and they changed up which characters delivered some of the lines (the Mock Turtle was nowhere to be seen), lines that an Alice reader would know were uttered by other characters in the books.
But I generally don’t go to a movie for deeper and hidden messages, I go to be entertained and that I was. We did hit the 3D version which was also a treat, given Burton’s backgrounds and scenery. Still love the books, enjoyed the movie, liked the 3D (a butterfly at the end, I swear was flying IN the theater!) and it was an enjoyable couple of hours. That’s all. I’m not going to attach a huge, deep meaning to a movie.