Identity
Identity is a key theme in the film, as Alice must come to terms with the expectations that are placed on her, both in the real world and in Wonderland. In her "real life," she is expected to be a docile and conforming society girl who will go along with what is expected of her, and not veer too far left of center. It is clear that this is a difficult charge, as Alice cannot help but diverge from popular opinion.
In Wonderland, Alice again finds herself having a difficult time integrating herself with what is expected of her. The script is a little different, however: she is prophesied to kill the Jabberwocky with the vorpal sword, a task that she hardly feels up to. When everyone there asks if she is the Alice who is meant to save them, she shirks this designation and insists that they must be thinking of someone else. Further along in the film, she begins to realize that everything that is happening to her is real, and that she is indeed slated to accomplish the seemingly impossible. As she starts to believe in Wonderland, she comes to believe in herself, and accepts her destiny.
Empowered by the role she has played in Wonderland, Alice returns to the "real world" with a new sense of self. She unsentimentally declines Hamish's engagement and feels comfortable asserting her unique point of view in society. This leads her to continue her father's work of discovering new trade routes for England, which she does confidently and enthusiastically.
Growing Up
Another of the major themes of the film is growing up. First of all, the Alice of this film is a young woman of marrying age, not the little girl of Lewis Carroll's novel. The Alice of this film believes her childhood memories are mere dreams or fantasies that cannot be real, but she struggles to integrate her whimsical and imaginative side with the expectations of society. Curiously enough, being in the fantastical world of Wonderland helps Alice to grow up and take responsibility for her life, her decisions and her actions.
Additionally, Wonderland itself is "all grown up." While Lewis Carroll's Wonderland certainly has its darker corners, it is a playful, magical and bright world. In Burton and Woolverton's reimagining, Wonderland is a complicated political stage, a battlefield between good and evil.
Rising Up
This theme is central to the main conflict. The film shows how when there is an oppressive force or ruler such as the Red Queen, it is the citizens' responsibility to rise up and fight back. The citizens of Wonderland are oppressed, enslaved, and unjustly executed by the malicious Red Queen, and with Alice's help, they rise up and try to reassume power and place the more benevolent and kindhearted White Queen on the throne.
The Mad Hatter is the key leader of the resistance, and though he is insane, he believes wholeheartedly in the importance of rising up and resisting the evil of the Red Queen. In the end, after a definitive battle, in which Alice beheads the Red Queen's monstrous Jabberwocky, even the Red Queen's knights turn against her and join the White Queen's side.
Madness
In the beginning of the film, a young Alice tells her father that she has very intense and unbelievable nightmares. She asks him if she is insane, and he tells her that she certainly is, but that "all the best people are." For him, and consequentially for Alice, being "mad" is nothing to be ashamed of, but a badge of honor, something that sets the individual apart from the crowd and makes them unique. Alice, while she has her doubts at certain points, carries this philosophy with her, and believes in her own madness, its power to guide her and help her navigate the world.
Madness is also—no surprise here—a key element of the Mad Hatter's identity. He is truly out of his mind, spouting nonsense and behaving in an exceedingly eccentric way, but his madness is one of his virtues.
Doing the Impossible
Early in the film, Alice tells Hamish that she often believes as many as six impossible things before breakfast. This is central to her identity, her imagination, and her sense of what could be. When she navigates Wonderland, she must often contend with the impossible, trying to make sense of events that she is convinced must be the product of a dream. Eventually, however, she realizes that these impossibilities are actually happening, that the magic of Wonderland is very real. Equipped with this belief in the impossible, she agrees to go to battle with the menacing Jabberwocky. As she prepares to face him, she tells the Hatter, "This is impossible," but he reminds her, "Only if you believe it is." Alice must harness her bravery and go forth to do what she thinks she cannot. In Alice in Wonderland, doing the "impossible" is synonymous with believing in oneself.
Tyranny
The Red Queen, the ruler of Wonderland, is a tyrannical ruler, capricious and unforgiving. Thus, we see that the magical land that Alice once visited as a child has become a dystopia. The Red Queen is a farcical villain, one moment easily flattered and delighted by her admirers, and the next moment turning red and ordering for someone's execution. Her tyrannical attitude—the belief that everything she does and says is right and that everyone must bend to her will—is represented metaphorically by her abnormally large head.
In contrast to the Red Queen is the White Queen, a benevolent ruler who refuses to do harm to any living thing. If the White Queen represents a kind of peaceful ideal, the Red Queen is her polar opposite, a grudge-holding bully who thinks that she can control everything.
Adventure
More than anything else, the film is an adventure, following Alice's journey through a magical and outrageous world, complete with knights, talking animals, fire-breathing monsters, and magic potions. The film turns Lewis Carroll's psychological puzzle of a children's novel into a full-blown epic fantasy, and a large part of Alice's trajectory is her acceptance of her central role as a brave and formidable knight in the kingdom of Wonderland.
The adventure that she goes on in Wonderland inspires Alice to create her own adventures in her real life. As soon as she returns, she pitches a plan to create a trading route to China, and becomes an apprentice to one of her father's old associates. The film ends with her embarking on a new adventure, now to China.
