Learning To Appreciate The Passage Of Time ~ An Exclusive Interview With Director James Bobin

It was a day of many emotions and I had just cried so much the night before at the screening of Alice Through The Looking Glass. Though I knew very little about him, I was excited to meet Director James Bobin, because he had directed The Muppets (2011) and The Muppets Most Wanted (2014), which are two films we own and watch over and over in my family.

We can probably recite them word for word – and they’ve become like our ‘showcase films,’ because my daughters will ask friends and family when they come over if they’d seen them, and if the answer is ‘No,’ they jump and scream in excitement, because, ‘they have to see it!’

And now he had directed Alice Through The Looking Glass, the sequel to Disney’s 2010 Alice In Wonderland, a new favorite of mine (as of just a few hours before the meeting).

He walked in and he was so smiley, so friendly, so humble, and so talkative. I can admit that he was a perfect first interview during my first Disney press event.

But now that I sit down and read his words, and organize my thoughts of what I want you to take away from my interview with James Bobin, tears started rolling down my face.

Having interviewed Mia Wasikowska and Suzanne Todd, and having watched the movie three times now (besides that screening, I attended the Hollywood Premiere and then I went to the movie theater with my family when Alice Through The Looking Glass opened everywhere on May 27), I am overwhelmed by the heart, passion, and appreciation they each had for the movie.

I had a feeling James Bobin would be really funny, and he is, and I was curious about how you go from directing The Muppets to an action-adventure like Alice Through The Looking Glass that includes a world of wonder, time travel, and so many positive lessons to guide your life and your relationships.

James Bobin confessed he was a bit tired, from working on Alice Through The Looking Glass for nearly three years (since 2013 to just weeks ago),to doing press in England, Madrid, New York, LA, and next up, Japan. But no one could tell until he brought it up, because he was so upbeat and engaging.

His involvement in directing Alice Through The Looking Glass started in The Muppets Most Wanted set, when Disney executive Kristin Burr mentioned the possibility of making a new Alice film:

“When I found out we were doing it, I was really excited. I grew up in England, and Alice is part of your life. She’s someone who you know really well. She’s part of your makeup. My parents read it to me. I read it as a kid. My grandparents read it to me. Everyone has it. And I did the same with my children. In my kid’s playroom, we have a poster from the British Library, which is the frontispiece of the original manuscript… It’s beautiful. It’s what he wrote for Alice Liddell … the first page. And it has [Lewis Carroll’s] little drawings, which are very different to the way you think she’s gonna look… It’s really pretty. We love Alice in our family.”

I was impressed by how much of a fan of Alice In Wonderland and Lewis Carroll he was. That night, after the Alice Through The Looking Glass premiere, I was so tired, but I still had to look up who Alice Liddell was, because though I love reading the books and I loved the first Disney Alice film, I clearly hadn’t gone as deep as he had.

And, of course, the movie has a lot of humor in it, so it definitely has a James Bobin stamp.

“When I read Lewis Carroll as a kid he used to make me laugh. He has a very witty way of writing, and he’s very clever with language. I think comedy is often about the specificity of language. All my so far I’ve been making jokes and comedy. It felt a very natural thing to do is try and use that in this world… bring some of that British comedy back, a bit.”

In addition, in Alice Through The Looking Glass, you will notice that James Bobin used Tim Burton’s idea of Wonderland as a start, while adding a brighter design, and a more victorian feel, based on books Bobin read as a child that were illustrated by John Tenniel, portraying the world where Alice lived.

There also many little details in Alice Through The Looking Glass that pay tribute to Lewis Carroll, for example, the chess match in progress is the same game layout you find at the beginning of the original Through The Looking Glass book, prior to the title page is a layout of the chess game in progress. The mantlepiece clock in the room is the same mantlepiece clock that Tenniel drew in 1871.

“Tim Burton’s movie is so beautiful and so beautifully constructed. That was a really good foundation to start from… When I was talking with Dan Hennah, our production designer, about this world, I used to tell him to look at Tenniel’s drawings. And all the characters in the foreground and what’s behind them. That is the world I want to create for [Alice Through The Looking Glass.] But then also pursuing this idea of making it feel like the world of the Victorian imagination.“

I believe you’ll really enjoy the changes, especially knowing that his focus was on family relationships and making sure Alice Through The Looking Glass is interesting and attractive to kids.

“I wanted to take elements of the book like the backwards room and obviously the looking glass and the characters and the spirit of Lewis Carroll, the idea of something which is fairly complex but not so complex that my eight year old daughter wouldn’t understand it.”

The movie is different than the book. And that’s a good thing, because Alice Through The Looking Glass is entertaining for the whole family.

“It’s a bit different and it needed to be different. I think sequels need to be different. It’s nice to pay tribute and make sure you respect the origins of the story and the characters. But people want to see something which is a progression or something new or if it has a different sight, feel or tone.”

I agree. It was nice to see more depth to the characters we all love, to see them at different stages of their lives, and to imagine other sides to a story we already know. There are many twists and turns in the movie. And new characters, like Time himself.

“Time is Lewis Carroll’s idea. It’s not my idea. I only borrowed it from him. Lewis Carroll talks about time as a person in the book Alice in Wonderland. When the Hatter first meets Alice at the tea party, he’s stuck and he says to her: ‘I’ve been stuck here since last month where Time and I quarreled.’ In Wonderland Lewis Carroll thinks time is not just an idea but a man, a person. And we thought it would be a useful character to have in this film.”

Founder of the Positive MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share powerful stories that will transform your results and help others do the same. Dr. Elayna Fernández is a single mom of 4, an award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 5x TEDx speaker. She has spoken at the United Nations, received the President’s Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award, and was selected as one of the Top Impactful Leaders and a Woman of Influence by SUCCESS Magazine. Connect with Elayna at thepositivemom.com/ef and follow @thepositivemom. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.

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Red carpet photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Disney

Group picture by Jana Seitzer/MerlotMommy.com