Alice Liddell

The curious girl of England

Alice Liddell/Gallery

**Alice Liddell** is the main character of *Alice in Wonderland*.

## Background

### Appearance

Alice is a 10 year old girl with shoulder-length blonde hair, rosy cheeks, dark pink or red lips, pink nails and blue eyes. She is seen in a blue short puffy-sleeved knee-length dress with a white pinafore apron, a corset, frilly white knee-length pantalettes, a matching petticoat, white lace thigh-high stockings, black hair bow and black strapped Mary Jane shoes.

### Personality

Alice is depicted as a daydreamer first and foremost. Prior to arriving in Wonderland, she sat on the bank of a river listening to her big sister reading lessons. Displeased by the lack of pictures in her sister's book, she claimed, "In my world, the books would be nothing but pictures!" This gives some idea of Alice's large imagination. At first, Wonderland seemed like the perfect place for Alice, as it allowed her to indulge in her imaginings as well as her intense curiosity. Alice's quick temper and pedantic eagerness to show off her knowledge often proved to be bad qualities in Wonderland, and landed her in many precarious situations. Still she's seen as polite, honest, adventurous, well spoken and respectful, if not given a reason to be otherwise. She is also very adventurous and curious.

## Disney History

### Alice in Wonderland

Alice is sitting in a tree with her kitten, Dinah, listening to a history lesson being given from her older sister, who repeatedly reminds Alice to stop daydreaming and pay attention. Alice slips away with Dinah, going off about "a world of her own". Near a brook, she spots a White Rabbit with a waistcoat and an over sized pocket-watch fretting endlessly over how late he is running. Filled with curiosity over what a rabbit could be late for, Alice hurries after him, begging the rabbit to wait. She follows the rabbit into a small rabbit hole, where the ground gives way, and she tumbles end over end down an endless black hole. Her dress catches her fall like a parachute and after floating past assorted household objects such as chairs and pictures aloft in the hole, she lands safely at the bottom. She continues her pursuit of the rabbit to a round, cavernous room with doors on all sides. At one door in particular is a cheerful doorknob placed on a door too small for her. At the advisement of the doorknob, Alice eats and drinks various magical comestibles to fetch a key to the door and become the proper size to enter, but ends up growing too big for the room. Aggravated at becoming so gigantic, the young girl begins to cry giant drops of water that turn the room into a pool of her own tears. Alice manages to shrink herself once more before she is washed safely through the keyhole and enters Wonderland. Once on the shore, she meets Dodo, who is having a caucus race with some friends. The White Rabbit appears and dashes into the nearby forest. Alice follows but is delayed by the appearance of Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum. The two comical chums entertain her with the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter until Alice realizes she is wasting time. Taking leave of the two, Alice finally stumbles upon the White Rabbit's home and meets him face to face, but he mistakes her for his housemaid Mary Ann. He orders her to retrieve his gloves from the house. While upstairs, Alice innocently eats a cookie from a jar on the table, but grows to giant size once again with her arms and legs shooting out the windows and doors of the house trying to pull herself out. Seeing what has happened, the White Rabbit enlists the help of Dodo, who resolves to set fire to the house and "smoke the monster out". Spotting a garden, Alice eats one of the rabbit's carrots and shrinks very small. Alice is then able to exit the house and resume her pursuit of the White Rabbit, who has realized how late he is and taken off. After losing the rabbit a second time, she has a marginally pleasant interaction with a bed of live, talking flowers, who enchant her with "All in the Golden Afternoon". However, when she fails to adequately answer their questions of who she is, they label her as a "weed" and rudely oust her from the garden. Afterwards, she encounters a snobby, hookah-smoking caterpillar who shows her a mushroom that can enlarge or shrink her before turning into a butterfly and flitting off. Alice breaks off two pieces of the mushroom and finds that a small nibble from one of the pieces returns her to normal size. She places the two pieces in her apron pockets and resumes her journey through the forest. Alice then meets the mischievous, perpetually-grinning Cheshire Cat, perched in a tree. After a vexing conversation, the cat suggests she visit the Mad Hatter and March Hare (who is mad too). The cat vanishes into thin air, and although she does not want to come across mad people, Alice pays them a visit. The two are at an enormous table laden with teapots and kettles, sipping tea, and celebrating one of their 364 unbirthdays. Alice and the duo become friends until they seem to be even madder than they appear. After several failed attempts at a civilized conversation, an exasperated Alice becomes fed up with their madness and storms away. Before she does, however, the White Rabbit appears and rushes through the party, only to be stopped by the Mad Hatter, who was intrigued upon hearing of the rabbit's tardiness. He claims his watch is the fault, and believes its two days slow, leading to be and the March Hare volunteering to "fix" it. Their efforts merely makes things worse, to the point where the watch goes mad and is destroyed by the Hare. The White Rabbit sadly gathers the ruined pieces, heartbroken as it was an unbirthday present, and the trigger word causing the rabbit to be thrown out during the Mad Hatter and March Hare's reprise of their Unbirthday song, leaving Alice chasing after the rabbit once more. As she continues on her way she realizes she has come to an unfamiliar part of the forest. Here she encounters a plethora of peculiar animals, who divert her attention even further into the unknown. A resigned Alice starts to believe she may never see her home again and sobs in distress. As she cries, the Cheshire Cat appears in a nearby tree, to her utter delight. Alice wails that she is done with following white rabbits and wants to find her way home. The cat directs her to a secret passageway to a twisting hedge maze surrounding a castle. Alice walks into the hedge maze and comes across a palace garden with white rose trees. She is befuddled to find a trio of cheery Spade playing cards armed with paintbrushes painting the roses red. The cards explain to her how they planted the white roses by mistake and they are trying to correct themselves since the penalty is losing their heads. Alice willingly lends a hand, but are halted upon the arrival of the Queen of Hearts, the diminutive king, and an entourage of spear-toting card soldiers. In panic, the three grounds workers try to shift the blame to one another, but the belligerent Queen sends them off to be executed. Alice tries to plea for them, but the Queen strong-arms Alice into a game of croquet. Although she has played before, Alice is surprised to see the mallets and balls are flamingos and gophers respectively. The entire game operates under the Queen's constant threat of beheading. The card soldiers, serving as the brackets, are careful to place themselves in front of the rolling ball, and the flamingos and gophers dare not upset her. Alice is not so lucky with her own flamingo, who tickles, embarrasses, and wrestles with the girl. The Cheshire Cat appears in and out of game play, but only to Alice. The Queen is quickly angered by Alice's repeated claims that the cat is there. When the cat plays a trick on the Queen, she eagerly orders Alice's execution, but king manages to earn her a trial. Alice's trial is a convoluted, nonsensical proceeding full of irrelevant hearings from the March Hare and Mad Hatter and imaginary evidence against Alice. When the Cheshire Cat orchestrates another trick against the Queen, Alice receives the blame again. Alice gobbles down the pieces of mushroom in her apron and shoots toward the ceiling to tower over the courtroom. Alice brushes away the attacking card soldiers carelessly and refuses to leave the courtroom, despite Rule #42 stating that people more than a mile high cannot be present. Alice calls the Queen a "fat, pompous, bad-tempered old tyrant" just as she realizes the other mushroom piece has returned her to normal size. The Queen screams out "Off with her head!!" and the card soldiers swarm her. In the confusion, Alice escapes the castle and the hedge maze and flees through the previously visited segments of Wonderland. When she arrives back at the doorknob, she looks through the keyhole and sees herself asleep under a tree. She begs herself to wake up as the infuriated inhabitants of Wonderland advance on her. Alice awakens to the sound of her sister asking her to recite her history lesson. The dazed Alice only spouts out some nonsensical poetry, much to her sister's exhaustion. Alice then picks up Dinah and they all return home for tea time.

## Other History

### House of Mouse

Alice makes numerous appearances in the animated series. Alice is usually seen drinking tea with The Mad Hatter. In "Ask Von Drake", Alice was seen with the Hatter during the headcount of all the Disney character guests. In "Dining Goofy", Alice was in her gigantic state, making it difficult to order her food on a regular sized computer (which she, of course, is curious about, as she lived during a time where computers didn't exist). A Penguin Waiter then served Alice one of her "Drink Me" bottles, returning her back to her normal size. In the opening for the show, Alice can be seen with a few other Wonderland characters at Daisy Duck's reservation desk. Alice also appears in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse.

### Adventures in Wonderland

Alice appears as the main protagonist of the 1991-1995 TV series and is portrayed by Elisabeth Harnois. Alice is an average preteen, often facing problems in school, with her little brother (Brian) or big sister (Kathy), or some other issue. She often confides in her cat Dinah about her day. Alice has a special gift in that she is able to pass into Wonderland by walking through her mirror (see Through the Looking-Glass). Whenever she arrives, she helps her friends solve their problems, which in turn offers a solution to hers in the real world.

### Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

In the Once Upon a Time spin-off, Alice is played by Sophie Lowe. In Victorian London, the young Alice tells a tale of a strange new land that exists on the other side of a rabbit hole, an invisible cat, a hookah-smoking caterpillar and playing cards that talk are just some of the fantastic things she's seen during this impossible adventure. Believing Alice to be insane, her doctors aim to cure her with a treatment that will make her forget everything. Alice seems ready to put it all behind her... especially the painful memory of the genie Cyrus, with whom she fell in love and lost forever. But deep down she knows this world is real all along. Just in the nick of time, the sardonic Knave of Hearts and the irrepressible White Rabbit save her from a doomed fate. Now Alice is determined to find Cyrus while evading the plots of Jafar and the Red Queen.

Alice in the remake