Book Review: Alice in Wonderland
Disney Press Book By Jon Scieszka, Illustrated By Mary Blair
Jan 20, 2009
For years, animation professionals have raved about the concept paintings Disney artist Mary Blair (1911 - 1978) did for the 1951 film Alice in Wonderland, with many claiming that her drawings were superior to the final product.
Now Disney Press has packaged Blair's paintings into a picture book for children, with a retelling by Jon Scieszka (The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales). It's a decent rewording of Lewis Carroll's story, although it's nowhere near as imaginative as the original.
Jon Scieszka Retells Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland
Rewriting a classic story is fraught with peril. When the tale is so closely aligned with the original author's writing style, it seems like a Sisyphean task. Lewis Carroll had crafted a surrealist fantasy with brilliant imagery and wordplay (many adults were divided over Carroll's use of puns in Alice in Wonderland, although children universally loved them).
It's to his credit that Scieszka managed to strip the tale down to its essentials, although this retelling of Alice in Wonderland adheres more closely to the Disney film rather than the Carroll book. Therefore there's no Lobster Quadrille, Bill the Flying Lizard, "You Are Old, Father William," or the baby turning into a pig.
Many of the more bizarre images from both the Carroll novel and the Disney film (flamingos as croquet mallets, the grin without a cat) have also been excised from this book, although some of them still remain in Blair's paintings. Disney editors clearly kept a tight lid on any verbal zaniness, although Scieszka has some fun on page #5: ". . . as Alice fell, she had time to review most of her spelling words (72% correct), recite two poems (poorly), and say all of her 7 times tables (all wrong) before landing with a gentle THUMP."
Although parents and animation fans will doubtlessly appreciate Blair's paintings, it's questionable how much little kids will get out of them. Although vibrant with colour, they have a sketchy quality to them, aren't all that detailed, and the artistic style is definitely of the time.
To be fair to Blair, they were never intended to be viewed by kids, just used as a reference to the other animators at Disney. Although most of her work stayed in the Disney archives, enough were sold to private collections that Disney's researchers had to hunt those paintings down and get permission for the images be used in this book.
The Final Analysis
As a historical document, Disney Press' Alice in Wonderland is a great look at Blair's wonderful concept drawings. Scieszka's prose gets the job done, but doesn't hold a candle to Lewis Carroll's classic wordplay and surrealist language.
As good as this is, parents should introduce their kids to Carroll's classic prose as soon as possible. The original is still the best. It gets a 7/10.
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