Without the influence of Walt Disney\u2019s 1951 feature film, I speculate Alice would have remained a fixture in the entertainment zeitgeist. She would just have much less merchandise to her name and would be more revered akin to Beatrix Potter\u2019s characters and C.S. Lewis\u2019s The Chronicles of Narnia<\/em> series. What makes Alice a fascinatingly curious Disney character is her movie strongly parallels the source material by Lewis Caroll (the nom de plume of mathematician and author Charles Dodgson) with much creative license. This is particularly true with Alice\u2019s trademark mien. The Walt Disney Studio artists didn\u2019t create Alice\u2019s blonde hair tied back with bow and her frock with a white pinafore, but they did refine it for the silver screen. <\/p>\n Other depictions of Disney characters are now regarded as the standard. Snow White is always imagined with her Technicolor blue and yellow gown, while Sleeping Beauty always wears her golden tiara paired with a pink or blue dress. The Little Mermaid<\/em> is now forever a bright redhead with a green tail and Cinderella<\/em> is never seen without her classic chignon and sparkly white-blue ballgown. Meanwhile Alice has remained close to her illustrative origins.<\/p>\n Alice by John Tenniel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The credit for Alice\u2019s look goes to legendary British illustrator and political cartoonist John Tenniel. While he provided the illustrations for both of the Alice books: Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em> and Through the looking Glass<\/em>, he was famous for his political drawings in Punch, a satirical magazine. The magazine was exceedingly popular in the 1840s-1850s and it\u2019s comparable to The New Yorker<\/em> and the defunct Mad<\/em> Magazine. Tenniel\u2019s political cartoons are tame by modern conceptions but were quite scandalous during Victorian England. <\/p>\n Tenniel worked in the theater and often transposed dramatic scenes to paper. His work was noted to be very theatrical compared to other cartoonists. Thanks to his photographic memory, he was also a master of portraiture and caricature. Tenniel knew how to draw from real life thanks to his classical education at the Royal Academy of Arts based in London, but he included details he only saw in his imagination. I describe Tenniel\u2019s work in that he had the ethos of high, fine art but has the muckrake details of the common sketch artist His influences are still seen today, but none more so than the original Alice in Wonderland<\/em>. <\/p>\n He became Punch\u2019s<\/em> Principal Cartoonist circa 1864. Around that time Lewis Caroll was fiddling around with the draft for Alice in Wonderland<\/em> and he drew his own conceptions of what Alice looked like. Apparently his renderings weren\u2019t the best, so he sought the services of a professional artist. His eyes fell on Tenniel, because Carroll loved his caricatures. <\/p>\n When it came to their respective artistic mediums, Caroll and Tenniel were masters. Caroll knew how to spin a word and poetic verse with the same elegance as a mathematical formula, while Tenniel inked small details into his cartoons while maintaining a simplicity that didn\u2019t overwhelm a viewer\u2019s eyes. It was a match made in Wonderland!<\/p>\n There are scant remnants of the correspondence between Tenniel and Caroll during their collaboration on Alice. The remaining letters and diaries allude to an intense dialogue over the development of Caroll\u2019s iconic characters. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has one of the few surviving illustrations showing the development of Alice. The image depicts a concept profile of Alice\u2019s visage by Tenniel with notes from Caroll that read: \u201cA little bit off eyebrow. Eyebrow & eyelid lighter. Eyelash \u2013 a little too long. Clear away a line on nose next to cheek. A little bit more light on end of nose.\u201d<\/p>\n He relied more on Alice\u2019s situations and Tenniel\u2019s illustrations to augment his world building. Tenniel was an experienced artist by the time he was hired to illustrate the Alice books. The Victoria and Albert Museum wrote: \u201c\u2026Tenniel invented his own characterisations, drawing from a vast range of sources, including fine art, natural history, heraldry, caricature and his previous work for Punch.\u201d Caroll, however, was involved with the creation of the illustrations. He provided Tenniel with feedback about what to draw and where illustrations would be placed in the final print. When it comes to creating the characters iconic looks, however, writer and graphic novelist of Alice in Sunderland credits it all to Tenniel: \u201cCarroll never describes the Mad Hatter: our image of him is pure Tenniel.\u201d<\/p>\n Arguably Alice in Wonderland<\/em> and Through the Looking Glass<\/em> could be viewed as some of the first modern graphic novels because of the collaboration between author and artist. <\/p>\n Having written my own novels and studied Carroll\u2019s personality, I hypothesize he was more concerned with how his words were being edited than being an overbearing presence for Tenniel. The illustrator was a professional, experienced artist who had a famous career long before he illustrated the Alice books. Caroll was aware of this so he left his collaborator to his own devices. (This is only speculation on my part based on my creative experience and knowledge of Caroll\u2019s life.)<\/p>\n Mary Blair was tapped for creative and conceptual designs on Alice in Wonderland<\/em>. Compared to Tenniel\u2019s straightforward, detailed ink style, Blair is a modernistic almost minimalist artist who favors organic shape and bold color. They two couldn\u2019t be more different, but Blair\u2019s respect for Tenniel\u2019s source material is more evident in her renderings of Alice. She kept the same iconic look, albeit minimalist. Blair\u2019s blue, yellow, and white beribboned blur couldn\u2019t be anyone by Alice. Blair\u2019s Alice in Wonderland<\/em> concepts are truer homages to Tenniel\u2019s work than Salvador Dali\u2019s surrealistic, brut version. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/disney-alice-in-wonderland.jpg\")
Alice is a curious character in the Disney pantheon. She\u2019s not a princess but has the popularity of one. She doesn\u2019t have any magical powers, a plethora animal friends, or a lovely singing voice. She was famous long before Walt Disney transformed her into an animated character. In western children\u2019s fantasy literature, she is part of the iconic triad that includes Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz<\/em> and Wendy of Peter Pan<\/em>. She\u2019s a legacy portal fantasy and isekai (to borrow a Japanese anime\/manga term) heroine that\u2019s inspired hundreds of stories and spinoffs, especially when Alice\u2019s books entered the public domain.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Alice_John_Tenniel_200.jpg\")
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<\/a>Despite being a literary master, Caroll didn\u2019t bog down Alice in Wonderland<\/em> and Through the Looking Glass<\/em> with descriptions of his characters and their world. The books read more like an observation with curious pondering about the imaginary lands. Caroll was interested in world building, but not to the extent seen as J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, and Ursula Le Guin. <\/p>\n<\/a>It doesn\u2019t appear Caroll micromanaged Tenniel, however, and he trusted the artist\u2019s skills. The working relationship between the two legends is reminiscent of how modern comic book artists and writers work together. Alice in Wonderland<\/em> and Through the Looking Glass<\/em> are children\u2019s books, but modern children\u2019s illustration doesn\u2019t work like the aforementioned described relationship. Unless an author doubles as the illustrator, they have little say in what is drawn for the book. Comic books, however, are written with dialogue and panel descriptions for the artist to manifest. <\/p>\n<\/a>Alice\u2019s portrayal is recognizable and simplistic: a frock with a pinafore and blonde hair tie back with a ribbon headband. Alice\u2019s dress is traditionally blue but its color has changed to suit whatever publication she is in. When Walt Disney selected to bring the heroine to an animated feature, he and his team had an abundance of Tenniel\u2019s work for inspiration not to mention numerous republishing of the book with reimagined depictions of the famous characters. <\/p>\n