Kids' TV is weird. One minute you're watching a talking dog, and the next, a preschooler in a cape is literally diving into a centuries-old literary masterpiece to solve a playground dispute. If you grew up with PBS Kids or have kids of your own, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The Super Why Alice in Wonderland episode—officially titled "Alice in Wonderland"—is one of those core memory moments for fans of the show. It’s also a perfect example of how the series creators at Out of the Blue Enterprises (now part of 9 Story Media Group) managed to distill Lewis Carroll’s hallucinogenic logic into something a four-year-old can understand.
It’s not just a cartoon. It’s a literacy tool.
The episode follows the standard Super Why! formula, but the source material makes it stand out. Usually, Whyatt and the Super Readers tackle stories with a very clear moral, like The Three Little Pigs or Hansel and Gretel. But Alice in Wonderland? That book is famously nonsensical. It’s about a girl falling down a hole and meeting a cat that disappears. Trying to squeeze a "Super Big Answer" out of a story where the rules change every five seconds is a tall order. Yet, the episode pulls it off by focusing on the one thing Alice struggles with most: curiosity and confusion.
Why the Super Why Alice in Wonderland Episode Stuck Around
Most people remember the Super Readers: Whyatt (Super Why), Red (Wonder Red), Pig (Alpha Pig), and Princess Pea (Princess Presto). In this specific adventure, the problem starts in the real world—Storybrook Village—where Princess Pea is feeling totally lost. She’s confused about a game or a situation, and she doesn't know what to do. So, they do what they always do. They "look in a book."
They choose Alice in Wonderland.
The animation style of Super Why! was always a bit polarizing for adults, with those big-eyed 3D models, but for kids, it was high-stakes drama. Entering the book, the team meets Alice, who is just as baffled as Princess Pea. She’s chasing the White Rabbit, she’s dealing with the Queen of Hearts, and she’s trying to make sense of a world that refuses to make sense.
The episode doesn't try to adapt the whole book. That would be impossible. Instead, it hones in on the Mad Hatter's tea party and the general feeling of being overwhelmed. This is where the educational scaffolding kicks in. While the original Lewis Carroll text is a satire of Victorian logic, the Super Why! version turns it into a lesson about asking questions. If you don’t know what’s going on, you have to speak up. It sounds simple, but for a preschooler, that’s a massive life skill.
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Breaking Down the Literacy Games in the Rabbit Hole
Let’s get into the weeds of how they actually "fixed" the story.
Alpha Pig usually starts things off with "Alphabet Power." In the Super Why Alice in Wonderland episode, he’s helping identify letters to build words that help Alice navigate the weird landscape. Think about the cognitive load there. You’ve got a kid watching a show where a pig in a construction hat is teaching them the letter 'W' while a girl in a blue dress is shrinking and growing. It’s a lot. But it works because the repetition is baked into the plot.
Then you have Princess Presto. Her whole deal is spelling. "Spelling Power!" She focuses on the sounds of the words. In this episode, the spelling tasks often revolve around objects Alice needs to move forward. If Alice is stuck because she doesn't understand a sign or a direction, Princess Presto steps in to break down the phonics. It’s basically a decoded version of Lewis Carroll for the "Letter of the Week" crowd.
Wonder Red is the one people usually remember because of her "Word Power" basket and her catchy rhyming songs. She takes words and changes them to see what happens. In Wonderland, this is actually a very fitting mechanic. Wonderland is a place of transformation. Changing a "tall" to "small" via rhyming is exactly the kind of thing that happens in the original book, just with less magic cake and more linguistics.
Finally, Whyatt—Super Why—uses his "Power to Read." This is the climax of every episode. He has the "Why Writer," which allows him to change a key sentence in the story to alter the outcome. In the Alice episode, the sentence usually reflects Alice’s confusion. By changing a word like "confused" to "curious" or "asking," the Super Readers show Alice (and the viewer) how to take control of the narrative.
The Real Lewis Carroll vs. The PBS Version
Okay, let’s be honest. The real Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is dark. There’s a queen shouting about executions, a baby that turns into a pig, and a whole lot of drug-adjacent imagery that was definitely not intended for 2007 public television.
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The Super Why! version sanitizes this, obviously. You aren't going to see the Duchess sneezing in a cloud of pepper or the Mock Turtle crying about being turned into soup. What you get instead is the "vibe" of Wonderland. It’s the bright colors, the illogical paths, and the iconic characters like the Cheshire Cat.
One interesting thing about the Super Why Alice in Wonderland adaptation is how it handles the Queen of Hearts. In the book, she’s a terrifying autocrat. In the show, she’s more of a stubborn obstacle. The lesson shifted from "surviving a mad queen" to "communicating with someone who isn't being clear." That’s a very practical pivot for kids who are dealing with bossy friends on the playground.
The episode also avoids the "it was all a dream" ending of the original book. In Super Why!, the characters return to the real world with a "Super Big Answer." The answer is usually a combination of the words they collected in the "Super Duper Computer" throughout the episode. It’s a literalization of the idea that reading gives you the tools to solve your own problems.
Why We’re Still Talking About This Episode in 2026
You might wonder why a show that premiered nearly two decades ago still gets searched for today. It's partly nostalgia—Gen Z grew up on this—but it’s also the quality of the educational curriculum. Angela Santomero, the creator of Super Why! (and Blue’s Clues and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood), is a genius at child development. She knows that kids learn best when they feel like they are part of the story.
The Super Why Alice in Wonderland episode is a frequent go-to for teachers and parents because Alice in Wonderland is a difficult text to introduce to very young children. Most movie versions (like Disney’s 1951 classic or the Tim Burton reimagining) are a bit too scary or chaotic for a three-year-old. The Super Why! version provides a safe, structured entry point into the world of Lewis Carroll.
It also helps that the episode is widely available. You can find it on the PBS Kids Amazon Prime channel, YouTube, and various streaming platforms. It’s one of those "evergreen" episodes. Literacy doesn't go out of style. Neither does falling down a rabbit hole.
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Misconceptions About the Super Readers
Some people think Super Why! is just about memorizing words. It's not. The Alice episode proves that. It’s about "reading comprehension," which is a much higher-level skill. It’s about understanding why a character is doing something and how changing a single word can change an entire situation.
There's also a common misconception that the show is only for kids who are already reading. Actually, the Alice episode is designed for "pre-readers." It uses visual cues and repetitive sounds to bridge the gap between "looking at pictures" and "understanding text." By the time the Super Readers find the "Super Letters" hidden in the Wonderland backgrounds, the kid watching is already primed to look for patterns in the real world.
Actionable Steps for Parents and Educators
If you're using the Super Why Alice in Wonderland episode to help a child with literacy, don't just let the TV do the work. The show is designed to be interactive, but the real magic happens afterward.
- Play the "Word Change" game. Just like Super Why uses his Why Writer, give your kid a simple sentence like "The cat is on the mat" and ask them what happens if we change "cat" to "elephant." It teaches them that words have power.
- Discuss the "Super Big Answer." After the episode, talk about the moral. In the Alice episode, it’s about asking questions when you’re confused. Ask your child, "What’s a question you wanted to ask today but didn't?"
- Compare with the book. If the child is a bit older, get a highly illustrated version of the real Alice in Wonderland. Point out the characters they saw in the show. It builds a sense of "literary continuity" that makes them feel like smart, capable readers.
- Look for the Super Letters. You can do this anywhere—on cereal boxes, street signs, or in other books. It turns the world into a scavenger hunt, which is exactly how the show keeps kids engaged.
Ultimately, the Super Why Alice in Wonderland episode isn't just a 22-minute distraction. It's a clever, research-backed piece of media that takes one of the most confusing books in English literature and turns it into a roadmap for communication. It teaches kids that even when the world feels like a nonsensical tea party, they have the "Power to Read" their way out of it.
The legacy of the show continues because its core mission—making kids the heroes of their own stories—never gets old. Whether they're spelling "cake" with Alpha Pig or rhyming with Wonder Red, kids are learning that literacy isn't just a school subject. It's a superpower. Honestly, we could all use a bit of that "Word Power" in our daily lives, even as adults.
To see the episode in action, check your local PBS listings or the PBS Kids video app. It remains a standout chapter in a series that fundamentally changed how we teach children to read. Just remember: when you're in Wonderland, the best thing you can do is ask a question.