Linda Woolverton’s screenplay for Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland has very successfully been kept under lock and key. This has led to a certain amount of confusion or even misinformation springing up and circling reports of the film. Thankfully, having been shown a full copy I can now report that all of the early information I was given by sources close to the film seems to be completely true.

The big surprise for most people, I think, will be that this is at once an adaptation of and sequel to the Lewis Carroll books. This is thanks to a plot wrangle at least as clever as that in Abrams’ Star Trek. Essentially, Wonderland is both a real place and a recurring dream of Alice’s. In this film she’s dreaming of it at a somewhat later part of her life than in the books, so certain things are different. This is just one clever element of a truly charming and surprising screenplay that I’m now really very sure will become a true humdinger of a movie.

To fully understand the script immediately one would need a glossary of terms. Thankfully, Woolverton prepared one and it was circulated to cast and crew. I’ve had it explained to me, so I’m going to pass on what I know to you after the break.

Here in alphabetical order are the various terms you’d need to fully understand the screenplay. While a handful come from the books, most of them appear to be brand new.

• Bandersnatch, The: evil creature under the control of the Red Queen.
• Brillig: 4 o’clock in the afternoon. When one begins broiling things for dinner.
• Crims: The central area of Underland.
• Downal wyth Bluddy Behg Hid: Down with the Red Queen, the slogan of the Resistance.
• Ezel: High, go higher, go up.
• Fairfarren: Farewell. May you travel far under fair skies.
• Frabjous day: The day Alice slays the Jabberwocky and frees Underland from the oppression of the Red Queen.
• Frumious: Dirty and smelly.
• Futterwacken: The Underlanders’ dance of unbridled joy.
• Gallymoggers: Crazy.
• Gribling: The day Alice will return to Underland.
• Guddler’s scut: Thief’s butt.
• Gummer Slough: Dangerous swamp of thick viscous mud.
• Horunvendush Day: The day the Red Queen took control of Underland.
• Jabberwocky: A deadly creature employed as the Red Queen’s ultimate weapon.
• Jubjub Bird: A Bird under the control of the Red Queen.
• Kiotchyn: ‘Heads’ up or ‘pay attention’.
• Naught for usal: It’s no use trying.
• Noge:  Go low down.
• Nunz: Wait or ‘Don’t go, not now’.
• Oraculum: The Calender of all the days of Ulnderland. Each day has its own title and illustration.
• Orgal: To the left.
• Outlands: The untamed land to the west of Witzend.
• Outlandish: The old language spoken only in the Outlands and used by the Underland resistance as a secret code in the revolution against the Red Queen.
• Pishsalver: A potion that makes one shrink.
• Queast: A land to the east, but ‘not in the least’.
• Quillian: The following day after Alice returns.
• Saganistute: A wise person of poetry and vision.
• Salazen Grum: A port city where the Red Queen lives.
• Shukrn: Faeces. Ewww.
• Sloth: Slowly
• Stang: To the right.
• Slurvish: Selfish or self-centered.
• Snud: A region in the south of Underland.
• Tulgey Wood: Where Alice meets the Jabberwocky.
• Underland: The real name for the place Alice calls Wonderland.
• Upelkuchen: A cake that makes one grow.
• Slurking urpal slackush scrum: rude or dirty words of the most foul meaning.
• Witzend: The western land where the Mad Hatter and March Hare were born.
• Yadder: Far away. Way yadder beyond the Crossling in Snud.
• Zounder: A warning to ‘look out behind you!’