Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Book

In the original book, the dog that Alice meets is not named, but in Tim Burton's 2010 movie, the dog is called Bayard the Bloodhound and is voiced by Timothy Spall.

The first movie is probably for 6 and up, it may be a little scary for toddlers.

The newest movie with Johnny Depp has some fighting scenes and a weird romantic scene where nothing happens but I'd say it would be for at least 7 and up depending how you look at things.

In his book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll doesn't describe the Cheshire Cat except to say that it is "large" and "grinning from ear to ear" and has "very long claws and a great many teeth." Tenniel's illustrations are in black and white, so there is no indication as to its colour there either. However, for the Nursery Alice, Tenniel hand coloured twenty of his original illustrations, and he depicts the Cheshire Cat as being an ordinary, cat-like brown colour. (See Related Link below)

In the 1951 Disney adaptation it was pink and purple stripes.

Of course, there are actually two cats in Alice in Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat and Alice's pet cat Dinah. In Lewis Carroll's version, Dinah is never seen, but she does appear in Through the Looking Glass where she is depicted by Tenniel as being a tabby, but her colour isn't specified. Dinah does appear in the 1951 Disney version of Alice, where she is portrayed as being a reddish brown.

Okay, so you saw that she dissapeared from that bird cage. I do not want to spoil the game for you, but I will tell you this- You do not see her until, well, practically the end of the game. Keep leveling up!

If you want to look like the 1951 Disney Cheshire Cat, the key to your costume has to be pink and purple stripes. You could use a search engine to look for items of clothing with pink and purple stripes; or search for 'Cheshire Cat costume' - there are lots of examples of costumes you can buy outright, but there are also lots of accessories you can purchase, like pink and purple arm warmers for instance.

If you can't find anything you like with pink and purple stripes, pink and BRIGHT pink stripes is just as good, and pink and black stripes isn't bad.

If you don't have any luck looking for stripy clothing, you could get something in pink and add the purple stripes yourself either by sewing on purple fabric or using purple fabric paint.

The best way to make a tail is to sew a fabric tube to the right length, turn it inside out and then stuff it. Sew, safety pin or Velcro it to your costume.

So, what to do about the head? I would suggest either a mask, make up or both. You could draw the cat's face onto a large piece of card, attach ribbon or tape to tie it on your head and cut out eyeholes. You will probably also want to cut around your own nose shape in the card, so the mask doesn't squash your nose.

OR you could just concentrate on the grin (which is the CC's most important feature, after all.) Copy the Cheshire Cat's smile onto a piece of card (make sure it's nice and big) Then glue and/or tape it onto a sturdy handle - a piece of wooden doweling would work well. Hold it up to your face to make the cat grin. This gives you a certain amount of freedom, as it means you don't have to wear the mask all the time, but it does mean you'll have to carry it around with you. But it's a fun prop, and I suggest you leave it behind wherever it is that your going in your costume, so that you give the effect of having disappeared, leaving just a 'grin without a cat'.

You might want to wear some eye make up with your grin mask, and anything that you feel comfortable with in pink and purple will be fine, but I have included a link to a how to video where someone does some quite dramatic Cheshire Cat make up. (See Related Link below)

If you make a full face mask you can include ears, but if you just make the grin, or choose to just wear make up, you're going to need some ears. You could just by some from a costume store or you could make your own. I have included a link (see below) to a page giving instructions on how to make cat ears, but remember to make them in your pink and purple colour scheme. You could base your ear design on the original Disney Cheshire Cat - I have included a link where he is very obligingly lifting his ears to you so you can see what they look like. (See below)

The denouement occurs when Alice's sister is thinking about Alice and her adventures.

Alice in Wonderland is very famous. The book has been translated into more than one hundred different languages, and its author, Lewis Carroll is said to be the second most quoted (English speaking) person after William Shakespeare.

It has inspired and influenced all areas of the arts; James Joyce and Evelyn Waugh have written books inspired by Alice's adventures and Salvador Dali produced a set of paintings to illustrate the book.

In popular culture, numerous films, television programs, books, pop songs, comics and computer games have been produced, either as direct adaptations or simply referencing the original novels.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has never been out of print since it was originally published in 1865 and may well be the most widely known children's book in the world.

There isn't a stuffed bunny in Alice in Wonderland. There is a rabbit who is called 'the White Rabbit', and there is a hare, who is called 'the March Hare'.

In the movie, The Last Mimzy, there is a stuffed bunny named Mimzy. It is shown to be originally owned by Alice Liddell, the real little girl the Alice stories are theorized to have been based on. Throughout the movie there a couple of references to this. At one point the character Emma says, "I looked through the looking glass Mommy. I looked through it. Just like Alice." The Mimzy doll never actually appeared in the Alice in Wonderland stories, although the movie has sent many people searching for the references.

The Cheshire Cat is usually thought of as the most agreeable character in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He is not unpleasant to Alice and, during the croquet match, she goes so far as to describe him as a friend.

The physical description of Alice isn't present in the story. Disney is one of the most famous of the film adaptations, of which portrayed her as having blonde hair. The original Alice - Alice Liddell, whom Carroll knew personally, had dark hair.

There are currently 25 film adaptations of Alice in Wonderland, many of which depict her as having dark hair. So, really, she actually doesn't even have blonde hair.

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The original books were illustrated with pen-and-black-ink drawings, leaving hair colour ambiguous.

Alice in Wonderland is not one of the traditional pantomimes, although it has been adapted for the stage many times and there is an adaptation of it written as a pantomime. (See related link, below)

It was originally a novel, and there have been many adaptations for stage, screen, television, video games and so on.

There are several things in Alice in Wonderland which found their origin in real life, and several more which might have.

Alice herself was named after Alice Liddell, a real little girl who Lewis Carroll knew. Elsie, Lacie and Tillie, the girls who lived in a treacle well in the Dormouse's story, were references to Alice Liddell and her sisters, and the Lory and the Eaglet are also based on Alice's real-life sisters.

The Lory and the Eaglet appear in the Pool of Tears as do the Duck, the Dodo and 'several other creatures'. The Dodo is based on Carroll himself and the Duck is Robinson Duckworth, Carroll's friend. The story of them all getting soaked and attempting to get dry again is based on a real incident when the Liddell girls, Carroll, Duckworth and Carroll's sisters and aunt went on a rowing trip which had to be abandoned because it rained and everyone got drenched. The 'several other creatures' are Carroll's aunt and sisters.

It's possible that the White Rabbit was inspired by the Liddell girls' father, Dean Henry Liddell. He used to give sermons in the Cathedral near where Carroll lived and worked in Oxford, but because there was no convenient door, he always had to go the long way round and was often late.

The door to the beautiful garden, and the garden itself are probably real places in Oxford. The Liddell children played in the Dean's garden, but were forbidden from going through the door into the Cathedral garden, which they could see from their nursery window. Carroll could see the Dean's garden through the window of the library where he worked, and it's possible that he himself wished he could be outside with the children and the flowers instead of stuck inside with his books and lesson plans.

The Dormouse might be based on the artist Gabriel Rossetti's pet wombat. Carroll was friends with the Rossettis, and when he went to visit them, their wombat was frequently to be seen sleeping on their table.

The Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Cheshire Cat all have their origins in well known sayings of the time. 'As mad as a hatter' and 'as mad as a March hare' were phrases which Carroll was bound to be familiar with, and 'grin like a Cheshire cat' might have had extra significance to Carroll, because it mentions his birth-place, Cheshire.

It is also possible that the Mad Hatter was based on Theophilus Carter, a furniture dealer in Oxford, who was known as 'The Mad Hatter' because of his eccentric ideas and habit of wearing a top hat.

Most, if not all of the songs and poems in Alice in Wonderland are parodies of real life verses that the Liddell children would have known either from the nursery or their lessons. 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat' for example, is of course based on 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'.

These are just some examples. There are many other real world things which may (or may not) have influenced Lewis Carroll's most famous work.

sources: Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice and Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site (see Related Link below)

Alice is not a princess. Alice is the main character in two fairytale stories written in 1865 by Lewis Carroll. In the books Alice is just an ordinary seven-year-old girl who lives in England.

She is not an official Disney Princess either, but she is sometimes included with them. She was in the PlayStation 2 game Kingdom Hearts as one of the Princesses of Heart, all of whom were official Disney Princesses apart from her. She has also appeared in official Disney Princess art, and is included in the Disney Princess music video It's Not Just Make Believe and The Perfect Princess Tea with the eight official princesses.

In the book, we're not told much about the Dormouse, except that he's always falling asleep (and the Hatter and March Hare keep waking him up). He's definitely small enough to fit into a teapot.

The original book is not scary and neither is Disney's 1951 animated movie. Younger children may find Tim Burton's 2010 movie scary in places and Jan Svankmajer's 1988 film is positively disturbing.