Alice in Wonderland

I was apprehensive to start reading Alice in Wonderland, because I have an irrational fear of the Disney movie adaptation of the story. Being away from home, and encountering unfriendly strangers was just not my six year-old cup of tea. Reading the story has been much more fun, because I am able to imagine things as I would want them, and add an extra element of fantasy to the story. I have heard rumors that the story is more or less inspired by an acid trip. As I have been reading, it seems that LSD is as good an inspiration for a fantasy story as anything else. In my personal opinion, I would say that fantasy stories are able to be held to a much more lenient standards than fairy tales, which makes them more fun to read and write. Are there rules for the plot of a fantasy, as there are for the Heroic Journey? Are fantasy stories simply fairy tales with fantastic elements thrown in? I am wondering--what makes the elements of a good fantasy story?