Wake Up, Alice: Part Two

The following blog post will be better understood if the reader has watched and remembers the content of The Matrix Trilogy. It looks at how Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland influenced the incredible success of the first part of the trilogy, and how the latter two parts of the trilogy seemingly lose the influence, and the philosophies of all the works.

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Someone, somewhere, has probably told you to watch the movie The Matrix. Many people have the misconception it is just a high caliber action movie. But any enthusiast will tell you that it is first a philosophical movie, heavily influenced by Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. If you dont know how the two relate, read Wake Up, Alice: Part 1. However when the movie is being discussed, it always manages to intrigue me as to how everyone slams the latter parts of the trilogy. Most people will completely ignore any references you make to the second and third parts of the trilogy, but why? After looking at the similarities between Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and the original Matrix, one can find the answer.

What makes both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Matrix so incredibly successful? For The Matrix it clearly isn’t the stunning action, as the second and third installments are full of violent explosions and the like but, while successful, tend to be shunned by many people. Its because The Matrix and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland both have an incredibly deep philosophy behind them, a philosophy of two different and very distinct worlds, and the latter parts of the trilogy lose the original philosophy the first one stuck to so closely. The same can be said with Through the Looking-Glass, and what Alice Found There. It was successful, but why is it not as prominent as the first installment? Many people say it isnt as prominent because it strays too far away from the original Alice, and that it doesn’t have the same feel to it. It loses the charm and the feel of the original Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The same criticisms are given to the latter parts of The Matrix Trilogy.

But why does this matter? It matters because it shows just how important the philosophical aspects of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland really are. The idea of two different distinct worlds, one embodying logic and one embodying wonder and magic, is something that if not reinforced, will effect the overall quality of the work. This can be seen when you compare the success of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. The first one sticks to and reinforces the idea of two different worlds, but the second seems to stray away from this idea a bit. Needless to say it involves a wonderland, but is it as detailed and embellished as the first?

In the end the point being made here is that what drove Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Matrix to success were the philosophies behind them, and not the effective writing style or the expensive special effects.

Wake Up, Alice: Part 1

The following blog post will be better understood if the reader has watched and remembers the content of the movie The Matrix.  It identifies the more obvious plot similarities and references, particularly the ones referencing the white rabbit. This blog entry was influenced by this post.

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The movie The Matrix is absolutely full of references to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. When you look at both the movies closely, the overarching plot is exactly the same, where two protagonists are thrown into different worlds which they then have to understand.

Both The Matrix and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have protagonists who are thrown into two different worlds as previously mentioned. For Alice, it is a dream world, or a wonderland, and for Thomas Anderson, or Neo, it is a separate world known as the matrix. This similarity sets the foundations for both works.

They both are summoned to these worlds via some form of a white rabbit. In The Matrix, Neo gets a message on a computer saying “follow the white rabbit”, a clear reference to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In The Matrix the rabbit arrives in the form of a tattoo on a girl’s arm, while in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland she is thrown into a separate world by following an actual white rabbit.

There is another reference to the white rabbit in The Matrix via a character named Switch. In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the rabbit was described as “a white rabbit with pink eyes”. The character Switch wears only white clothing and has faded hair, but the more obvious reference to the rabbit is how Switch has glasses that have a hint of pink.

One of the characters in The Matrix, Morpheus, actually tells Neo that he must be “feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down a rabbit hole.” Another time Morpheus blatantly references Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is when he gives Neo a choice between taking a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill shows him the matrix and the blue pill sends him back to his normal life. Neo readily takes the red pill as Morpheus says “You take the red pill.. and I’ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Another obvious reference is in a scene in a hotel in The Matrix. The hotel’s floor is checkered black and white in this scene, resembling what could be considered a chess board. During this same scene in the hotel, a black cat passes by once, and then once more. Checkerboards and cats play prominent roles in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and this is another blatantly obvious reference to Alice by the directors of The Matrix.

However, the most interesting thing that I have found isn’t necessarily an Alice reference but a quote that can be applied to both works. Morpheus says to Neo “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?”. I believe this quote perfectly describes the themes of both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Matrix. It is a theme of questioning what is and what isn’t reality.

It’s interesting that Carroll’s tale has influenced a movie as successful as The Matrix in such an obvious way. The plots are strikingly similar, and its clear that The Matrix pays tribute to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It can be safely assumed that The Matrix is somewhat of a modern day version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland because thematically they are the very same story.