Alice Kingsley: This is impossible.
The Mad Hatter: Only if you believe it is.

I have always loved the story Alice in Wonderland. I have an old copy of the book that I used to read when I was little, full of pictures and conversations, and I’m afraid the cover has come off so that its insides are floating around untethered to its binding. I have the cartoon version and also the television version of the film that is my favorite so far, until yesterday, when I saw Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” film. And that is now my favorite.The film has gotten bad reviews and I can’t imagine how. It’s a brilliant film. In all ways, it’s smart, witty, graphically vivid and dark at the same time, and makes you really think about things. Alice has grown up. She’s not the silly little girl anymore. Although she still retains her vivid imagination. She still sees the magic in her surroundings, and longs to have a life that is not the one that everyone else expects her to have.

It’s especially intriguing that they have called Wonderland Underland in this version. Its the land that lies underneath everything, under our own world, our own lives. The Underland could be in all of us. The Underland could be a metaphor for our emotional state. That which drives us and that lies underneath the surface.The characters of the film have truly become characters, people, and they feel and think. The Mad Hatter has such depth to him. It makes me wonder what happened to him to make him so mad. And I feel sad for him. All the characters are fully three dimensional (literally, as I saw the 3D version). They are good, and bad, and silly, and flawed. They are real. Even the Queen, in all her big-headed glory, has moments where you might feel sad for her. But the moment soon passes, and she becomes quite wicked again.

Throughout the film, there is a core group of characters that gather to help Alice in her quest to eventually slay the Jabberwocky on Frabjous day. And I began to think, as I often do, about other stories, where a central character is on a quest. In almost all of them, they have friends, or people, who help them realize a) what their quest truly is and b) how to accomplish it. And if it weren’t for these friends, their quest would have failed.

For example, there’s the Wizard of Oz, the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Labyrinth, Legend, Shrek, the Adventures of Baron Munchausen…I could name others but the list would be too long. But you get what I mean. And the stories don’t have to even be fantasy stories. Maybe there’s a lesson to be learned from these stories, one about friendship and trust. In order to fully realize our own quest in life, we need to find our own group of characters that would be willing to stand up to slay a Jabberwocky with us.

I believe I’ve already found mine. Have you, my dear readers, found yours?