Alice In Wonderland (2010)

3.0

FANTASY/ADVENTURE

U.S. Release Date: 03/05/10

Running Length: 108 Minutes

MPAA Classification: PG (Violence, Scary Images, A Smoking Caterpillar)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Stephen Fry (voice), Michael Sheen (voice), Alan Rickman (voice)

Director: Tim Burton

Screenplay: Linda Woolverton, based on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll

Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski

Music: Danny Elfman

U.S. Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Review by: Carter Moulton

03/14/10

Alice In Wonderland Author Lewis Caroll is widely recognized as the founder of the “literary nonsense” genre, so it’s no wonder (land) that Tim Burton’s latest film adaptation has taken heat for making too much sense. Burton himself said that he didn’t feel any emotional impact from the source material and wanted to inject a story into Caroll’s series of strange events. The result is a compression of Caroll’s two novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through The Looking Glass, into a singular storyline, one with epic battles, emotionally-anchored characters, an unambiguous good vs. evil theme, and a quasi Peter Pan parallelism.

This altering of the story isn’t “Disney-fication,” as some critics have suggested; Disney already made a version Alice in Wonderland in 1951, and a structured narrative with straightforward cause-and-effect occurrences was by no means present. Instead of being a Disney film made by the trapped Tim Burton, I’d argue that this is a Tim Burton film to a tee—it only happens to be released by Disney. It’s every bit as “Burton” as Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (although it's not quite as good).

Burton’s signature tone, a light comedic touch underneath the surface of a sometimes-frightening-or-fantastical film, can be seen immediately. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is 19 years old, ripe for the picking, and her suitor comes in the form of the homely Hamish (played with a snarl by Leo Bill). Hamish proposes to Alice at a fancy party in front of hundreds of onlookers. Alice is anxious; she isn’t ready to be married, especially not to this Tweedledoofus. At the same time, she is aware of her mother’s concern: if she doesn’t get married soon, she may end up like crazy old Aunt Imogene. Burton uses this prefacing story to have fun with all of Alice’s surrounding characters, just as he does the old ladies in Edward Scissorhands and the townspeople in Sleepy Hollow.

Photo © Walt Disney Pictures

Alice runs away from the popped question, and into the forest she goes, only to fall into a giant hole in the ground. The rest of the tale takes place in Underland, a twisted dream world that Alice once visited as a young girl—although she can’t remember much about her first visit. The “late-for-a-very-important-date” (these lines aren’t obnoxiously spewed in this version….I still can’t get the 1951 rabbit out my head) rabbit, the Dodo, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and others welcome Alice to her new fantasy.

The croquet-playing Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) has a noose tightened around Underland, and Burton’s vision of her is refreshing enough. She, with her heart-shaped head and clown makeup, uses Underland’s inhabitants as slaves—look for the candle-holding monkeys and the chandelier-hanging birds in her throne room. Crispin Glover plays the Knave of Hearts, the Red Queen’s lanky henchman. His presence is strangely critical to this whole Underland atmosphere, although I can’t place my finger on the reason why. Perhaps it’s his cartoonish figure that helps to add an element of eeriness—he’s a tormented soul, stretched and strained.

Depp, as you are well aware, plays the Mad Hatter. I went in skeptical of Depp, who, judging from the trailer footage, looked to be rehashing material from his performances as Captain Jack Sparrow and Willy Wonka; but his performance is wonderful. It’s a character with range, displaying a childlike energy and articulating with a lisp when excited; speaking with a Scottish accent and squinting within rainclouded eye sockets when upset. He’s an unstable individual, yes, but Burton’s Hatter is not as mad as you might expect: it’s more like the “The Pre-Pubescent Hatter.”

Alice’s quest to fulfill her destiny and save Underland from the Red Queen is intriguing at first—probably because, for the first time in any Alice In Wonderland text, something is actually comprehensible. But as time goes by, this whole quest to slay the Jabberwocky (a dragon) with a special sword gets old. Why should she go through all of this trouble anyway? What is she learning on this journey? Burton’s story has plot holes, sure, but I 've decided this can't be counted as a flaw, especially when Caroll's source material leaves an infinity of unanswered questions.

There’s a moment, a brief moment, toward the end of the film, when Alice In Wonderland almost self-destructs. The Mad Hatter break dances. This ten-second segment sent my mind into a frizzy, thinking of everything that was wrong with Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was the scariest ten seconds of any Tim Burton film I’ve ever seen, because it endangered an otherwise well crafted film. Maybe Burton is simply trying to slap the system in the face, I don't know—whatever it is, I don't like it.

Burton’s Underland is splendid to view, in 3D or 2D, and his re-imagining of the world’s characters and landscapes are alone worth the price of a ticket. Depp’s performance is strong, as is the direction. Even if the climax features a flimsy, superfluous battle scene, there’s no denying that Alice In Wonderland is all at once original, classic, flawed, and captivating. It’s a mixed bag, but nonetheless, it’s a successful escape from the end of winter.