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.