History Film / AliceInWonderland

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: [[CaptainObvious The Mad Hatter and March Hare]]. Alice herself is this as far as other people in the real world are concerned.

*** Iracebeth [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast also sounds a lot like]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzebet_Bathory Erzebet]]. As well as [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Elizabeth]], [[CaptainObvious after whom the Red Queen is visually modeled]].

** Lady Ascot (Hamish's mother) griping about how the gardeners planted white roses when she specifically requested red, and Alice's response that she could paint the roses red, is a shout out to the Queen of Hearts in the Disney adaptation, as well as to other adaptations.
*** The ''actual book''.

* [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses Everything's Better With Queens]]

* CrapsaccharineWorld

* CruelMercy: The White Queen, proving that [[LightIsNotGood Light is not always Good]].

* BillingDisplacement: A given with any Johnny Depp film. If the ads for the movie were any indication, you'd think this movie would be called "Johnny Depp Wears a Hat: The Movie."

* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Whenever Alice shrinks or grows, her clothing remains its original size, forcing some creative costume changes until the White Queen finally puts her back to normal. This is a contrast from [[Literature/AliceAdventuresInWonderland the original text]], in which her clothes changed size with her. Presumably this was done for the sake of {{fanservice}}.

* AndYouWereThere: Set up, then averted.

* ShapeshiftingExcludesClothing: Whenever Alice shrinks or grows, her clothing remains its original size, forcing some creative costume changes until the White Queen finally puts her back to normal.

* BigGood: The White Queen. (There are hints, however, that the character's true nature may actually be just as evil - if not more so - as her sister the Red Queen, and keeping this true nature in check is a constant stuggle for her.)

* BloodlessCarnage: Not much blood spilt throughout the movie, especially in the final battle, although that one gets a pass as most of the participants are metal cards and chess pieces. The Horunvendush Day scene in particular is ridiculously clean. When the Hatter returns after the disaster, there isn't a single body to be seen, and the only hat left is, [[ContrivedCoincidence conveniently]], his own.
** Actually, in regards to the disaster on Horunvendush Day, the Jabberwocky's [[OurDragonsAreDifferent lightning]] breath is capable of vaporizing people, as at least one knight meets this fate.

* BrokenAesop: All the best people are mad, and it doesn't matter what others think. But this message is then thrown out the window when Alice declares that her crazy aunt needs to seek help for her overactive imagination.
** As said in ArbitrarySkepticism, the movie shows that there is a line between mad/imaginative and delusional. Her aunt is clearly delusional/lonely/heartbroken and her belief in the prince is clearly a spoof of a fairy tale. Alice only wanted to help her aunt get over it, not say she should forget the dream. At no point did Alice say she should "forget imagination."
** The ArrangedMarriage plot at the beginning of the film sets up the aesop that forcing someone to walk lock-step with social expectations crushes a person's individuality and happiness. Then Alice goes to Underland where she is told that she must slay the Jabberwock BecauseDestinySaysSo ... and she does, even though there are obvious parallels between this destiny and the one back in England. She then goes back home, breaks away from her engagement and starts her own career. So which is it, then - ScrewDestiny or follow it to the letter?
*** She didn't fight the Jabberwock BecauseDestinySaysSo. She fought the Jabberwock because she became the {{Determinator}}.
*** The true Aesop in both cases is "When faced with an unpleasant reality, fight, don't stick your head in the sand." The reality for Alice being the perspective of an ArrangedMarriage/threat of Jabberwock, in either case something that she is bound to face and that she initially feels is impossible to overcome. Alice's aunt, however, fails to face her own unpleasant reality, so Alice calls her on it.
*** Of course, it's always possible that it's ScrewDestiny when it's a politically incorrect destiny, and BecauseDestinySaysSo when it's a politically correct destiny. RealWomenDontWearDresses, after all.

* TheChosenOne: Alice, of course.

* CombatByChampion

* FriendToAllLivingThings: The White Queen, whose "vows" include not harming any living creature. Of course, the vows say nothing about getting henchmen to do the harming for her.
** She ''almost'' breaks this vow by trying to swat a fly, right after she tells Alice about it. Fortunately, she doesn't succeed.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: "I shall futterwacken... ''vigorously''."

*** So Alice is a 19th-century Brit who is gonna engage in trade with China. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_wars Riiiight]].
** Doubles as HarsherInHindsight and NiceJobBreakingItHero, since it's implied she'll be the first one to open trade to China.

* GoodIsImpotent: While this is what often happens to {{Actual Pacifist}}s and [[FriendToAllLivingThings Friends to All Living Things]] in {{Grimmifi|cation}}ed versions of fairy tales, both the White Queen and Alice avert this completely. The White Queen is a genuinely decent (if creepy) person, but if she tries to give you a LastSecondChance, '''you better take it'''. Otherwise, see FateWorseThanDeath above. And Alice [[TookALevelInBadass takes about 20 levels in Badass]] over the course of the movie - ''without'' going DarkerAndEdgier.

* LaResistance: The animals mostly serve as this.

* LargeHam: Johnny Depp and HelenaBonhamCarter. And it's AWESOME.
** However, the Hatter doesn't stand out nearly as much as the Red Queen, who completely steals every scene she's in.

* ManInAKilt: The Hatter wears one for the final battle. [[RuleOfCool No explanation is offered]], other than the Hatter's occasional Scottish-ness.
** Actually, there may be some sort of explanation: Near the beginning of the movie, when Alice dances with her would-be fiance she tells him that she had a vision of women wearing pants and men wearing dresses (or something to that effect). Since she is effectively wearing pants in the final battle, the Hatter wearing a kilt might sort of fulfill the other part of her vision.

*** Iracebeth [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast also sounds a lot like]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erzebet_Bathory Erzebet]].
*** As well as [[UsefulNotes/ElizabethI Elizabeth]], [[CaptainObvious after whom the Red Queen is visually modeled]].

* MsFanservice: Alice.

*** And the ''actual book''.
*** We also briefly see her doing so in a flashback of her first visit to Underland as a child, with the Red Queen watching over her.

* NeverASelfMadeWoman: Despite Alice's father having very little screen time, once Alice understands who she is she labels herself as her father's daughter, then proceeds to continue his work.
** However, she chooses to go into a business and leave home to establish trade routes, rather than get married to a 'suitable' member of the aristocracy. She's doing what the eldest son of a family would be expected to do, rather than a daughter.

* NightmareFetishist: The White Queen, as illustrated by the cheerful way in which she puts the disgusting ingredients in the potion she makes for Alice. As explained by her actress Anne Hathaway, the White Queen has the same craziness InTheBlood as does her sister, the Red Queen, and so she tries to act very good and pure to compensate, but is still kind of odd - you could think of her as a PerkyGoth who happens to wear all white.
** She does show a look of brief disgust when [[spoiler:Alice cuts off the Jabberwock's tongue]].
*** And when she [[spoiler:collects blood from the Jabberwock's severed head]].
*** She also seems to be close to vomiting when briefly smelling the buttered finger for the potion.

* PublicDomainCharacter: But of course.

* YouCantFightFate:
** So it is written, so '''''will''''' it be done. It was prophesied that Alice [[spoiler:would slay the Jabberwocky]] before Alice was even given a proper understanding of what was going on when she reached Underland. She did ''try'' to ScrewDestiny for a while, and even showed, eventually, that this was less GenreBlindness and more backbone (OffTheRails, as it were). But even ''that'' turned out to be part of the big prediction. Reminds one a little of [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Tolkien]], with his God character saying stuff like "You thought you were singing against me, but that was part of my musical masterpiece all along."
** There is an interesting zigzagging of this trope in the movie, what with Alice fleeing a forced marriage into Wonderland where she runs into another forced destiny, tries to screw it but still plays by it, carries out her destiny in Wonderland, but still manages to ScrewDestiny in England!
*** Not quite - Despite the prophecy, Alice had the choice to say no at the end, same as the acceptance of marriage was ultimately her choice as well. For an admittedly rather short while before the big battle, it looked like she did/would go the ScrewDestiny route. The point was that destinies are inevitable, but one can choose which destiny shall they follow.
**** Put bluntly, Alice fights, not because she is destined to, but because she '''''wants''''' to. In other words, she accepts Fate, but on ''her'' terms.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Fur for the Cheshire Cat, feathers for the Dodo.

* {{Xenafication}}: Alice, naturally, but not right away. At the start of the film, she's pretty much just a teenage version of the girl she was before, and has to [[TookALevelInBadass take several levels in badass]] before the full Xenafication process is complete at the end. (And she becomes a mature, independent young woman in the process.)

* OfCorsetHurts: Alice refuses to wear her corset to show how free spirited she is, saying how it's an item of female restriction.

* DeadpanSnarker: Absolem the Caterpillar...not that it's any real surprise considering Creator/AlanRickman is its voice actor.

* LikeBrotherAndSister: According to an interview with JohnnyDepp, this is how he views the Hatter's relationship with Alice. ... But, of course, this won't stop the fans from ''shipping'' them.

* TheMadHatter: "You're entirely bonkers...but all the best people are." The March Hare also thanks the Knave for the compliment of calling him mad. The Hatter himself tends to shake off that there's something "wrong with him" with a vigorous "I'm fine." Interestingly, the original script had the Hatter as an extremely lucid character.

"You're terribly late, you know...''naughty''."

** Its not even Wonderland... its "[[IstanbulNotConstantinople Under-Land]]".

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: The White Queen spends most of her time looking elegant and floating around waving her arms in the air, but during her first appearance, she asks her courtiers to excuse her for a moment, and the second they leave, she drops her arms, picks up her skirts and runs to greet Bayard in a gush of emotion. She's making use of ObfuscatingWeirdness.

* HerHeartWillGoOn: If you picked up on on the film's "romantic subtext", [[spoiler:Alice and Hatter get this. No, he doesn't die, but the look on his face as Alice's chooses to leave send him into near [[TheWoobie Woobie]] territory]]. It doesn't hurt that [[spoiler:Alice said she knew the way back, implying that they could easily meet again someday]].

** Doubles as Harsher In Hindsight and NiceJobBreakingItHero, since it's implied she'll be the first one to open trade to China.

* DreamApocalypse: This is played with a little, despite the fact that this isn't a dream, despite Alice's constant insistance that it is. The Hatter mentions to Alice in a rather serious tone (as opposed to his usual one) that if she ''is'' dreaming all this, then he must not really exist (and she agrees with him). However, he doesn't seem ''too'' concerned about it; he quickly returns to his jovial attitude, saying that she must be a little crazy to have imagined someone like him. (Again, she doesn' deny it.)

* DreamApocalypse: This is played with a little, despite the fact that this isn't a dream, despite Alice's constant insistance that it is. The Hatter mentions to Alice in a rather serious tone (as opposed to his usual one) that is she ''is'' dreaming all this, then he must not really exist (and she agrees with him). However, he doesn't seem ''too'' concerned about it; he quickly returns to his jovial attitude, saying that she must be a little crazy to have imagined someone like him. (Again, she doesn' deny it.)

*** As well as [[TheVirginQueen Elizabeth]], [[CaptainObvious after whom the Red Queen is visually modeled]].

* KidHeroAllGrownUp: Alice, from her original version.

* InterspeciesRomance: Supplemental material verifies what's only hinted at in the film -- Mallymkin the Dormouse is secretly in love with the Hatter.

* DeathByAdaptation: In-Universe example, posthumously. The Queen claims she had her husband the King executed some time in the past. (Which may [[FridgeLogic make sense]], seeing as Carroll's work portrayed him as a somewhat ReasonableAuthorityFigure who quietly pardoned anyone his wife sentenced to death.

* ActorAllusion: Johnny Depp offscreen [[Film/EdwardScissorhands cuts a new dress, seemingly without scissors]].

*** It's also part of AuthorAppeal: Creator/TimBurton always draws things with huge eyes ([[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Jack Skellington]], anyone?), so the effects team decided to follow it.
** While it isn't a direct use of this trope, one of the Hatter's pupils is visibly more dilated than the other--a sign of ''severe'' head trauma. A concussion would certainly explain his erratic emotions and babbling. WordOfGod has confirmed this.
*** That, and his trade is slowly killing him thanks to ''mercury vapor''.

** Johnny Depp has a remarkably impressive record of [[FakeBrit successfully imitating a British accent]] in films - making it more likely to be a clever manifestation of the Hatter's madness than anything else.

* KilledByTheAdaptation: In-Universe example, posthumously. The Queen claims she had her husband the King executed some time in the past. (Which may [[FridgeLogic make sense]], seeing as Carroll's work portrayed him as a somewhat ReasonableAuthorityFigure who quietly pardoned anyone his wife sentenced to death.

** Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter was just him playing his typical weirdo roles. It would've been nice if he was cast as a different character and have someone else play The Mad Hatter.