I hate when movie series get canceled. I understand why they get canceled, because of money issues and overall fan engagement. But that is business in Hollywood, it doesn’t mean I hate it any less.
My all-time favorite movies are “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass” produced by Disney and directed by Tim Burton and James Bobin respectively. They brought to life a spin on the original “Alice in Wonderland” storyline. The world building alone was insanely well written and tied together nicely.
To me, it was a masterpiece and I needed the third movie. But sadly that third movie never came to fruition, even though fans were certain we would get it. The first movie was released in 2010 and the second movie came six years later in 2016. This six year gap caused a lot of issues with viewer engagement. Some movie goers simply forgot that the sequel was coming out. Not me though, y’all stay safe.
The cast itself was full of big hitters: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway were only some of the top actors in the movie. My heart will forever be broken, because we will most likely never get that third movie, ever. My rage aside, I believe we needed that third movie to tie in all the plot holes the first and second movies had.
In “Alice in Wonderland” we are introduced to Alice, the Mad Hatter, Absolem and a plethora of other characters. But they establish that Underland is this alternate universe that Alice can, and has traveled to before. At the start of the movie, she runs away distraught and chases after a rabbit in a waistcoat then falls down into a hole under a tree.
Without spoiling most of the movie, I will mainly be talking about missing plot lines and things we never got answered in the movies. But if you have not watched the movies before, go watch the movies and then continue reading.
The characters in the movie ask Alice if she is THE Alice. They are referencing the Alice that slays the Jabberwocky dragon on Frabjous Day. For much needed context, in Underland the days do not have numbers, they have names like Fell Day and Horovendoush Day. These names are found in the Oraculum, which is basically the scroll of all time that knows the past, present and future. This Oraculum is kept by Absolem, a magical caterpillar that smokes flavored tobacco air.
With this background information, comes my first plot hole. Why does Absolem have this scroll? It is never revealed why he has it, just that he has it and knows what will happen. Absolem is a mysterious character too. He has the ability to go into Alice’s world, unlike other characters in Underland.
In “Alice Through the Looking Glass” we start off with Alice chasing Absolem (now a butterfly) through the Ascot Manor. The Ascot family is in business with Alice, as she is the sea captain of one of their boats. She then jumps into a portal to Underland, which is a mirror in the Ascots’ late father’s room. My next plot hole is, why is there a portal in the Ascots’ home?
Again, it was never answered why. Continuing down the rabbit hole (haha get it), we then meet Time. Time is the keeper of time for all of Underland. He is basically like the God of Underland, he keeps track of who lives and who dies in Underland. His name is Time and he deserved a better storyline, but that’s a rant for another day.
Alice then steals Time’s chronosphere, his Tony Stark arc reactor basically. She then uses it to travel back in time and try to save the Mad Hatter’s dead family. In doing so she travels to pivotal moments in Underland and changes the course of Underland by simply being there. But she doesn’t change it for the worse, by traveling back in time and eavesdropping, puts herself right where she needs to be.
This results in various callbacks to the first movie. The main characters interact with her in the past, therefore they have known who she is and what she looks like for their entire lives. Hence in the first movie, they ask her if she is the real Alice. This is also where we find out why Mad Hatter and company were stuck having tea time for 10 years in the first movie. The storyline and world building were again, insane.
Another huge mystery is, why does Time have an Oraculum scroll in his chronosphere? Absolem and Time seem to have a larger understanding of the timeline of events that happen in Underland. But at the same time do not know everything, as they should have known that Alice needed to do the crazy things she was doing in order to keep Underland alive.
The third movie was much needed, at least to tie in these unanswered questions. Many fans have theorized that Alice’s father was the creator of Underland and that is why she was chosen to be the savior of Underland. There are many missing pieces to the movies and we will never get them. Sadly, we are only stuck with fan theories as our only source of comfort. I will continue to fan the flames of my imagination and pretend that a third movie will indeed come to the rescue. For now, Fairfarren.