A Wonderful Nightmare: Alice in Wonderland

Alice and Wonderland to many is thought of as an odd yet wonderful children's story. The truth is that it was originally written as a nightmare. The thing is that this is not the only story that Disney has taken and turned into a happy story, as Disney does with many of it's movies. (Many of their movies are taken from Grimm's Fairytales. Most of which are much scarier than Disney's portrayal of them.) But, if this story was intended to be a nightmare, as better portrayed in the 2010 version of the movie, why try to make it scarier or more eccentric. Books are considered classics for a reason. Most of which should not be rewritten or tampered with. Yet some author's like to take these works and turn them into "better" stories or try to make them fit better into what today's society wants.

Nickolas Cook is one such author who decided that the classic should be changed. He took Carroll's beautifully eccentric piece of fictitious literature and made it into a twisted story nothing close to the original. This new version begins with Alice and her sitting in a grave yard. Then she follows a black rat and falls into a grave. The story goes on from there but I can't bare to share more. Why would you even attempt to change a work such as Alice in Wonderland?

The idea of the original was to cause fear and wonderment, yet Cook has taken it and changed it for the worst. I believe that writers should try harder to use their imaginations and try to create a new story for people to enjoy. They shouldn't try to change classics for what they think people want to read. Many of the books being written today have seemed to follow Twilight and are either about vampires or werewolves with zombies thrown in there. Authors are ruining their stories with these ridiculous creatures. Especially those like Cook have ruined classics. Other books like this are Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (although not a classic still a story being twisted and made into a farce), The Five People you Meet in Hell, and The DaVinci Cod: a Fishy Parody.

I think the main problem here is that when people think of Alice, they think of an animated little girl that daydreams a fabulous adventure. We never see that Alice fight the jabberwocky, or go through the other struggles she is faced with. Yes Disney shows she struggles while in Wonderland, but their version of Alice doesn't fight as hard as Carroll's original Alice does.