Movie Review: Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton reunites with Disney for a whimsical new adventure

I have been anticipating this movie for two years, macaroons. Last Thursday night, all that waiting came to an end at the midnight premiere of Alice in Wonderland 3D. (Original review posted here)

The cast & characters are wonderful. The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) & the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) actually hold their own as characters without reminding you of the actors. This is the first Burton film since Edward Scissorhands where Depp’s identity doesn’t overpower the character. Crispin Glover (George McFly, The Wizard of Gore), welcome back to the big screen! His character is essentially superfluous, but wonderfully creepy in a film that direly needs a little creepy. Alan Rickman (Caterpillar) could lend his voice to anything & make an incredible character. Really, who else could have done the Caterpillar?

Mia Wasikowska could not be a more perfect Alice. Her whimsical, pixie-like features & quizzical expressions convinced me that she belongs in Wonderland— or, in Burton’s version, Underland (pronounced Oonderland). Watch out, Helena. Mia could easily become Burton’s new muse.

As you can expect from Tim Burton, the design aspects are stunning. The landscapes are intricately detailed & never have I been more inspired to go buy a sewing machine. The costumes, Alice’s dresses particularly, are gorgeous. Take a look at the dresses in the following clips. The first only gives you a quick view of my favorite dress before Alice outgrows it, but the second clip gives you a good look at her most popular dress—the dress given to Alice by the Red Queen.

As far as the 3D version, save yourself $3.00 & see the movie in “RegularD”. Other than enhancing wide shots of beautiful landscapes, 3D adds nothing & is nauseating during the (many) fast paced scenes. I very much enjoyed the 3D image of the talking flowers towering over me, but that’s about it.

Regardless of the visual dimension in which you choose to see the film, macaroons, the story is disappointingly one dimensional. It’s enjoyable, but I felt nothing. Burton’s films generally evoke a range of deep emotion & I did not get a single goosebump. The plot is bland, eventually throwing Alice into the heroic “empowered woman” role that Disney is pushing hard these days to make up for a brand built on damsels in distress & it left me unfulfilled. I sat through the entire credits, certain there must be more. There is not.

Disney, as feared, took nearly all the Burton out of it. This Alice in Wonderland is not the darkly mysterious adventure that had so much promise. There is some Burton in the smaller details, but it’s as if Disney gave him one character with whom to display his vision & Burton piled it on the Mad Hatter, who dominates the film for no reason other than being Johnny Depp & throwing out a few quotables for Hot Topic t-shirts.

If Ronald McDonald went mad...

The quirky creatures signature of Burton’s style are missing in a world where they would have thrived. There is a glimpse at a horsefly & dragonfly & the lovely talking flowers, but after the first 1/3 of the film nothing particularly strange or surprising manifests. The Jabberwocky is simply a digital rehashing of Maleficent with a hint of Hungarian Horntail. Sure, an original dragon is a challenge, but if any imagination could have done it, it’s Burton’s.

It’s worth seeing if you’re a Disney or Alice in Wonderland fan in general, but don’t expect too much. Turn off your brain & enjoy how pretty it all is. Hopefully Burton & Disney will reevaluate their relationship & film structure for Burton’s full length remake of his 1984 short film, Frankenweenie, due out next year.

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