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The Blog of the LCSNA

“Alice’s Theme”: Music & Lyrics by Danny Elfman

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Danny Elfman’s soundtrack to Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland will be released on CD (an ancient kind of optical disc used to store digital audio) next Tuesday, March 2nd, and there’s some short clips at the Amazon store if you desire a teaser. I couldn’t help noticing the opening song – with children’s voices singing “Oh, Alice, dear where have you been?” – and I found the complete lyrics at a blog called cinemusic.net. I’ll include them with that website’s charming introduction:

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, starring Johnny Depp as Elijah Wood The Mad Hatter begins pissing off prickly Lewis Carroll purists on March 5, 2010 in theaters everywhere in eye-popping 3D. Lending musical support is Burton’s constant composer Danny Elfman, AKA film music’s most awesome red head.

Threaded throughout the score is an original song penned by Elfman, called “Alice’s Theme”, and it opens up the Disney Records score album due in stores on March 2 (obligatory Amazon link). Here’s a sneak peek at the song’s lyrics (thanks to the supremely talented LD for these)…

Danny Elfman Soundtrack

“Alice’s Theme”
Music and Lyrics by Danny Elfman

Oh, Alice, dear where have you been?
So near, so far or in between?
What have you heard what have you seen?
Alice, Alice, please, Alice!

Oh, tell us are you big or small
To try this one or try them all
It’s such a long, long way to fall
Alice, Alice, oh, Alice

How can you know this way not that?
You choose the door you choose the path
Perhaps you should be coming back
Another day, another day

And nothing is quite what is seems
You’re dreaming are you dreaming, oh, Alice?
(Oh, how will you find your way? Oh, how will you find your way?)
(There’s not time for tears today. There’s no time for tears today.)

So many doors – how did you choose
So much to gain so much to lose
So many things got in your way
No time today, no time today
Be careful not to lose your head
Just think of what the doormouse [sic] said…Alice!

Did someone pull you by the hand?
How many miles to Wonderland?
Please tell us so we’ll understand
Alice…Alice…Oh, Alice

(Oh how will you find you way? … Oh, how will you find you way?)

Sing along!

I’ve never met a prickly Lewis Carroll purist, let alone a pissed-off one, but I would presume they’re easily decapitated with a vorpal sword. Or defenestrated with a defibrillator.

Anyway, if you are not familiar with Mr. Elfman, he is the film composer and long-time collaborator with Mr. Burton, the man wrote the iconic music for Batman, The Simpsons theme, and those wonderful songs for The Nightmare Before Christmas. He has done less-than-stellar work for some of Mr. Burton’s more recent mediocrities. Elfman is often mocked in the classical world for basically having a team of composers do his work for him, although I sometimes feel this criticism is harsh. (After all, Renaissance painters employed whole crews of apprentices, Dale Chihuly has a studio to manifest his glass-art masterpieces, and George Gershwin didn’t do the orchestrations for Rhapsody in Blue (free round of drinks if you can name the composer who did!) Art is not always the product of an agonized solo genius, sometimes she can be more of an architectural designer, et cetera, especially in the film music world. Thus ends this parenthetical rant.)

As dear to my adolescent heart as Elfman’s music for The Nightmare Before Christmas is, there’s many cringeworthy lyrics (e.g., “I wish my cohorts weren’t so dumb / I’m not the dumb one / You’re no fun / Shut up! / Make me!”) I would pay a large sum of money to hire William Shatner to read the lyrics to “Alice’s Theme” as a beat poem accompanied by bongos and upright bass (as he did for Sarah Palin’s verbiage). In conclusion, Mr. Elfman should hire a real librettist.

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Beautiful Carroll books online at rarebookroom.org

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - 1900 - Carroll, Lewis (author); McManus, Blanche (illus.) - New York - The Burstein Collection
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass – 1900 – Carroll, Lewis (author); McManus, Blanche (illus.) – New York – The Burstein Collection

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - 1900 - Carroll, Lewis (author); McManus, Blanche (illus.) - New York - The Burstein Collection
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass - 1900 - Carroll, Lewis (author); McManus, Blanche (illus.) - New York - The Burstein Collection

Twenty-seven beautifully rendered hi-resolution facsimiles of old Lewis Carroll books (and hundreds from other authors) can be read online at rarebookroom.org. From Mark Burstein’s collection, there are translations “in Dutch, Esperanto (ill: LeFanu), Farsi, French (Rackham, Tenniel), German (Birnbaum, Tenniel), Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swahili,” and English editions with illustrations by Maybank, McManus (pictured above), Pease, Pogany, Rackham, Charles Robinson, Rountree, and Winter.

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New edition of Through the Looking-Glass, illustrated by Gavin L. O’Keefe

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A new edition of Through the Looking-Glass, illustrated by Gavin L. O’Keefe, was released this month by Ramble House.

O’Keefe is an Australian artist who has already illustrated Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark. His gently surreal black and white illustrations for Through the Looking-Glass can be previewed in the form of selected greetings cards available for purchase from RedBubble.com.

A hardcover edition is available at Lulu.com for $24.99.

A trade paperback edition is available at CreateSpace.com for $15.99.

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Movie Anti-Hype: The Onion’s A.V. Club is dreading another Alice movie

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In regards to what we wrote below, that many writers have taken on the theme of “all those awful Alice movies” in anticipation of the imminent Tim Burton 3D one (in seven days!), The Onion’s A.V. Club lists Lewis Carroll’s Alice books in a series on movies that have been adapted to death. Allow me to quote liberally from “Put the book back on the shelf: Literary works that should never be adapted to film or TV again” (February 17th, 2010):

[…] The world doesn’t need a fifth Indiana Jones movie, or any more big-screen retreads of ’80s cartoons that weren’t that great to begin with. And it especially doesn’t need yet another weak reconceptualization of Romeo And Juliet, or yet another stuffy screen version of Pride And Prejudice to join the wave of them that started back in 1938. In fact, here’s a list of just a few of the literary works that have officially been done to death—and some recommendations for where to find newer, fresher stories just waiting on the page.

Book: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass

Adaptations to date: More than three dozen, notably including the 1951 animated Disney musical version and big-event 1985 and 1999 TV miniseries. Other countries have released their own versions as well; there’s a 24-episode Japanese animated adaptation, an Argentinean mime version, and nationalist versions like 1966’s Alice Of Wonderland In Paris and 1979’sAlice In Spanish Wonderland. Plus, of course, the upcoming Tim Burton sequel to Carroll’s original stories.

Definitive version: The Disney version is probably best known. While it has its own charms, though, it liberally diverges from Carroll’s text, like most Disney adaptations.

Why steer clear? The Alice books are simultaneously two of the most-adapted novels in history, and among the most habitually worst-adapted. Film and TV versions necessarily tend to elide over the original books’ densely packed puns and references, and instead concentrate on spectacle or on drearily plodding through a series of events that should be sprightly and disorienting, yet somehow not manic. It’s a difficult balance, and one that directors rarely seem to get right. What’s left behind is a bunch of creative, fun ideas that have had the creativity and fun leached out through repetition. How many times can we watch Alice grow, shrink, and boggle at it all?

What to adapt instead? Other Carroll works, including his novel Sylvie And Bruno and his poem “The Hunting Of The Snark,” bring in as much clever nonsense, wordplay, and episodic adventure, but are less line-by-line familiar.

Sylvie & Bruno!! How about that? The list continues with A Christmas Carol, The Bible, and other books that will by no means stop inspiring filmmakers in our lifetimes.

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“Curiouser and Curiouser” at the Nucleus Gallery, Alhambra CA

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Nucleus Gallery, Alhambra CA

Next Saturday will be the opening night of “Curiouser and Curiouser: Inspired by ‘Alice in Wonderland,’” an exhibition of new artwork at the Nucleus Gallery in downtown Alhambra CA.

In addition to work from a remarkably long list of exhibiting artists, opening night will feature a number of artifacts and stills from the impending Disney movie.

… Opening Night only, glimpse into the creative brilliance of Disney Studios as exclusive concept art, production, and film stills will be shown from the upcoming Alice In Wonderland!

Exhibition Features:

  • Never-before seen concept art, production and film stills for Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ courtesy of Disney Studios.
  • Maquettes for ‘Alice in Wonderland’ on exhibit courtesy of Gentle Giant Studios.
  • Dress up in your best ‘Alice’ inspired attire for a chance to win prizes.
  • Cha for Tea serving up tasty teas.
  • Music by DJ Ronicus.
February 27 until March 29, 2010
Opening Reception February 27, 7pm – 11pm
Nucleus Gallery, 210 East Main Street, Alhambra CA 91801
Phone: 626-458-7482
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Alice Events at the British Library

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Tickets for next Wednesday evening’s Alice celebrations at the British Library are now sold out. Congratulations to our London-dwelling friends who managed to secure one. They will be enjoying readings by members of Tim Burton’s cast, conversations with the producer and co-producer of the movie, “an appreciation of Alice” by Will Self, and a viewing of a Cecil Hepworth’s 1903 “Alice In Wonderland” with live piano accompaniment. I wonder if there are ever scalpers outside British Library events? Bonus points and a special mention on this blog to anyone who procures last minute admission through irregular means.

For those who fail to locate either a scalper or an untended fire escape, there is still the opportunity to view a special exhibition of “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” and related pieces from the Library’s collection during regular library opening hours.

Furthermore, tickets are still available for an illustrated talk on March 6 entitled “Lewis Carroll and Photography: Exposing the Truth” in which Carroll scholar Edward Wakeling “examines the impressive reality of Carroll’s photography, including his studies of children, and tackles the myths surrounding his work.” Book now to avoid disappointment!

“Lewis Carroll and Photography: Exposing the Truth”
Saturday, March 6, 2010, 14:30 – 16:00
Conference Centre, The British Library
96 Euston Road, London, UK
£6 / £4 concessions
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“Lewis Carroll as the White Rabbit” oil painting by Steven Kenny

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This fresh vision of Lewis Carroll is by artist Steven Kenny. There is something about the blend of strangeness and comedy that seems just right.

 

The 24″ by 18″ oil painting [was formerly] on display at the Glass Garage Gallery in West Hollywood. 

More of Steven Kenny’s work can be viewed on his website.
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Carroll Concordances at the Victorian Literary Studies Archive

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Wondering exactly how many times the mysterious word “Boojum” appears in The Hunting of the Snark? (3). There’s a pretty user-friendly and accessible concordance of seven of Lewis Carroll’s most important works – Both Alices + “Under Ground”, Snark, Slyvie & Bruno, The Game of Logic, and Phantasmagoria and Other Poems – at the Victorian Literary Studies Archive (in addition to searchable texts of dozens of other authors.) Thank you to the VLSA for making a useful website, and thanks to LCSNA member Lester Dickey for the tip.

http://victorian.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/concordance/carroll/
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More Tim Burton movie hype at the LA Times blog Hero Complex

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It’s now only two weeks from opening night of the Tim Burton Disney 3D Spectacular. There’s posters all over bus stops in the East Bay Area, California. The LCSNA is preparing for the plunge (in lieu of the macropsiacal interest in Carroll) by revamping its website, which will integrate this blog (that’s right, we’re moving! so watch for a White Rabbit), all of this pretty soon.

The Winter 2009 edition of the Knight Letter (no. 83) featured an article by Daniel Singer called “Off With Their Heads! Those Awful Alice Movies.” (The Knight Letter is the LCSNA’s magazine, sent to subscribers for the membership fee of $35.) Of course, this theme is being taken up now all over, retrospectives of the century-plus of mediocre Alice in Wonderland movies. Susan King at the Los Angeles Times blog Hero Complex took a stab at the topic, beginning her article: “The first known ‘Alice in Wonderland’ film … was made in 1903, just 68 years after Lewis Carroll first published his fantasy ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.’” Perhaps she’s onto advanced rabbithole mathematics, and that works in base 17 or something. We recommend the Daniel Singer article if you can dig up a Knight Letter.

Elsewhere at Hero Complex, they quote Tim Burton discussing his Red Queen (played by his partner Helena Bonham Carter):

“In lots of illustrations and incarnations of Carroll’s work through the years, it always seems like she had a big head. It was an interesting challenge for us to find the right size and weight and proportions. One of the things we wanted to do was to use the actors and their performances — to use the real them — and then make them different. It’s still their performance but it’s just made weird. We wanted to achieve this blend. That was an important dynamic.”

“In a lot of children’s literature and other literature it’s kind of the same thing over and over — there’s good queens and bad queens, and here you have that but the elements are a bit blurred,” Burton said. “Everybody’s weird and has weird qualities to them. She’s kind of a mixture. When I look at her now, she reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of Leona Helmsley. There’s a tiny bit of elements of my mother in there too, for some strange reason. And Helena brings her own things to it too.”

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Honorable Mention for LCSNA-member Tatiana Ianovskaia

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Two weeks ago we reported that paintings by LCSNA-member Tatiana Ianovskaia were appearing in “Down the Rabbit Hole,” a juried art exhibition in Bakersfield, California. The good news has now reached us that her oil painting “Court” received an honorable mention, one of only three awards given out at the show. “Best in Show” went to artist Nancy Sharp for a mixed media piece entitled “A Very Cheesy Cheshire.”

More of Tatiana’s Alice-inspired work, including her illustrated Alice in Wonderland, can be viewed from her website.

“Down the Rabbit Hole,” featuring many other interpretations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, will remain on display until March 25th at the Younger Gallery, 1440 Truxtun Ave, downtown Bakersfield, CA.

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