- “Why would you spend your time thinking about such an impossible thing?”
- ―Hamish reprimanding Alice for using her imagination
Hamish Ascot is a minor antagonist in the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland and to it’s sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass. He is an unimaginative and snobbish Lord who once tried to marry Alice Kingsleigh.
Background
Hamish Ascot is the son of Lord Ascot and Lady Ascot. His father was a businessman who owned a trading posting company which once belonged to one of his closest friends, Charles Kingsleigh. Whilst his father was a gentleman with a good heart, Hamish seems to have inherited his personality from his mother, the snobbish and stubborn Lady Ascot.
At some point, it was decided that he and Charles' young daughter, Alice, should get married. A lavish engagement party that was prepared without the consentment of Alice, who was unaware of everything. This caused her to freak out after discovering it on the very day of the engagement proposal and, together with a series of events that showed their completely opposite personalities, like a cringeworthy dance and conversation between them, to reject Hamish's proposal, leaving him alone and humiliated in the front of dozens of people.
Personality
Hamish is a snobbish and stubborn man who seems to have inherited those two personality traits from his mother, the odious Lady Ascot. He like things to be done in a precisely and traditional way, mainly when it comes to things like schedules and social values. He also has an enormous disapproval for imagination, which he considers useless, and even offensive if it involves non-traditional ideas. He seems to have an enormous disgust for insects or dirt.
He also a big crybaby since he often shout out to his mother whenever he is in trouble whether both in social life and professional life showing that he incapable of behaving as an adult and managing a business.
Physical appearance
Hamish is a young man with light skin, red hair, greenish blue eyes, prominent nose, small teeth and tall stature.
Appearances
Alice in Wonderland
In 1868, an engagement party for Hamish and Alice Kingsleigh was set in the Ascot family property. Alice is unaware of the plot to get herself married to Hamish. After arriving at the party late, she and Hamish dance quadrille, but the dance is a failure, with Hamish constantly reprimanding Alice for her personality. Eventually, after receiving orders from his mother, he says to Alice to meet him under the gazebo in "precisely ten minutes". Alice fails to do it, forcing Hamish to search for her. Under the gazebo, Hamish finally proposes to Alice, but she freaks out and runs away from everyone before giving an answer. Hamish is indignant with Alice's attitude, but she returns only to say that she cannot marry him, leaving him even more humiliated.
Alice Through the Looking Glass
After the death of his father, Hamish inherited the trading posting company, thus making him Alice's boss. He then set things up to exact his revenge for Alice's rejection of his marriage proposal three years ago, forcing her to choose between her beloved ship or her house despite being married to another woman named Alexandra.
Video games
Alice in Wonderland
- “Alice! Wait! My proposal! I demand an answer.”
- ―Hamish calling for Alice during the beginning of the game.
Hamish makes a voice-only appearance in the Wii and PC version of the video game adaptation of the film. During the very beginning and the very end of the game, he can be heard asking Alice for an answer to his marriage proposal. He is voiced by the same actor who portrayed Hamish in the film, Leo Bill.
Trivia
- The novelization of the first film says that, due to the professional relationship between their fathers, Alice and Hamish knew each other (and that Alice hated him) since they were children. However, because that is not said neither in the film nor in the screenplay in which the novelization is based on, the canon status of this information is unclear.
