021. Cheshire Cat (Intro)

Mischievous and unpredictable in nature, the Cheshire Cat acts as a guide for Alice during her adventures in Wonderland, but also takes pleasure in causing her trouble. He can appear and disappear at will and is always seen with a permanent smile on his face.

For the model I've chosen the pose below, I like that it incorporates his guiding role in the film, although he's not very helpful, its also quite an unusual pose which i think is needed for this character. Making him sit upright will definitely be the most challenging part of this one but I think he'll make an awesome model in the end and I'm especially looking forward to seeing the patterned version finished.

I'll be making a start on him today so the wip post will be out next for a first look at the model. Character trivia is below, as always thanks for subscribing!

• The Cheshire Cat is the third Disney character originally voiced by Sterling Holloway and taken over by Jim Cummings. The first two are Winnie the Pooh and Kaa.
• When Alice first hears the Cheshire Cat, he is singing the first and last stanza of the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Caroll.
• Originally, the Cheshire Cat was supposed to sing a song called "I'm Odd" but was later replaced with "Twas Brillig".
• Like all members of Wonderland, he is mad, but unlike the others, he admits it with pride.
• All of Wonderland's inhabitants appear to hold fear over him, even the Queen of Hearts, most likely due to the fact that he is the maddest of them all, or it could be due to his unique abilities.
• The Cheshire Cat's true nature in the film is highly questionable, but above all, he appears to be a completely neutral character. In many instances, he's the only being in Wonderland to show kindness and sympathy towards Alice, giving her advice on which path to take during her journey, practically acting as her guide to the point where she's overly joyous to see him once he returns.
• On the other hand, the cat has a cruel sense of humor, as seen during Alice's meeting with the Queen of Hearts; during which, he constantly caused mishaps to purposely have the Queen's dangerous temper target Alice.
• In Cinderella, Lucifer appears to share some similar physical properties with the Cheshire Cat. This may be because the two films were produced concurrently (1950 and 1951).
• The only time the Cheshire Cat was shown not smiling was when he was gasping from his mad laughter.
• In Disney Sorcerer's Arena, he is labeled as a Villain character despite being a neutral character in the movie.
• Keith David who voices the Cheshire Cat in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, also voices Dr Facilier.

See you in the next post,

Harley