Putting His Madness into Question: Vladimir Cvetko and David H. Goodman’s “Hat Trick”
Down the Rabbit Hole: Retellings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — A Study in Characterization Part 4 of 5
Most retellings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, like Splintered, feature a Hatter who is mad, but some retellings, like the television series Once Upon a Time, creates a dynamic Mad Hatter character by placing the madness on the periphery. In the show, the Evil Queen Regina has cursed fairy tale characters by bringing them to the real world without magic where they forget who they are. Their only hope for salvation is Emma, who has the power to break the curse if she chooses to believe in magic. Each episode is split between detailing a character’s past in the Enchanted Forest and their present in the real world. In “Hat Trick,” writers Vladimir Cvetko and David H. Goodman introduce their version of the Mad Hatter, whom they have named Jefferson, by alternating between scenes of the Enchanted Forest and scenes of the real world.
The viewer is not told right away that Jefferson is the Mad Hatter from Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This is part of the appeal of the show, adding tension as the viewer follows the twists and turns and tries to figure out where the highlighted…
