Caterpillar (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

Caterpillar
Alice character
The Caterpillar using a hookah; an illustration by John Tenniel. The illustration is noted for its ambiguous central figure, whose head can be viewed as being a human male's face with a pointed nose and protruding chin or being the head end of an actual caterpillar, with two "true" legs visible.
First appearance	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Created by	Lewis Carroll
Information
Nickname(s)	The Blue Caterpillar
Aliases	Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar, Absolem
Species	Caterpillar
Gender	Male
Nationality	Wonderland

Blue Caterpillar
First appearance	Alice in Wonderland
Created by	Lewis Carroll
Voiced by	Richard Haydn (original film) Corey Burton (House of Mouse)

The Caterpillar (also known as the Hookah-Smoking Caterpillar) is a fictional character appearing in Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Introduced in Chapter Four ("Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill") and the main center of interest of Chapter V ("Advice from a Caterpillar"), the Caterpillar is a hookah-smoking caterpillar exactly three inches high (a height of which he argues in defense, against Alice's complaint). Alice does not like the Caterpillar when they first meet, because he does not immediately talk to her and when he does, it is usually in short, rather rude sentences, or difficult questions.

The original illustration by John Tenniel is something of a visual paradox, wherein the caterpillar's human face appears to be formed from the head and legs of a naturalistic caterpillar. In another allusion, the flowers on the right of the illustration appear to be a form of tobacco, while the caterpillar is smoking heavily.

The Caterpillar makes an appearance in a few other places outside Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, such as American McGee's Alice and the novel The Looking-Glass Wars; in both of these spin-offs he plays the role of an oracle.

His memorable phrase is a breathy "Whooo ... are ... you?". In the Disney animated film, this line is visualised as exhalations of smoke in the shapes "O", "R" and "U". Alice remarks in the original story that the Caterpillar will one day turn into a butterfly, and in both the 1999 television film and Disney's 1951 version he does so in Alice's presence. He is voiced by Richard Haydn.

The Caterpillar in the Disney film is a blue creature who, as in the original Carroll story, smokes a hookah. He is seen as a very violent character as he screams at Alice quite often during the scenes he appears in. He blows smoke in Alice's face and when she needs help he ignores her. He is a quite mean character as he provides little to no help to Alice and ends up confusing her more while she is trapped in Wonderland. He then ignores her and turns into a butterfly and flutters away not caring if Alice makes it out alive or not. He also instructs her to eat a mushroom but doesn't tell her what it does thus putting her into possible danger. He reappears one final time during the ending chase, still in butterfly form but once again smoking on his hookah, and again ignoring Alice when she asks for his help escaping the Queen of Hearts.