White Rabbit

The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" Alice follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland. Alice encounters him again when he mistakes her for his housemaid Mary Ann and she becomes trapped in his house after growing too large. The Rabbit shows up again in the last few chapters, as a herald-like servant of the King and Queen of Hearts.

Personality

In his article "Alice on the Stage", Carroll wrote, "And the White Rabbit, what of him? Was he framed on the 'Alice' lines, or meant as a contrast? As a contrast, distinctly. For her 'youth', 'audacity', 'vigour', and 'swift directness of purpose', read 'elderly', 'timid', 'feeble', and 'nervously shilly-shallying', and you will get something of what I meant him to be. I think the White Rabbit should wear spectacles. I'm sure his voice should quaver, and his knees quiver and his whole air suggest a total inability to say 'Boo' to a goose!"
Overall, the White Rabbit seems to shift back and forth between pompous behaviour toward his underlings, such as his servants, and grovelling, obsequious behaviour toward his superiors, such as the Duchess, and the King and Queen of Hearts, in direct contrast to Alice, who is reasonably polite to everyone she meets.
The White Rabbit's perennial unpunctuality is a nod to Oxford time, the tradition at Oxford of having events begin five minutes past the scheduled hour.

Adaptations and in popular culture

Disney film

's animated version of the Rabbit is perhaps best known for the little song he sings on his first appearance, "I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!". His initial panicky behaviour is presumably because he is late for the royal garden party where he is due to act as herald; this would be quite enough for him to lose his head to the touchy Queen.
He is often the straight man for other characters' zany antics; when he asks the Dodo for help on getting the "monster" out of his house, Dodo's ultimate solution is to burn the house down, to which the White Rabbit is greatly opposed. At the Mad Tea Party, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare try to "fix" his watch, proclaiming it "exactly two days slow," and eventually destroy it in their efforts to correct it.
The Rabbit was voiced by Bill Thompson.
The White Rabbit appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character.
In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, the Genie was transformed into him.
The White Rabbit made a few appearances on the Disney Channel original show, House of Mouse. His most notable appearance was in the episode "Clarabelle's Big Secret" when he confessed to Clarabelle Cow that "I'm not really late, and I don't really have a date. I'm a fraud!". He is seen being grabbed by the reservation clerk Daisy Duck in the show's intro. He was voiced by Corey Burton, who has voiced the Rabbit in all English speaking roles for the character since then until in Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, where his voice was provided by Jeff Bennett.
In the PlayStation 2 action-RPG game Kingdom Hearts and its Game Boy Advance follow-up, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, the White Rabbit leads Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy to the Queen's palace, worried about being late. His Japanese voice actor was Shigeru Ushiyama.
In The Simpsons short Plusaversary, Disney's White Rabbit made a brief appearance in Moe's Tavern.
In the television series Alice's Wonderland Bakery, his great grandson Fergie is one of the main characters. In the episode "Potato Potahto" is shown a photo of Alice and the White Rabbit where they made the potato dish together in Wonderland.
The White Rabbit has a cameo appearance in the short film Once Upon a Studio, as part of the Walt Disney Animation Studios characters who gather to take a group photo.

Švankmajer film

The 1988 Czechoslovak film Alice, noted for its disturbing interpretation of Carroll's story, shows a dark stop-motion version of the character. At the beginning of the film, the White Rabbit starts out as a stuffed rabbit that comes alive in Alice's bedroom and breaks out of his glass case; he leaks sawdust through a hole in his chest. During Alice's pursuit of the White Rabbit in Wonderland, he physically attacks her with paddles, a hacksaw, and a group of skeletal animals. The White Rabbit is also the Queen of Hearts' executioner, using scissors to behead the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and other characters. Upon awakening from her dream and finding the White Rabbit missing from his case, Alice finds his scissors and resolves to behead him herself.

Tim Burton film

The White Rabbit works for the Red Queen, but is also a secret member of the Underland Underground Resistance, and was sent by the Hatter to search for Alice. Actor Michael Sheen stated, "The White Rabbit is such an iconic character that I didn't feel like I should break the mould too much." In this film adaption, the White Rabbit is given the name Nivens McTwisp.
McTwisp appears in the video game adaptation of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland as a playable character. He attacks using his watch and can manipulate time.

Other films

In Jurassic Park, the character of Dennis Nedry writes a computer program to disable security systems of the park and hide his steps. Samuel L. Jackson's character finds a file called "Whte_rbt.obj" that he claims did it all.
In The Matrix, there are several metaphysical "waking up" metaphors that reference the Wonderland stories. Early in the film, Neo is told to follow the "White Rabbit" and seconds later, his doorbell rings, and when he opens the door he finds a woman with a tattoo of a white rabbit on her shoulder. Later in the film, Morpheus offers him the "red pill" to "find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes". Right before he meets the Oracle one can see Night of the Lepus playing on a nearby television, symbolising Neo's decision to "follow the white rabbit" and to disturb the order of the Matrix.
In Pacific Rim, there are several metaphysical "waking up" metaphors that reference the Wonderland stories. In the film, Mako Mori is instructed during "mind-meld" training to "do not latch onto memories; let them wash over you" and to above all never follow the "White Rabbit". Later in the film, she does this and nearly kills military staff members.
In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Genie briefly transforms into the White Rabbit and even quotes his famous line of "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!".
In Knowing, the character of John Koestler Nicolas Cage's character decodes a prophesy of an Extinction Level Event / End Times. His young son, Caleb, and the young granddaughter of the prophet, Abby, are taken at the conclusion by Angelic "Alien" beings aboard an Arc to save them from Earth's destruction. Abby is holding her pet White Rabbit as they ascend into the Arc.
In Little Nicky, the character of Little Nicky Adam Sandler's character as son of the Devil fights his siblings who have brought hell on Earth, and having an Angelic mother, fires rainbow beams from his fingers that produce white rabbits, during the act of fighting evil demons using "the power of good".
In the 2025 Russian musical film Alice in Wonderland, the White Rabbit is portrayed by.
Television
The White Rabbit appears in the Once Upon a Time spin-off called Once Upon a Time in Wonderland voiced by John Lithgow - in this show, his first name is revealed to be Percy. He helps the Knave of Hearts to free Alice from Bethlem Royal Hospital in a Victorian Era-type world and bring her back to Wonderland. The Red Queen is also forcing the White Rabbit to be her ears in order to find out about Alice's plans.
In Star Trek, the 1966 episode "Shore Leave" shows the protagonists visiting a planet where characters of their imagination come to life. The White Rabbit appears to Doctor McCoy early in the episode.
In Star Trek: The Animated Series, in the episode "Once Upon a Planet" the White Rabbit appears before Alice shows up chasing him.
The White Rabbit appeared in the "Brooke Shields" episode of The Muppet Show performed by Steve Whitmire. The White Rabbit puppet later made a cameo in the wedding scene of The Muppets Take Manhattan, an episode of Donna's Day, and episode 4081 of Sesame Street.
In the Syfy Alice, The White Rabbit is a secret organisation that works for the Queen of Hearts and abducts people from the real world, so they can gamble in the Queen's casino. The actual character is represented by a member of the organisation called Agent White who kidnaps Jack and tries to retrieve a magic ring called the Stone of Wonderland from Alice. When it is found out that he failed his mission, the Queen has him executed.
In Lost, the White Rabbit has alluded to several times in the series. First, it is the name of an episode, and Locke claims that Jack is chasing the White Rabbit in the form of his father. The White Rabbit is also the symbol for the Looking Glass Station and it is also carrying a clock with it.
In Leverage Season 5, the White Rabbit is mentioned in episode 12 as being the main title and con of the episode.
Literature
In The Looking-Glass Wars, the White Rabbit is re-imagined as Bibwit Harte, an albino tutor with super-sensitive hearing.
In the manga series Alice in the Country of Hearts, written by Quinrose and published by Tokyopop, a character named Peter White is the prime minister of the castle of hearts. He is portrayed as a cruel man who would kill anyone in an instant. He has little in common with the image of the white rabbit other than white rabbit ears, a large oversized pocketwatch, and a suit. He is desperately in love with Alice and often caught rhyming as he speaks. Alice does mention hating him on several occasions and claims to hate "White Rabbit ears" the most.
In the Stephen King novel The Long Walk, a boy named Stebbins refers to himself as "the White Rabbit type."
In the manga Pandora Hearts the main character Oz Vessalius is based in the White Rabbit as he is the chain B-Rabbit.
In the manga series Project ARMS a boy infected with intelligent nano machines code named white rabbit is granted superior speed and jumping ability.
In the book Boy in a White Room the main character gets send hints through pictures of a “White Rabbit” that are visible in live footage he has access to.
In the third volume of Shazam!, the White Rabbit is an inhabitant of the Magiclands location called Wozenderlands. He was seen carrying the Tin Man's axe to give to Dorothy while evading the wrongful advice of the talking trees. When the winged monkeys that worked for the Wicked Witches of the North, South, East, and West pursue him, the White Rabbit is saved by Mamaragan, Eugene Choi, and Pedro Peña. Afterwards, Mamaragan asks where Alice is. The White Rabbit then accompanies them to meet up with Alice and Dorothy Gale. As the group roasts apples and cucumbers at the campfire later that night, the White Rabbit learns of Eugene and Pedro's trip through the Funlands and the Gamelands. When everyone meets up in the Wozenderlands after Shazam and Lady Shazam protected Scarecrow and the Munchkins from the Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit gives Scarecrow the axe that belonged to the Tin Man while apologising for what the Queen of Hearts and her Card Soldiers did to him. When Mister Mind has Shazam cast a spell to unite the seven Magiclands, Scarecrow and White Rabbit start to see the effects of it.