This article is about the 1951 film's version of the character. For the version from the 2010 film, see Tarrant Hightopp.
The Mad Hatter is a supporting character from Disney's 1951 animated feature film Alice in Wonderland. Named for his dotty demeanor and oversized, green top hat, he is an elderly man that Alice encounters in Wonderland. The Hatter and his best friend, the March Hare, are known for throwing frequent tea parties in celebration of their "unbirthdays".
Background[]
Personality[]
While the Hatter is loud, eccentric, and insane like the rest of Wonderland's residents, he is also rather charming and can be mild-mannered from time to time, particularly when dealing with visitors such as Alice. He tends to use terms such as "my dear" when referring to Alice, is shown to be courteous, and is overall the warmer side of the duo that is himself and the March Hare, who is far more rambunctious and outspoken.
According to Hatter, he and the March Hare never get compliments on their singing, and they're usually the only attendants at the frequent unbirthday parties, apparently making the duo outcasts in the realm of Wonderland. This is likely due to their overbearing antics and, as well as the fact that they're both, especially the Mad Hatter, troublemakers, albeit innocently so. This could be seen when the Mad Hatter made an attempt to "fix" the White Rabbit's watch.
Appearances[]
Alice in Wonderland[]
The Mad Hatter is seen when Alice wonders off in the Tulgey Wood and the Cheshire Cat tells her to visit them for directions back home. Alice visits as the Mad Hatter is in the middle of a very odd tea party with the March Hare and the Dormouse. They are singing "The Unbirthday Song" but are interrupted when Alice starts to applaud. At first, they are upset because Alice came without an invitation, but become pleased when Alice compliments their singing and they welcome her to join. As Alice tries to explain her reasons for visiting, the Mad Hatter and March Hare keep changing the subject. Soon the party is once again interrupted by the White Rabbit. Alice tries to converse with him, but the Mad Hatter grabs a hold of the Rabbit's watch and finds out why he's so late: the watch is "two days slow." The Mad Hatter dips the watch in tea and opens up to discover - with a salt container as a lens - the problem: the watch is full of wheels. As a result, he takes out many wheels and springs with a fork in his attempt to fix it. He adds ingredients to the mixture: the very best butter, tea, two spoons of sugar, jam, mustard (which is rejected, since it's too silly, even for him), and lemon. Thinking that it's done the trick, the Mad Hatter closes the watch and trimmed off the excess jam. Then, the watch goes haywire and spits out springs and wheels all over the place as it moves across the table. The March Hare uses a mallet to crush the "mad watch," bringing tears to the Rabbit. After hearing that the watch was an unbirthday present, the Mad Hatter and March Hare wish him a "very merry unbirthday" and get him on the run.
The Disney movie suggested the reason for the many cups was that every day was an "Unbirthday", when in fact in the books, it was because the Mad Hatter had argued with his friend Time, and it was now always six o'clock, time for tea.
Later on, the Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse are brought the Queen of Heart's courtroom when Alice is put on trial for supposedly humiliating Her Majesty purposely. When Mad Hatter bows down the Queen of Hearts one of her Card guards pokes him in the rear causing him to scream and lands near her who then tells him to take off his hat making him jump out of his shoes. When asked where he was during the incident, the Hatter explains he was home drinking tea to celebrate his unbirthday, which reminds the King of Hearts that it was the Queen's unbirthday as well, thus causing the Mad Hatter and March Hare to bring the trial to a halt to celebrate. However, when the Cheshire Cat appears and his name is shouted by Alice and the Queen, the Dormouse goes into a panic leading to a chase that humiliates the Queen once again, though the Mad Hatter and March Hare are able to escape her wrath, leaving Alice to take the blame.
The Mad Hatter and March Hare are later seen during the reprise of the caucus race, and while Alice tries to escape the Queen and her guards, stopping the girl, insisting she joins them for a cup of tea, as their tea party is still going on. Fortunately, she escapes, they were last seen along with Tweedledee, Tweedledum, The Walrus, and the Carpenter chasing Alice out of Wonderland, and it turns out her adventure in Wonderland was all but a dream.
Bonkers[]
The Mad Hatter in Bonkers.
In Bonkers, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare appeared as Bonkers D. Bobcat's personal make-up artists back when he worked at the Wackytoons Studio. In the series, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare live in the "H" in the Hollywood sign.
Though a recurring character, in a sense, most of the Hatter's roles in the show were brief and minor. However, he played his largest role as a major supporting character in the episode "In the Bag". Here, Hatter calls Bonkers and Lucky Piquel to uncover the disappearance of his and the March Hare's valuable teacups. Trouble begins to arise when every inch of the Hatter's property, including the March Hare himself, also goes missing. As the Hatter sobs in despair at his loss, Lucky and Bonkers arrive, and the frustrated Mad Hatter takes the opportunity to inform the duo of the most recent missing items, beginning with the Hare. Then the Hatter vanishes, as well, and it's soon revealed everything was taken by a klepto handbag, longing for companionship. When Lucky asks the Hatter if he'd like to have the bag arrested, however, he refuses, claiming the bag is now his friend, which eventually leads to the Hatter and the Hare arguing over which of them the handbag belongs to, as far as friendship goes.
House of Mouse[]
The Mad Hatter in House of Mouse.
The Mad Hatter made numerous cameos in House of Mouse. He usually appeared as one of the guests at the titular nightclub, often having tea with the March Hare as usual, and sometimes with Alice.
In "Donald's Pumbaa Prank", he was seen laughing and pounding his hands on his table at Donald's old cartoon about a goofy version of him skipping rope.
In "Unplugged Club", he was first seen sitting at his table next to the March Hare with a tea filled teacup on a saucer in the palm of his hand around the beginning of the episode. When Mickey Mouse announced that there's a spinning teacup illegally parked and that its license plate is "R-U-DIZZY", the Hatter realized it was his and went outside to repark it, causing his saucer, teacup, and tea to land in that order in front of the Hare. He was then seen passing Donald Duck after he had greeted 101 Dalmatians and before Zeus entered the club. The Hatter was later seen leaving the club again with a teapot when the power went out.
In "Daisy's Debut", he was shown to have auditioned for the role of Genie in Aladdin but was rejected after being disappointed that there was no tea in the lamp.
In "Dining Goofy", his voice was on the phone. When Daisy told him that they don't do birthday parties, the Hatter (who was sitting next to the March Hare with a cell phone) asked about an unbirthday party. When Goofy did Daisy's job the Mad Hatter was shown to be amused with the fact that he was seated with Claude Frollo (who felt the opposite way as the Hatter noted to the judge that he was grumpy). At the end, the Mad Hatter was seated with the March Hare again when Goofy got his job back. The Hatter was also among the characters that appeared in the Dined by Goofy advertisement.
In "Max's Embarrassing Date", he is seen "dating" Mrs. Potts. In one scene, they were riding in a spinning teacup past Bambi and a Penguin Waiter. Later after Goofy's was tipped over; bumping into Mrs. Potts in the process, he asks "Oh, dear! One lump or two?"; and later pops his head out of his table in shock after the mess Goofy made to all the guests and their tables.
In "Ask Von Drake", during "The Ludwig Von Drake Song", he is seen pouring some tea into Alice's cup through his shirt sleeve, like in the movie.
In "Mickey and Minnie's Big Vacation", the Mad Hatter was seen sitting with Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth where they get frighten when the Pink Elephants that were being created by Mrs. Potts.
In the episode "House of Scrooge", after the club's massive screen was replaced by a small television set, the Mad Hatter commented on the peculiar size, resulting in the March Hare after a size-reducing "Drink Me" bottle to help. Later in that same episode, the Hatter and the Hare were the only guests to remain in the club after Scrooge's cheapness drove the other guests away, proving that you'd have to be "mad" to still be in the club under Scrooge's conditions.
In the episode "Donald and the Aracuan Bird", his hat was used as a hiding place for the Aracuan Bird.
In "Clarabelle's Christmas List", one of the Christmas treats Goofy announced included "A Very Merry Unfruitcake", complete with the same hat as the Mad Hatter, who stated how silly that was before taking a bite out of his tea-dipped saucer. He and the March Hare were sitting together as they watched Clarabelle announced that she has Santa Claus' naughty/nice list, when Minnie tried to make off with the list to see if she was on the nice list, and later when Clarabelle announced that everyone was on the naughty list for trying to look at it.
In Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse, the Mad Hatter goes up on stage, performing a song about why he's grateful for hats. This segment was recycled as the opening scene in the episode "Mickey vs. Shelby", which added additional scenes where he announces the song and puts on his hat at the beginning, and jumps into a spinning teacup and spins around the club at the end.
Other appearances[]
In the Walt Disney anthology series special, "This is Your Life, Donald Duck", the Mad Hatter is one of the many Disney characters seen celebrating Donald Duck during the finale.
The Hatter made a "gas-t of honor" cameo in the Mickey Mouse Works short "Pit Crew", where it is revealed that he bought his hat at a hat store in Toontown.
In The Lion King 1½, the Mad Hatter makes a silhouetted cameo, where he was sitting next to Rabbit as Stitch was making his way to his seat.
In the animated short Electric Holiday, the Mad Hatter was one of the many Disney character guests to attend Minnie Mouse's fashion show.
In Ralph Breaks the Internet, a screenshot depicting the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and Alice can be seen around the Sorcerer Hat at the Disney Animation pavilion in Oh My Disney.
In Once Upon a Studio, the Mad Hatter appears in The Snuggly Duckling barista inside the studio with Merlin, his sugar bowl, Cogsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, the March Hare, and Lucille Krunklehorn, with Cogsworth telling him "No, no, no! There's no time for tea!" when Moana rushes in and asks Merlin to help Flounder find water, and Merlin uses his magic to cast a spell for water in the Hatter's hat for Flounder to swim in and she puts him in it, to which he remarks to a nearby penguin waiter "Oh, waiter, there's a carp in my cap!". He joins in the picture along with the rest of the Disney characters.
Live-action appearances[]
Adventures in Wonderland[]
In the 1992-1995 series, the Mad Hatter was a recurring character portrayed by John Robert Hoffman. The Mad Hatter lives in a house-shaped like a hat and is usually seen at his perpetually set tea table. He tends to be rather careless with his dishes and cups. The Mad Hatter is Wonderland's chief inventor, often devising crazy machines and potions to get himself and the gang out of trouble. However, the devices tend to get them into further trouble. He also has an affinity for disguises, such as fake beards and nose/eyeglasses. His catchphrase was, "How true that is."
Printed media[]
Comics[]
The Mad Hatter has appeared in various comic stories. He notably plays a role in the Romano Scarpa story The Blot's Double Mystery. His hat shop in Mouseton has been one of the victims of the crime wave of the escaped Phantom Blot, who has also been using hypnotism in an effort to incriminate Mickey. In the English localization, he is called Thomas Topper and not formally identified as the Mad Hatter (the fact that he looks like the character is therefore retconned as a funny coincidence) while in the original Italian version he is called Matteo il cappellaio matto (Matthew the Mad Hatter). The reason for the change is unknown; it is likely that the translator thought this crossover character was out of place in an otherwise serious story, although it might also come from the inconsistency of the Hatter owning a shop in Mouseton instead of Wonderland.
Video games[]
Kingdom Hearts[]
In the popular video game, Kingdom Hearts, there is a location in the world Wonderland and the March Hare's house appears with a portrait of the Mad Hatter and March Hare. His hat also appears on a store's sign in Traverse Town.
The Hatter also makes an appearance as an active, physical character in the mobile game Kingdom Hearts χ.
Kinect: Disneyland Adventures[]
The Mad Hatter in Kinect: Disneyland Adventures.
The Mad Hatter appears as a meet-and-greet character in Fantasyland. He is also present in the Alice in Wonderland-based mini-games where he and the March Hare dance with the player at one of their Unbirthday parties. Like the other characters in the game, The Mad Hatter asks the player to complete several tasks. At one point, the Hatter becomes the coordinator for The Queen of Hearts' upcoming Unbirthday party. He then asks the player to collect some paper so that he may begin creating the invitations. Right after, he asks the player to inform Alice about the event.
Disney Heroes: Battle Mode[]
The Mad Hatter is a mid control character on the Blue Team. His friendship campaigns are with Alice and Rafiki.
Disney Sorcerer's Arena[]
The Mad Hatter is an unlockable Mythical Hero and Support character added for the Peculiar Party event. The Mad Hatter specializes in dishing out Harmful Effects to his opponents, having unique synergy with the March Hare and other Mythical teammates. The Mad Hatter can be unlocked through the Alice in Wonderland side campaign, and is required to unlock Alice.
Other games[]
In World of Illusion, several chess pieces and characters resembling the Mad Hatter appear as enemies.
In Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion, the Mad Hatter was among the characters brought to Wasteland by Mizrabel.
In Disney Magical World, the Mad Hatter appears alongside the March Hare in the Alice in Wonderland themed world.
Disney Parks[]
The Mad Hatter at one of the Disney Parks.
The Mad Hatter is a meetable character in the Disney parks and is the most common Alice in Wonderland character from the film other than Alice. In the Disneyland park, he is commonly seen with Alice, Peter Pan, and Wendy. Originally, the Mad Hatter appeared as a "fur character" like Mickey and Donald. By the end of the 1980s, park executives changed him to a "face character", allowing him to interact with the guests.
Disneyland Resort[]
The Mad Hatter hosts the popular musical chairs game in Disneyland, along with Alice and occasional friends like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. During the game, Mad Hatter would regularly tell jokes and play around with guests.
The Hatter can also be seen as an animatronic in the Alice in Wonderland dark ride attraction.
Walt Disney World[]
The Mad Hatter appears in the bubble montage in Disney's Hollywood Studios' version of Fantasmic!, and later seen riding Steamboat Willie or the Mark Twain Riverboat.
The Hatter also has a spell card in the attraction Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom known as "Mad Hatter's Tea Time".
For meet-and-greets, the Hatter can sometimes be found in the Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland and makes daily appearances during the park's Festival of Fantasy Parade.
Tokyo Disney Resort[]
The Hatter appeared alongside the March Hare and Dormouse during Alice's segment of Once Upon a Time in Tokyo Disneyland. For the Happiness Is Here parade (created for the park's 30th anniversary), he's seen pulling a float containing moving figures of himself and the hare during the Alice in Wonderland section. He and the Hare currently appear in Dreaming Up!
A statue of the Hatter can also be seen outside of the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, while his likeness is also featured inside the hall, such as on the character stain glass windows.
Disneyland Paris[]
The Mad Hatter appeared in Disney Magic on Parade, as part of the second unit alongside various characters from Alice in Wonderland.
In 2013, the Mad Hatter was notably part of the Disney Dreamers Everywhere! the event where he joined in the reintroduction of the March Hare atmosphere character to the theme parks.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Mad Hatter served as visual inspiration for the Hatbox Ghost in The Haunted Mansion and King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph.
- The Mad Hatter's hat can be seen in Yen Sid's studies on a shelf in Epic Mickey.
- The Mad Hatter's hat can be used for the Little Green Men in Toy Story 3: The Video Game.
- His name appears in all of the shops in all of the theme parks around the world.
- Despite his good-guy status, his hat appears as a token and he has his own space in both the Villains and My Villains Collector's Editions of Monopoly.
- The '10/6' on the Mad Hatter's top hat is not a fraction, but the price of the hat: ten shillings, and sixpence, in the former currency of Britain.
- According to some, in the original book, the character of the Mad Hatter was based on the occurrence of hatters who, after using too much mercury in the fabrication of hats, ended up with psychological problems due to inhalation of mercury fumes. Other sources have it that he's based on an eccentric acquaintance of Lewis Carroll, Theophilus Carter, who has often nicknamed the Mad Hatter because of his strange habit to stand for hours in front of his furniture shop, wearing a top hat. He might also simply have been based on the expression "as mad as a hatter", which according to linguists does predate the publishing of Lewis Carroll's book.
- The Mad Hatter has appeared in an attraction or the name of a shop at every Disney theme park in the world.
Variants[]
- Jefferson
- Mad Hatter (Adventures in Wonderland)
- Tarrant Hightopp
See also[]
External links[]
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
v - e - d  | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|