Mad About Hatters

Oddly enough I am not a fan of the actual stories Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I have tried to enjoy it every time I force myself to read them. I just can't do it. The writing feels flat and gets incredibly boring incredibly quickly. What I do LOVE are all the interpretations of Alice's adventures. In actuality, most people are interpreting the animated Disney version which is far more entertaining than reading the stories. A couple of my favorites are Tim Burton's version from 2010 and the Frank Beddor Looking Glass Wars book series.

In all honesty, there was a 100% chance I was going to like Burton's Alice because Tim Burton is pure genius especially when he teams up with Johnny Depp and Danny Elfman. I was right. The idea that Burton brings Alice back to Wonderland to fulfill a prophesy based off of Carroll's poem "Jaberwocky" is a unique way to pay homage to both the stories and Disney's animated version of them.

With Beddor's book series he explores the possibility that not only are Alice's adventures real, but she is our salvation from her evil aunt who goes between Wonderland and our world meddling with dark and dangerous things. It it young adult fiction, so it didn't take me long to read the books which I greatly appreciate since I'm a working mom with a newborn.

The other day I was channel surfing and caught the last 30 minutes of a show on the Syfy channel, and within that half hour I realized it was another version of the Alice story. I immediately looked into it, and thanks to instant streaming on Netflix was able to watch the two part mini-series Alice. (Actually, I've watched it multiple times because I like it so much. I'm sure my husband is sick of seeing it on the television.) The version Syfy created was actually quite clever. It also had some big names like Kathy Bates, Tim Curry, and Colm Meaney. But the best part was that I met him...

Okay, that's a goofy wallpaper that I will probably put on my laptop. Here is a better shot of the British actor Andrew-Lee Potts...

What can I say? His version of Hatter is great and I had to know what else he had starred in. So I did what anyone with too much time on her hands during summer break would do: I searched for info on him instead of working on lesson plans for next year.

Do I now follow him on Twitter? Why yes I do. Did I watch interviews of him on YouTube? Why yes I did. Did I then begin watching the show Primeval on Netflix because he is a main character? Of course. And that has caused a whole other problem/blog post.

For now I will continue to follow Mr. Potts' career like a good little fanatic.