We're all mad here

When I was quite small I fell in love with a cat. Not just any cat, but a literary cat with a big smile and a nice line in wit.

"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
"And how do you know that you're mad?"
"To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?"
"I suppose so," Alice said.
"Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see a dog growl when it's angry, and wag its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I’m mad."
"I call it purring, not growling," said Alice.

I'm not sure what it was about that cat, but I remember being completely captivated by him and the fact that he could evaporate leaving behind just his grin. I liked the white rabbit too with his fob watch.

I asked my two who were their favourite characters after they watched Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland on Blu-ray (courtesy of Think Parents) and H8 said: "Alice because she's pretty when she's wearing the armour."

R6 just said: "The Dormouse," and then added in an It's Important We Find Out Now voice: "I still don't know which one was Stephen Fry."

So then I had to hurriedly (it was past bedtime) find a quick Youtube of the Stephen Fry character.

Perfect don't you think?

"He sounds like Paddington," said R6. Of course he does. That's their favourite bedtime listening. I read them a story (Bella the lost bunny at the moment), then Stephen takes over on the Paddington bear CD. We'll have to watch Alice again now because they'll need to watch it knowing which one is also the Voice of Paddington.

That won't be a hardship though, because we loved it. It's quite bonkers as you'd expect from a Tim Burton film. I might even make an Eat Me cake to go with it and some Drink Me drink and we'll see if we can make ourselves bigger and smaller, like Alice. In fact we could go the whole hog, have a complete tea party and then Futterwackens to our heart's content.

* Blu-ray pack shot is copyright Disney.