Persuasive Critique – Disney’s Alice in Wonderland

Did you know that the phrase “Down the rabbit hole” is a reference to taking drugs? I had no idea until someone told me. I don’t believe I would have ever known unless someone corrupted my mind with such information. Many seem to believe that Disney’s, “Alice in Wonderland”, which was adapted from the book by Lewis Carroll, is full of references of drug use. This may be so, but I believe that the animated movie created by Disney in 1951 was just as innocent as the children that have watched and enjoyed it since its release. It is only in the minds of the corrupted that see the references to drug use and provoke us to believe that this animated work of art had an underlying secret message about drugs. It is through these corrupted minds that these ideas are spread and I will show you how easy it is to spread these ideas forever ruining the innocence of this movie. If you don’t want the innocence ruined, please stop reading now.

Alice is the main character in this story. She is a teenage girl that falls slowly down a rabbit hole, which is said to be a drug reference, and encounters a door that she wishes to get through. In order to get through the door she needs to drink a potion to “get small”, which is also said to be a drug reference. These may very well be drug references in American culture, however, when a child watches the movie they will not see or understand these drug references. When I was a child who watched this movie I did not see any drug related references. I wasn’t looking for them nor did I understand them. I saw a young blonde girl fall down a rabbit hole and drink a potion which she was warned might not be a good idea by the door itself. I did not see any negative imagery or witness any type of evil persuasion in which I would be coerced into believing that taking drugs was a fun thing or a good idea.

Later on in the film Alice encounters Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee who are said to represent twin evils of depression. They tell Alice a story about a walrus and a carpenter that don’t know night from day and get so hungry that they eat a bunch of children. This is yet another drug reference that is supposed to show what happens when one takes LSD and Marijuana. LSD makes one hallucinate to the point of feeling out of it and one of marijuana’s side effects is hunger. Watching this movie did not make me want to go out and take LSD or use Marijuana when I was a child nor does it make me want to do so today. Until someone told me about these references I was completely oblivious to the underlying drug references in the scene above. To even say they are drug references is debatable.

The author of the original story, Lewis Carroll, was an avid Opium user. Does this mean that his stories are filled with drug references? It is all in the eye of the beholder and in the knowledge of the drug world’s past and present in American culture. If I was never exposed to the knowledge of the drug world or the “word-of-mouth” accusations that portray the happenings in this story as drug references then I highly doubt I would even recognize the happenings in this movie as drug related. It is through the passing of these ideas from the corrupted minds to the innocent minds that this propaganda keeps growing.

What’s the harm in knowing that there may be drug references in the Disney animated movie “Alice in Wonderland”, you may ask? The harm comes from the removal of the innocence from the unknowing viewer that drug related references are in this movie. The innocent will look for them the next time they watch them and most likely find something that they may consider drug related even though the reference may not even exist. It’s almost like brain washing. If you tell someone something is there and they believe you, they’ll look for it until they find proof that it is or is not there. Nevertheless, the harm is done once that seed is planted. Ignorance is bliss in this case and I apologize if I have brought you the idea that drug related references exist in this work of art produced by Disney in 1951. In this case, I am the one propagating the idea. You see how easy it is? The next time you see the movie, you will look for clues. You’ve been corrupted. Try not to pass it on.

As you can see it is very easy to take something so innocent and place a dark idea into its existence. Will you let your kids watch this movie now? Did this article change your mind? I can guarantee that if you did not know about the drug related references in this Disney movie before, that you have been corrupted enough by the knowledge to look for them the next time you watch the movie. Are they really there though, or are they just figments placed there by your now corrupted mind?