The Stories don't Match

Rating: 4/10 (9 April 2010)

Alice in Wonderland is a beloved story that resonates in the mythological realm. I was quite disappointed that this movie was beautiful and well acted, but failed in the mythic story department. It resorted to tired Hollywood formulas that did not match the journey that Alice allegedly makes.
The outer journey that Alice makes starts with a budding rebellion (no stockings) but she still is uncertain and swayed by her mother, sister, and society to perhaps live her life according to outer expectations, instead of from her own heart. When she returns, she is not a tyrant, nor is she a goody-two-shoes, but a mature, courageous young woman ready to go out and live life on her own terms. She obviously had integrated and liberated the parts of herself that were frightened or overly worried about pleasing others with her rebelliousness without being a tyrant about it.
Usually when one has a transformation in a story, the story itself should match the transformation, this one actually contradicts it. In the world she stumbles into, true to formula she finds a quest to liberate the world that is being tyrannized by the Red Queen and restore the bland Goody-Two Shoes White queen to the throne. This isn't what really needs to happen though. To achieve true maturity, as Alice apparently did, one doesn't pit the inner Tyrant against the inner Good Girl, and let one banish the other. Until they are healed, transformed, and allowed to cooperate and collaborate, there is never any lasting peace. What Alice accomplishes on this journey is to have the Tyrant banished where all the disaffected rebels that can't stand the one-dimensional White Queen, will agitate for another rebellion. Stop the War and grow up! Modern psychology has taught us that the Tyrants we need to overcome must to be healed and integrated, not banished to suffer indefinitely. Without the healing process of integration, the contentious relationship between light and dark will always result in conflict, confusion, and violence. The Too Good to be True nice parts also need to be liberated so they don't have to work so hard pleasing everybody. If you were wondering why this story was pretty but vaguely disappointing, here's your answer, it wasn't emotionally true.