If you missed our first story on Alice, be sure to check it
out here.
The following onstage speech was given at the 83rd Academy Awards
by Colleen Atwood, who won the Oscar® for Achievement in
Costume Design, for the outstanding film, “Alice in
Wonderland.”
Colleen Atwood states, “Thank you to the Academy and
especially to my fellow nominees who are just so much fun to sit
with tonight and who have been so supportive, it's great to be
part of such a great group of people. The story, "Alice in
Wonderland," was described by its publisher in 1865 as a story
valued for its rare imagination, priceless humor, and power to
transport the reader into a world of pure fantasy, a gift to us
all. The heart of any movie lies with the director and I've been
incredibly lucky on this and many films to work with the singular
Tim Burton.”
And she continues, “Tim's imagination along with the
amazing cast Johnny's incandescent Hatter, Mia's Alice for all
girls, all times, Helena's the fearless big headed Queen, and our
crystalline snowflake princess, Anne Hathaway, made my job a
delight. We had the support of a production team headed by
Richard Zanuck and Katterli Frauenfelder. Supported by Joe Roth,
Suzanne and Jen Todd, and Disney, but I couldn't have done it
without my team Christine Cantella and my entire group. Thank you
all very much.”
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in
Wonderland) is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. In 1998,
Lewis Carroll's own copy of Alice, one of only six surviving
copies of the 1865 first edition, reportedly sold at an auction
for 1.54 million dollars to an unknown American buyer. The
following is an excerpt from the original book by Lewiss Carroll,
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, that inspired Tim Burton for
his brilliant version of his film.
… Presently she began again. `I wonder if I shall fall
right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among
the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies,
I think--' (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this
time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) --but I shall
have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know.
Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried
to curtsy as she spoke--fancy curtsying as you're falling through
the air! Do you think you could manage it?) `And what an ignorant
little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to
ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.'
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon
began talking again. 'Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I
should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) 'I hope they'll remember her
saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down
here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you
might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do
cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather
sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way,
`Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, `Do bats eat
cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it
didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was
dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand
in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, `Now,
Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly,
thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves,
and the fall was over.
© 2011, The Hollywood Sentinel. Academy Awards®
transcript courtesy of and with kind thanks to The Academy.
© 2011, AMPAS. Image and text, all rights reserved.