Courtesy of Disney
The FRABJOUS DAY is the day Alice slays the Jabberwocky and frees Underland from the oppression of the Red Queen!
In the film, regarding the Frabjous Day, that Mad Hatter vows, " When that day comes I shall futterwacken... vigorously." Check out this clip:
We're celebrating Frabjous Friday with these fun facts from the film!
Alice in Wonderland Fun Facts:
The Big Picture
- DIVINE DIGS – Director Tim Burton’s London office was once owned by Arthur Rackham, a famous English book illustrator who created the iconic color plates for the 1907 edition of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”
- THE QUESTION IS WHO ARE YOU? – Lewis Carroll is actually a pen name for Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a lecturer in mathematics at Christchurch University in Oxford, England. Additional areas of study for Carroll included photography, theater, religion, medicine and science.
- PLAYING GAMES – playing cards and the strategic game of chess have a strong presence in Carroll’s books and these themes continue in Burton’s adaptation. The most memorable of the living cards is the Queen of Hearts who is always shouting ‘Off with their heads!” Fascinated with parlour games, Carroll’s interests also included origami, puzzles, magic and he was also quite skilled at creating anagrams. The final battle scene tributes the chess game that Alice is playing all throughout the original text of ‘Through The Looking Glass.’
- WONDERLAND / UNDERLAND — Underland is the same fantastical land that Alice visited as a child, but—according to screenwriter Linda Woolverton—she misheard the word “Underland” and thought they said “Wonderland.” Woolverton says Underland is a part of the Earth, lying somewhere far beneath our world. It’s come upon hard times since the malevolent Red Queen took over the throne, but is a truly wonderful land, which might explain why the girl who mistook it for Wonderland has been called upon to help return it to its glory.
- EVERY DAY IN UNDERLAND – Underland is such a unique world that every day has it’s own title and is properly recorded and illustrated within the ORACULM – a calendar of all the days of Underland.
- ALMOST ALICE — All of Underland has been awaiting Alice’s return since she first visited as a child, but when she does come back, nobody—including Alice—believes she’s the right Alice, the confident and feisty Alice they once knew. Eventually, the wise caterpillar tells her she’s “almost Alice.”
- PICTURED CHARACTERS – Two tell-tale pictures adorn the walls of the hall where the Hatter is making hats. One is of the mock turtle for ‘Alices’ Adventures In Wonderland,’ and the other is of the Walrus from ‘Through The Looking Glass.”
- ‘WONDER’-FUL JOURNEYS – One of Alice’s ships that she boards at the end is aptly named the ‘Wonder.”
CHARACTER-ISTICS
- MAD HATTER’S MANY MOODS — The Mad Hatter suffers from mercury poisoning, a common and unfortunate condition of many hatters of the time who used the chemical regularly for their craft. This Hatter’s madness is literally showcased within the character’s many mad mood swings in his makeup and wardrobe, creating a virtual human mood ring.
- CONSTANT CHANGES — Alice changes size throughout the course of her adventures, ranging from six inches to two feet to eight-and-a-half feet, to a maximum of 20 feet tall.
- GROWING & SHRINKING — The potion Alice drinks to shrink is called Pishsolver. The cake she eats to grow is called Upelkuchen.
- THE EYES HAVE IT — The Mad Hatter’s pupils are purposely mismatched, with the right pupil dilated and the left one not. In medical terms, this indicates serious brain disfunction.
- HEARTLESS – Despite the fact that the Red Queen is the Queen of Hearts, she basically has no heart what-so-ever. Her passion and fury are villainous and it’s off-with-their-heads if someone doesn’t please this Queen.
- RAVENS & WRITING DESKS – Throughout the film, the Mad Hatter’s quirky query of “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” goes unanswered. As a direct quote from Lewis Carroll’s books, it seems there never was supposed to be an answer to this question. In addition to being another example of the Hatter’s madness, some think it is a tip-of-the-hat to Edgar Allen Poe who worked on both of Carroll’s books.
- FUTTER-WHAT? — Futterwacken is the term used to describe the Underlanders’ dance of unbridled joy.
- ROYAL KIN – Though sisters, the Red Queen and the White Queen are at completely opposite sides of Underland literally and figuratively. As the eldest, the tyrannical Red Queen feels entitled to the throne, but thanks to her champion, the White Queen’s reign will return civility to Underland.
- A WRITERLY FATHER – The name given Alice’s father, Charles Kingsley, is also the name of a famous British Victorian fantasy author. Kingley’s most recognized work, ‘Water Baies’ has several similarities to the film.
- DEE AND DUM – The characters of Tweedledee and Tweedledum have lingered in literature for some time. Their names first appeared in print within a nursery rhyme as early as 1805 in a collection entitled Original Ditties for the Nursery. These small, rotund twins speak a language of jibberish all their own and wear the tell-tale black and white stripes that Tim Burton is so fond of.
- COLOR-ISTICS – The unusual color of Absolem is modeled after the larva of the Monarch Butterfly. After his transformation into a butterfly, Absolem’s wings hold the pattern of a Monarch, while still maintaining the blue-ish color as Monarch’s have orange wings.
- THE BANDERSNATCH — This disgusting, drooling, furry, foul-smelling creature has a big filthy body and the squashed, teeth-baring face of a rabid bulldog. The relative size of a large grizzly bear, the Bandersnatch leaves Alice with a rather painful reminder of the Red Queen’s horrible reign.
"Alice Futterwackens" Film clip
Have you entered Disney's Show Us Your Futterwacken contest?? Even Alice gets in on the action, and performs her own dance of unbridled joy.
ON DISNEY BLU-RAY™ & DVD -- JUNE 1, 2010
Courtesy of Disney
Alice in Wonderland Week:
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