Disney in Wonderland: A Comparative Analysis of Disney's Alice in Wonderland Film Adaptations from 1951 and 2010 (PDF)

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction:
¿Every thing¿s got a moral, if only you can find it¿.
Lewis Carroll 1865.
In 2015, the first edition of Alice in Wonderland will have its 150th anniversary. The novel as well as its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There have been read by people of all ages and all origins ever since. Due to the widespread success of the literary work, Lewis Carroll¿s novels have not only been illustrated by hundreds of artists, but also frequently adapted for film, theatre, opera, music, and other forms of art. Among these numerous adaptations are two motion pictures produced by the Walt Disney Company, which is known for warm-hearted movies for audiences of all ages. The relationship between Alice in Wonderland and Walt Disney even dates back to 1923 when he founded the famous film studio due to a distribution contract for his first completed short film called Alice¿s Wonderland.
This thesis, however, focuses on the Disney adaptation from 1951 ¿ a 2-D cartoon animation ¿ as well as the most recent film adaptation from 2010 ¿ a combination of live-action film and computer-generated animation. Thus, the main part of this thesis constitutes a comparative analysis of both adaptations regarding the following aspects: the evolution of the visualisations, the different characters of the heroine Alice, the influences of Walt Disney and Tim Burton on the story lines and the styles of the adaptations, and the responses to both films. Thereby, the following research questions should be answered:
¿ What are the specificities of Carroll¿s novels? Why did it attract so many filmmakers?
¿ Why did both adaptations employ the medium of animation? Did the medium get implemented successfully?
¿ How did Walt Disney and Tim Burton affect the story lines and the styles of the adaptations? How did the heroine¿s character change under their influence?
¿ How did the audiences react to the adaptations? What are the reasons for that?
The first theoretical part hence starts with a description of the literary model, which aims at defining the novels¿ specificities respectively the essence Carroll tried to convey. Chapter 2 outlines the most important issues of today¿s adaptation discourse, since the theory of adaptation serves as the theoretical basis for the comparative analysis. In chapter 3, an overview of the medium of animation will be given, including the medium¿s possibilities and challenges as well as its techniques. With [...]