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What do you get when you combine the happily-ever after film giant Walt Disney Pictures and the dark-cultured genius director Tim Burton? Why a modern version of Alice In Wonderland, in 3-D no less.
I was one of the many that went to view the premiere at Cinemark Mall del Norte on March 5 at midnight. The theatre was packed; every seat had a warm bum eager to view the fictional classic.
I can’t even begin to count how many girls named Alice, or how many characters I met that night. Honestly, I couldn’t tell who was more excited – the tweens and teens, or their parents who grew up with the Disney film.
I wanted to love this movie because I am a huge fan of director Tim Burton. Who can forget the one-of-a-kind films like Beetle Juice, Edward Scissorhands, Batman and the Nightmare Before Christmas?
The effects are nothing short of amazing. In this film you also get the original gothic style that was first implemented with the Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland story, written 145 years ago by Lewis Carroll.
The movie starts off with young Alice, played by Australian actress Mia Wasikowska, talking to her dad about her nightmares inside a foreign place with strange creatures.
The movie then jumps forward to an older Alice, soon to be 20 and about to be formally asked for her hand in marriage at a social gathering by a boring aristocrat in London.
Before she’s asked, however, she takes a stroll through a rose garden with her soon-to-be mother-in-law and sees a white rabbit with a clock, signaling her to follow him.
The young English Lord bends down on one knee and asks distracted Alice for her hand in marriage in front of about 100 noblepersons. Unable to thin, she says asks for some time to clear her head and runs off in search of that odd rabbit.
She follows him to a large hole at the trunk of a tree and accidently falls in, leaving behind the world of logic and entering the unknown.
That’s where her adventures begin as she encounters strange creatures that are looking for her to save them from the reign of the horrible Red Queen, played by Helena Bonham Carter.
Alice thinks she’s dreaming at first and is convinced she is somehow “the wrong Alice.” After a while, she plays along but only because she is unable to wake up, so she thinks.
It’s not towards the end that she believes that what’s happening is real that she begins to believe in herself. She must gain the trust of friends and foes and ultimately slay the Jabberwocky, a dragon-like creature, to restore power to the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), good sister of the hated Red Queen.
Digital characters such as the March Hare, the grinning Cheshire Cat and Tweedledum and Tweedledee were absolutely fabulous in my opinion. The human actors in the movie, however, were a different story.
Helena Bonham Carter, Burton’s sweetheart, found her way into this film as well. Bonham Carter plays the tiny Red Queen with a bulbous head and a lioness attitude.
She rose to the thrown by force through attacking her sister, the White Queen, and banishing her.
I usually love Helena’s acting, but she seemed to be miscast in this film. She’s not the Red Queen so many of us are accustomed to and frankly, another actress would have been better.
Johnny Depp has a long history with Burton and, as the Mad Hatter, he was incredible. I loved seeing him play this character and he fit it perfectly. Not only is this hatter a likeably silly person, he’s actually quite crazy, and not the innocent fantasy Disney type – it’s much more like the “I’m-afraid-to-be-near-you” type.
Anne Hathaway plays a very beautiful White Queen, unfortunately comes across as kind of common in the movie with nothing grand, magical or royal about her.
No wonder her evil Red Queen sister kicked her but out of Wonderland.
Mia Wasikowska, the Australian actress that played Alice in the movie, did a superb job. She keeps the audience enthralled throughout the whole movie and the young Aussie is definitely on her way to becoming a very great actress.
In a way, Alice represents the nervous and unsatisfied young person in all of us. Her dreams are too out there and her imagination is just a bit too much for civilized people to handle.
She doesn’t have confidence in her abilities and therefore lacks the skill to make tough decisions, but learns how to do so after a number of events in a place where quick actions are needed to stay alive.
The thing that annoyed me was how the movie lagged in story after the midway point. Alice In Wonderland should have taken a lesson from Avatar-like, digitally enhanced films.
That is, a good storyline is the heart of any movie and digital effects and art can only fluff up so much of what isn’t there.
Overall, the movie was spectacular. It might sound like a contradiction, but only because I expected so much more and up-front from a beloved director. I definitely recommend this movie for the average person.
Tim Burton and true Alice In Wonderland fans be patient, this is still a work to be proud of.
Besides, no one else could have taken us to this tripped-out, colorful world of oddities quite like Tim Burton and his cast. Bring your 3-D glasses and leave your logic behind.
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