Brief cricital view of the Beauty and the Beast

Custom sometimes fails to let us see how complete and well made this film is. A story about the recognition of beauty within the narration through the adventures of Belle, a young French girl who, to help her old father, finds herself trapped in an enchanted castle where Beast lives, whom she teaches how to love. Behind this narration many more things are hidden. The role of the woman (very different from the first Disney princesses) who doesn't want to take on the role of traditional wife as people from the village expect, who enjoys reading and dreams of independence and adventures in far-away places. It's a pity that in the ending, in which her dreams come true, the idea of independence disappears.

Another important, somewhat more objectionable, element hidden in the narrative is the role of the servants of the castle, punished for the mistakes of their Master and changed into simple cuttlery and such. At one point they even remark that they don't "feel whole without a soul to wait upon", reminiscient of the black slaves singing happily in the cotton fields in The Birth of a Nation 75 years earlier. This classist, and perhaps racist, view is hidden under the happy and funny characters who give a magical touch to the film.

Taking all this into account, the animation of each of the characters is amongst the best ever made, from the square minded Ding Dong (the clock of the castle) to the appealing and charismatic villain Gaston. Last but not least, the soundtrack, an unforgetable collection of songs which set the rhythm of the film.

What is most important is the final result: an all-time musical animated feature.

The child story as a satiric resource

Children's stories are the origin of many canonic characters, popular stories serve as easy-to-understand references for all inhabitants of the western world.

In this example Red Ridding Hood is presented as the innocent as opposed to the wolf and its false smile hidden under her granny's hat. An image of a Spanish polititian (Ruiz Gallardon) in 2007, when he presented himself as the moderate version of the right wing party:

Alice in Wonderland - A universal plot

Published 4th July 1865, Alice in Wonderland can simply be considered a British children's novel, full of the British values and customs of Victorian times. However, to pay atention only to this facet of the novel would be to forget the most essential element. Alice in Wonderland is a children's novel, a fairy story and a work of art.

Lewis Carroll, whose real name is Charles Ludwig Dogson, writes a novel for the real Alice, a little girl friend. He makes up the story one summer afternoon in 1862 during a boat ride with Alice and her two sisters, and the novel is full of references to their family and thousands of details only the girls could recognise and understand. Even with this specific origin, Carroll manages to write a novel that is used as a reference for innumerable stories, a universal plot in itself.

Many of the stories that qualify as universal plots are the fruit of classical mythology, from thousands of years ago. This is not the case of, for example, the much-used developement of the fight-for-power plot William Shakespeare created only four hundred years ago. Much closer to us but still belonging to a different age, although it was Shakespeare and his contemporaries who started shaping the modern way of thinking. But one who did live in a society really close to our own was Charles Ludwig Dogson, known to the whole world as Lewis Carroll. And Lewis Carroll was capable of writing a novel for children, and more specifically for the favourite of his friends (all of them little girls), Alice Lidell, which would become a universal reference for innumerable later stories.

There are many factors which allow us to consider the novel as a universal plot in itself. This does not exclude the fact that its origin is linked to many other precursory plots. It only means that through a series of many other plots a narrative is constructed with a plot structure which is new to a certain extent. Alice in Wonderland consolidates a type of character who physically travels to another world which is a complement to the real one, a world in which fantastic events closely related to the psychology of the main character can occur. Obviously, Lewis Carroll does not invent the idea of duality between worlds (this structure can even be seen in the Greek myth of the underworld). What is new is the treatment Carroll gives it, an individual parallel universe presented as only experienced by the main character, a universe in which he or she is lost (generally by accident). We can find the influence of the novel in other children's novels like The Wizard of Oz or Peter Pan, although its reach goes beyond the children's novel.

Alice in Wonderland is one of the most discussed stories in history. As Martin Gardner says in the introduction to one of the best editions of the novel, Alice is not only forced to study lessons, but she teaches lessons to others. The levels on which you can read and interpret the novel are many. On one hand, the psychoanalytic interpretation, allthough psychoanalists could interpret a soup can if it were necessary. On the other hand, Carrol depicts British society in that period, portraying it with great realism without wonderland being able to prevent it. Furthermore, there are many scientific elements and maths and logic throughout the book, maths being the author's profession. In addition, we have the particular story Sir John Tenniel tells through his ilustrations, which are a very important part of the story. And we must not forget the key element of nonsense humour and the uniqueness it transmits. Thank goodness one hundred and fifty years ago Alice Lidell asked to be told a nonsense story, that little story invented only for her, which has reached every corner and inspired many other writers and artists.

I could cross my hands on my lap, as if I were reciting lessons, and recite the whole novel off by heart

Homage to Alice in Wonderland

Welcome to this modest homage to Alice in Wondeland. Nearly 150 years ago Alice travelled to Wonderland. Few do not know this story, if not because of the novel, then through one of the many film adaptations. Today Alice will bring us the music we are going to listen to. From classical music to hard rock, everyone wants to talk about Alice. The singer-song writer and actress Jewel calls her most recent album Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, in which she says goodbye to the inocent wonderland of childhood. Alice and the Wizard of Oz's yellow brick road provide the singer with an apt metaphore for her childhood and bring us this song:

Jewel has told us how she sais goodbye to her childhood. The novel establishes precisely this tension between childish fantasy and adulthood reality. But one of the novel's best features is how Carroll manages to explain serious issues based on nonsense humour. The Beatles, for example, chose the absurdity in Alice's story, which inspires one of their succeses "I am the Walrus":

The Beatles choose two of the most surrealist characters in the novel: Humpty Dumpty (the eggman) and the Walrus. Aerosmith is another mythical band (although maybe not on the same level as the Beatles), this time a rock band. They choose the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts instead in their single: "Sunshine".