White Rabbit

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For other uses, see White rabbit.
The White Rabbit, as seen in Lewis Carroll's book "Alice in Wonderland
The White Rabbit, as seen in Lewis Carroll's book "Alice in Wonderland

The White Rabbit is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" Alice follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. The Rabbit shows up again in the last two chapters, as a herald-like servant of the King and Queen of Hearts.

Contents

[edit] In popular culture

[edit] Computer Games

  • In American McGee's Alice, the White Rabbit is responsible for Alice's return to Wonderland. He is first seen as Alice's soft toy, then becomes something that looks vaguely like the John Tenniel illustration, only more shriveled and corpse-like. When Alice is chasing him in the Village of the Doomed, he shrinks and goes down a hole. Alice follows him by shrinking herself with a hand-made potion. They meet again in the Wonderland Woods, where he tells her to find Caterpillar. Later, he is killed by the Mad Hatter after being squashed under his foot. Like all the murdered characters in the game, the rabbit is restored at the end, when Alice regains her sanity.
  • In the Playstation 2 action-RPG game, Kingdom Hearts, and its Game Boy Advance follow-up, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. His role was essentially the same in both games; worried about being late, he led Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy to the Queen's palace. His Japanese voice actor was Shigeru Ushiyama.
  • Rockstar's game Manhunt features a level called "Kill the Rabbit." In this stage, you hunt down a man wearing a white rabbit suit. Upon entering the level, Starkweather says to you "time for some Wonderland fun," an obvious allusion to Lewis Carroll's work. At one point, the man in the rabbit suit tells you that Starkweather is done filming you, and commences to command an army of Smileys to dispose of you. You must then kill the man in the rabbit suit and take his key.

[edit] Television and films

  • Neo is told to follow the "White Rabbit" in The Matrix in one of many metaphysical "waking up" metaphors. Seconds later, his doorbell rings, and when he opens the door he finds a woman with a tattoo of a white rabbit on her shoulder.
  • It is also mentioned in ABC's tv-show Lost

[edit] Literature

  • In the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne recalls chasing a white rabbit as a child and falling down a rabbit hole before his first encounter with bats.
  • In The Looking-Glass Wars, the White Rabbit is re-imagined as Bibwit Harte, an albino tutor with super-sensitive hearing.

[edit] Music

  • Jefferson Airplane recorded a song called "White Rabbit", with references to this character and the Wonderland saga in general as metaphors for drug-induced experiences.

[edit] Disney

In the Disney version of the book, the Rabbit seems to have the most logic out of all the Wonderland characters. Thus, he is often the straight man for their zany antics; when he asks the Dodo for help on getting the "monster" (Alice) out of his house, Dodo's ultimate solution is to burn the house down, to which the White Rabbit is greatly opposed. At the Mad Tea Party, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare try to "fix" his watch, proclaiming it "exactly two days slow". Through various food they put in the watch (butter, tea, jam, and lemon), the two cause it to go mad, and the Hare smashes it with his mallet. The Rabbit was perhaps most famous for the little ditty he sang at the beginning - "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!". The Rabbit was voiced by Bill Thompson.

Some believe the rabbit was late for the announcement of the Queen to the royal garden. The panic the rabbit showed was his fear of losing his head. Upon her arrival (where Alice has been helping to paint the roses red) the cards finish their song and the rabbit blows his trumpet (which he had been carrying for most of his lines) royally introducing the king and queen.

The Disney Rabbit made a few appearances on the Disney Channel original show, House of Mouse. His most noticeable appearance was when he confessed to Clarabelle Cow that "I'm not really late, and I don't really have a date. I'm a fraud!" He was voiced by Corey Burton, who would voice the Rabbit in all future speaking roles.

The White Rabbit also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character.

[edit] External links

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Lewis Carroll's Alice
Books
Alice in Wonderland Characters
Through the Looking-Glass Characters
Film adaptations
Poems
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