Anyone who knows me knows that (in my head at least) I am the illegitimate love child of Tim Burton. I own all of his films and have collected memorabilia relating to his work for a number of years. Hell I even liked Planet Of The Apes
Now before we start getting into the finer details, I’d like to make it clear that, in my opinion, Alice in Wonderland is too light to be a “proper” Tim Burton film though it is equally too dark to be a “proper” Disney film. It’s caught somewhere in between, largely down I feel, to the the fact the film is not a straightforward adaptation of the Lewis Carrol’s books. Instead Burton has taken elements from both books and crafted a sequel of some sorts. Much in the same way as the director did when creating the sublime Batman Returns
The plot of this dark tale centers on an 19 year old Alice who is plagued by dreams of her first adventures in Wonderland (or Underland as the film insists it be called). In order to escape a marriage proposal, Alice follows a white rabbit down, you’ve guessed it, a rabbit hole and finds herself back in Underland.
Once back in Underland, we are treated to familiar scenes and characters from the books (and original Disney film) such as the eat me and drink me potions and Tweeduldum and Tweedledee before Alice re-encounters the Mad Hatter’s tea party who inform our heroine that her return has been prophesied and that she is the one to slay the Jabberwocky thus defeating the tyrannical Red Queen (deliciously played by Helena Bonham Carter) thus restoring rule to the White Queen (a not so good Anne Hathaway).
The performances on the whole are spot on with excellent casting choices particularly Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, Matt Lucas as Dweedledum and Dweedledee and Alan Rickman as the blue caterpillar. It is, inevitably, Johnny Depp who once again steals the show with an excellent turn as the schizophrenic Mad Hatter, switching seamlessly from friendly, harmless odd ball to deranged physchopath within the blink of an eye. It is his performance that again suggests this is not a film for the terribly small. Tie that in with the scene where Alice must cross the Red Queens moat by using floating severed heads as stepping stones (classic Burton imagery NOT classic Disney) and you do feel like the director and studio were wrestling each other for control of the project.
The CGI is fine though after the exceptional beauty of Avatar, feels a little clunky in places. This most evident of Crispin Glover’s Knave of Hearts who has a very stiff, juddery motion whenever he moves. The Bandysnatch and Jabberwocky however are both beautiful realised as is Underland, the design of which is classic Burton. The 3d is good yet not as well utilised as in Avatar.
There were rumours abound that the film was still being worked on up to and beyond the world premiere, if this is true it would explain the disjointed feel to some scenes as well as the ropey CGI. Had Burton and his team not been under such a strict timescale and had this adaptation not been released through Disney, I feel we would’ve had a much different film.
Overall Alice in Wonderland is not without its flaws, yet is still an enjoyable, beatuiful romp through “Underland”.
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Unquestionably beautiful, particularly the red cards armour and the desolation of the tea party. Some of the performances were pitched perfectly too, Helena Bonham-Carter’s Red Queen was marvellous (even though, as Kermode points out, it was a lot like Queeny from Blackadder), Stephen Fry made a deliciously langourous Chesire Cat and Alan Rickman was great as Alan Rickman.
The main complaints for me were that the pacing was fucked thoughout, the tea party occupying five minutes of screen time while the tedious bookending segements were seemingly interminable, was a bit off. i also couldn’t help noticing how much of the plot echoed American McGee’s Alice in Wonderland. …(tharr be more) Peer into the depths
On the acting front, Johnny Deppe’s Biggins to Begbie act grated somewhat. Saying that though, occasionally I thought it showed a lot of promise, perhaps I’d have liked it more if the Biggins’ act was simply less pantomimey. Anne Hathaway’s impression of Nigella Lawson in a wind tunnel was a bit misjudged too.
I think at the end of it I came out a bit less miserable than this is making me appear, I completely fell in love with Burton’s Visual Wonderland, that didn’t disappoint at all. I just felt that there was this really likable movie hiding in it that I just couldn’t find.
Thanks for your comment Tom. I agree with the majority of your review particularly your comment about there being a “really likeable movie hiding”.
At no point did I hate the film but for all it’s beauty and fine acting there was just something missing. Even the ever dependable Danny Elfman had an off day with arguably his weakest flm score to date (far to reminisient of the Spider-Man score). I do wonder if the film will grow on me after repeated viewings and am planning to go and see it again (once the stampede’s die down).
I’m glad you picked up on the unfinished nature of the film too, as I say, the pacing of the film really irritated me. I felt the camera lingered too long in really tedious dialogs and then raced through scenes that I felt should have been more important. Particular offenders here are the tedious real world bookends and the criminally short tea party scene. I wonder if the tea party was shorter than it could have been because they just didn’t have time to CGI it completely.
Also, Elfman’s phoned-in score really shocked me, it was just so… lacklustre. Moat of decapitated heads was superbly creepy.
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