Genre: Adventure/ Family/ Fantasy
Director: Tim Burton
Writer: Linda Woolverton (screenplay), Lewis Carroll (books: “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” & “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There”)
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover
MPAA Rating: PG (for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar.)
Summary: 19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.
Run Time: 108 minutes
This is the film I wanted so badly to be my first 3D movie experience. Ever since I saw the “Alice” trailer on the anti-climatic “Avatar Day”, I’ve been waiting patiently for Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” to premiere. Unfortunately, since “Avatar” came out before “Alice” as the first big 3D production, I’m sad to say that “Alice” was not my first romp with 3D, but I’ll get to a comparison of the virtues of 3D between the two films later in this review.
Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” is an absolute delight for the eyes. It is like the most succulent dessert that you could ever eat, but with your eyes! The whole time, I was thinking, “This must be what the inside of Tim Burton’s head looks like!” (only more colorful, I bet). It seemed like an art director and costumer’s absolute dream! I wanted to look around and discover the odd creatures and landscapes for myself. “Alice” is certainly a visual feast.
Except for scenes in the real world, the bulk of this film is shot against a green screen and it is a marvelous blend of live action and animation. The line between the two was so successfully blurred in “Alice” that you could really believe that you were in Wonderland… er… Underland as it is here.
The opening and closing scenes as well as deliberate points in between gave reference to lines in the Lewis Carroll books, so it ties the film in with a level of familiarity that fans of the original tale are bound to appreciate and expect. The characters are again familiar – the White Rabbit, the Red Queen, the Catepillar, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, the White Queen, the March Hare,… but of course, executed with a Burton-esque twist. I’m sure you’ve seen the adverts and thus had a peek of how spectacular the Mad Hatter looks now.
Alice falls down the rabbit hole again at age nineteen and must help the people of Underland overthrow the Red Queen. Even though I understand that the plot of this take on “Alice” can’t be too far fetched for fear of losing credibility with the source material, I nevertheless found the interpretation of the spin-off plot-line to be mundane, considering that we’re talking about Tim Burton directing. I suppose that fans would revolt if a spin off scenario got too off base, but I felt like Burton played it safe with the plot. The pacing of the storyline also felt flat to me in the sense that there were no quiet times in the film where you as a spectator could rest or for the characters to properly develop. “Alice” was perhaps too chock full of action and curiosities. One might even say that it had too much “muchness”!
Still, even though the storyline and pacing was rather monotone, the characters made it interesting enough to keep watching. I felt that the characters were all immensely fun, with Alice being the foil of standalone straight-guy. Yes, all the characters are zany, but this is a Burton film, what did you expect? To enjoy this film, it’s best to just go with it and enjoy the strange!
Johnny Depp’s Hatter was the most intriguing character of them all. That would not be a surprise here as this is Depp’s seventh film with Burton and it is clear that their partnership is a well-oiled machine. Depp played Hatter with the more depth than any other character in the film – at times, plainly mad, to innocent, to frighteningly intense in his convictions. I only wished to have connected with Hatter more to understand his back story and motivations. Plus, if you’ll note, standing still, one of Hatter’s pupils is ever so slightly larger than the other at all times, adding to that air of “something is wrong with this picture”. I must also give props to the make-up artist and animators for something Hatter does with his eyes. You’ll see what I mean when you watch the film, it lends that extra bit of spice to Hatter’s madness!
Alice drew strength (and in some cases, madness) from Hatter throughout her journey. That connection between the Hatter and Alice was delicately present. Mia Wasikowska performed well in what must have felt like an odd-one-out role amidst the other characters in Underland. Her Alice was curious about all things, headstrong, easily distracted, but strangely calm under all circumstances.
Helena Bonham Carter is one of my favorite actresses and she plays the Red Queen/Queen of Hearts with an appropriate amount of gusto and fervor, bellowing out the trademark exclamation of “Off with his (or her) head!”. Anne Hathaway lights up the screen as the White Queen, a sort of a reverse goth gliding around in all white with a peculiar interest in deathly things.
“Alice” had a stellar voice cast – Alan Rickman as the Catepillar, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky.
As a costumer, I especially loved every single costume assembled for “Alice”. Colleen Atwood (“Nine”, “Sweeney Todd”, “Chicago”) has really outdone herself on this one! Every single piece looks meticulously designed and constructed in a way that adds so much to each character’s demeanor. Since there wasn’t a whole lot of character development in the film, I think the costuming really helped in presenting the characters and progressing Alice through her journey.
As far as the 3D quality of the film goes, it certainly did add to the rich surrealism to Underland, but I don’t think this is the best film to serve as an example of you-must-see-this-before-you-die-type of 3D experience. In fact, I’m not sure whether it was because I saw this in the combination of 3D and on an IMAX screen – that I, and every member of the party I went with suffered headaches afterwards. I did not have a headache after “Avatar” in 3D, but I did not see that on an IMAX screen. The 3D glasses were also different for the IMAX theater, so that could have been a contributing factor as well. Don’t get me wrong, Ken Ralston (“Star Wars”, “Polar Express”, “Back to the Future”) and Sony Pictures Imageworks did a fantastic job creating Underland for “Alice” and the fall down the rabbit hole was something else, but I don’t think that it was necessary for the bulk of the film to be in 3D. I think there is definitely something to be said for too much visual stimuli!
The Cheshire Cat was the most amazing part of the 3D in “Alice”. It was seeing him in the preview that snagged my interest for this film. The way the animators made him navigate through the air was simply purrfect! Next to Hatter, the Cheshire Cat was my favorite character. I was absolutely giddy with excitement for every scene where the Cheshire Cat appeared.
Conversely, the character of Stayne aka Knave of Hearts (played by Crispin Glover) whose head was live action married onto an unnaturally elongated CGI body, was the worst bit of animation in the film in that his body did not move right and that his limbs lacked the appropriate weight. I felt distracted by this every time Stayne was on screen.
Compared to “Avatar”, I would say that “Alice” was the more visually appealing of the two. In both films, the animators carefully filled the air with particles to give it a sense of realism and depth. Still, “Avatar” had stronger “wow” sequences in 3D and did a better job of having the characters interact with 3D elements. This was due to the fact that “Alice” was shot in 2D and then given the 3D treatment later on in the film-making process. But unlike “Avatar”, I would definitely see “Alice” again.
Tim Burton does not disappoint with these awfully strange characters and the stunningly imaginative land of Underland. His vision for “Alice” updates the classic story for a young lady-aged Alice.
In the end, “Alice” is about knowing who you are and being comfortable with it. Alice needed to learn to be true to who she is inside. She finds the confidence to stand up for herself in an era where women didn’t typically partake in such brazen acts of self-worth. Burton reminds you of the power of believing in the impossible and how to see the world with child-like wonder. This fanciful film with a positive message within is a kid-safe film with a helping of Burton-style strange, and has strong appeal across all demographics – the crowd in my sold-out screening was an impressive mix of people young and old, male and female of all ethnicities.
Alice In Wonderland is definitely worth seeing, though I would recommend viewing it in 2D.
I Give “Alice in Wonderland” Three Out Of Five Stars
