Lewis Carroll’s Classic Story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Told in Sand Animation

Here at Open Cul­ture, the 150th anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion of Lewis Car­rol­l’s Alice’s Adven­tures in Won­der­land keeps going and going, because, well, who knows what form the inter­net will have tak­en by the time of the 200th? It might well bear more of a resem­blance to the log­i­cal-yet-illog­i­cal real­i­ty in which the sto­ry’s title char­ac­ter finds her­self than any of the things we’ve yet used, or imag­ined. You may laugh, but Lewis Car­rol­l’s ideas have long drawn the fas­ci­na­tion of pro­gram­mers, com­put­er sci­en­tists, and the oth­er archi­tects of the infos­cape through which we nav­i­gate today.

They’ve also, of course, attract­ed the fas­ci­na­tion of oth­er artists, from Brave New World author Aldous Hux­ley, who wrote an ear­ly script for Dis­ney’s film, to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas illus­tra­tor Ralph Stead­man, who did his own illus­trat­ed edi­tion of the book. Today, we give you Alice’s Adven­tures in Won­der­land in the medi­um of sand ani­ma­tion, as prac­ticed by sand ani­ma­tor Mag­dale­na Bak. At just under eight min­utes and thir­ty sec­onds, it will only take you a frac­tion as long to watch as most of Alice’s oth­er cin­e­mat­ic adap­ta­tions (though not the very first, made in 1903, which clocks in at twen­ty sec­onds short­er).

It may also intro­duce you to an ani­ma­tion medi­um you’ve nev­er seen before. If you’d like to watch more of what an ani­ma­tor can do with sand, have a look at the wide vari­ety of sand ani­ma­tions we’ve pre­vi­ous­ly fea­tured: Vivaldi’s Four Sea­sons ani­mat­ed in sand, Kafka’s Meta­mor­pho­sis ani­mat­ed in sand, Goethe’s “Der Erlkönig” ani­mat­ed in sand, mod­ern desert war­fare ani­mat­ed in sand, and even a Span­ish-lan­guage music video ani­mat­ed in sand. Sand may strike you as an unusu­al sto­ry­telling medi­um, but sure­ly Alice’s Adven­tures in Won­der­land, even 150 years after its first pub­li­ca­tion, remains an unusu­al sto­ry.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

See Ralph Steadman’s Twist­ed Illus­tra­tions of Alice’s Adven­tures in Won­der­land on the Story’s 150th Anniver­sary

See the Orig­i­nal Alice In Won­der­land Man­u­script, Hand­writ­ten & Illus­trat­ed By Lewis Car­roll (1864)

Lewis Carroll’s Pho­tographs of Alice Lid­dell, the Inspi­ra­tion for Alice in Won­der­land

When Aldous Hux­ley Wrote a Script for Disney’s Alice in Won­der­land

Vivaldi’s Four Sea­sons Brought to Life in Sand Ani­ma­tions by the Hun­gar­i­an Artist Fer­enc Cakó

The Meta­mor­pho­sis of Mr. Sam­sa: A Won­der­ful Sand Ani­ma­tion of the Clas­sic Kaf­ka Sto­ry (1977)

Watch Goethe’s Haunt­ing Poem, “Der Erlkönig,” Pre­sent­ed in an Art­ful Sand Ani­ma­tion

Col­in Mar­shall writes on cities, lan­guage, Asia, and men’s style. He’s at work on a book about Los Ange­les, A Los Ange­les Primer, and the video series The City in Cin­e­ma. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­book.