From Original Text To Big Movie-a Study On The Rewriting And Adaptation Of Alice In Wonderland

Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice FoundThere are two masterpieces of English children’s literature. It is written by Charles LutwidgeDodgson under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll. In2010, the3-D Alice in Wonderland is puton show. It is based on Carroll’s two masterpieces and directed by Tim Burton, a geniusdirector from Disney. He gives his own adaptation to the original text and creates a miraclewith the film’s box office over10million. After13years, the grown up Alice for a secondtime falls into the rabbit hole and has her fantasy journey in wonderland.On the one hand, the success of the film dues to its successful rewriting of the originalworks. Apart from its citation of the plot and characters of the books, it also creates a dreamyfantasy world. Alice grows up from the adventure experience. On the other hand, theingenious adaptation also contributes to its success. The director’s style, Disney’s filmnarrative and targeted audience all counted in the adaptation process. From the adapted film,the audience can taste the new flavor of feminism.This thesis mainly analyses the film’s rewriting and adaptation of Carroll’s originalworks on the perspectives of the transition of two different cultural carriers, and explains thatboth the rewriting and adaptation is necessary and inevitable for a transition. The rewriting isto preserve the classics from the text, while the innovation of the adaptation is to meet thedemand of the contemporary audience and the call of the time. The body of this thesis iscomposed of three chapters:The first chapter gives an introduction of the transition between different culturalcarriers. The primal transition is from the oral folk to the written text. Nowadays, more andmore texts are transformed in the form of films and TV series. Then the thesis focuses on thetransition from the text to the movie and gives an explanation of the stable elements andvariable elements of the film narrative. In the second chapter, it centers on the film’s rewritingof Carroll’s original works. The rewriting not only preserves the classic plot and characters,but also creates the same fantasy in educating people. The latter is the soul for both the textand the film. In the third chapter, it first gives several elements that affect the adaptation.Those influences come from the director, the filmmaking company and the targeted audience.And then it demonstrates the adaptation in plot and character. From the adapted film, theaudience can even taste the flavor of feminism. The adaptation enriches the original works.Through the analysis of rewriting and adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, the thesis gives anexample for the transition from text to movie.