So, it's 2010. Everyone is obsessed with Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland movie. Johnny Depp has orange hair, the trailers look like a fever dream, and then out of nowhere, we get a lead single from Avril Lavigne.
It felt like a weirdly perfect match, right? The "pop-punk princess" meeting the king of gothic whimsy. Honestly, though, the story of how Avril Lavigne Alice in Wonderland became a thing is way more spontaneous than most people realize. It wasn’t some corporate boardroom deal cooked up months in advance by 20 suits.
The Meeting That Changed Everything
Basically, Avril was already at the Disney offices for something totally different. She was actually there to pitch a clothing line for her brand, Abbey Dawn, which was supposed to be a collaboration inspired by the movie. While they were looking at sketches and graphic designs, she just... asked.
She told the executives she was working on her fourth album (Goodbye Lullaby) and basically said, "Hey, I’d love to write a song for this."
Disney went to Tim Burton. Burton said, "Yeah, give it a go."
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Most artists spend months in "development hell" for movie soundtracks. Avril? She went home, sat down at her piano, and wrote the song immediately. The imagery from the clothing designs was still stuck in her head. That’s why the lyrics feel so literal—falling down holes, spinning around, tripping out. It’s the sound of someone who just spent four hours looking at mood boards of tea parties and Cheshire cats.
That Chorus Polarization
When the song finally dropped in January 2010, the internet kind of lost its mind. But not necessarily in the way you’d think.
People either loved the raw, haunting vibe or they absolutely hated the chorus. There’s this one specific part where she hits those high notes—some critics called it "caterwauling," while fans called it "raw emotion." If you listen to it now, you can hear Butch Walker’s production (he’s the guy behind a lot of her best stuff). It’s got this thumping, foreboding drum beat and a piano melody that feels heavy. It wasn't "Sk8er Boi." It was darker.
The song, officially titled "Alice," served as the lead single for the Almost Alice soundtrack. That album was a weird, eclectic mix of 2010 alt-rock royalty:
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- Shinedown
- All Time Low
- The All-American Rejects
- Franz Ferdinand
- Robert Smith (yes, the guy from The Cure!)
It’s actually a really interesting time capsule of what Disney thought "edgy" sounded like back then.
The Gothic Music Video
The video is where the Avril Lavigne Alice in Wonderland connection really solidified for most of us. Directed by Dave Meyers, it was filmed at the Los Angeles Arboretum. Avril is wearing this incredible black gothic corset dress with playing card stockings—pure 2010 aesthetics.
It follows the movie plot almost exactly. She follows the White Rabbit, falls down the hole (where she hits a piano on the way down, naturally), and ends up at a tea party with Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter.
Kinda cool fact: they used actual clips from the film, but they edited them so it looked like Avril was interacting with the characters. It wasn't just a "singing in a room" video; it felt like a mini-sequel to the movie itself.
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Why the Song Still Matters
In the grand scheme of Avril’s career, "Alice" is a bit of an outlier. It’s more of a piano ballad than a pop-punk anthem, but it paved the way for the more vulnerable stuff we saw on Goodbye Lullaby.
It also did surprisingly well in Japan. It peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 and got certified Gold there. In the US, it reached 71 on the Hot 100, which is decent for a soundtrack lead that didn't have much radio play.
If you go back and listen to it today, it’s got this ethereal, almost "Evanescence-lite" quality during the bridge where she sings "found my...self in woooonderland." It’s definitely one of the more unique vocal performances she’s ever put on tape.
Actionable Takeaways for Fans
If you're looking to dive back into this era of Avril's career or you're a collector, here are a few things you should actually check out:
- Listen to the Extended Version: There’s a hidden version of "Alice" on the Goodbye Lullaby album. It’s longer and has a slightly different vibe than the radio edit used for the movie credits.
- Track Down the "Almost Alice" Vinyl: If you can find it, the soundtrack is a great piece of late-2000s music history. It contains songs you can't really find anywhere else from bands like Metro Station and Wolfmother.
- Watch the Live Performances: She performed this on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno back in 2010. It’s one of the few times you can hear how she actually handles those high notes in the chorus without the studio layers.
The whole Avril Lavigne Alice in Wonderland era was a specific moment in time when the "emo" aesthetic and Disney's big-budget blockbusters collided. It might not be her most famous song, but for anyone who lived through the early 2010s, that black dress and that haunting piano intro are basically core memories.