Alice In Wonderland [PG]

I really enjoyed this film and whilst I can see how a die hard Alice snob would baulk at the dramatic departure from the text, that departure is so Burtonesquely brilliant and filled with its own wonder that I think it matters not a jot. He never said he was making a word for word dramatisation of the book, he said he was making a film called Alice in Wonderland. That's a Film, not a book. And it states 'based on', not even 'adaptation'.

It was weird and clever and full of cool characters and crazy images and fantastical landscapes - but also, I actually liked the bleakness of bits of it (which has been criticised). Like a dream, not everything is in glorious Technicolor and not all the detail is defined. In fact, in my most vivid fever induced hallucinations, I distinctly remember that the world was black and white, flat and fuzzy around the edges, and seemed cold and had a metallic quality to it - but the purple sprites that leapt around me were crystal clear and horribly three dimensional. I think Tim has it spot on!

Character wise -well I read a lot of blah that said there was no warmth or depth to the characters and that it was difficult to engage with any of them or care about the outcomes, which again is pants. I had a lump in my throat as Alice fights to save the Hatter, and a tear was near shed when he tells her that she won't remember him when she goes back to her own world.

Ah, the Hatter. Ah, Johnny Depp. He, who manages, whilst at moments being utterly expressive and even grotesque, to remain strangely endearing and enigmatic by turns. Not even the bug eyes, yellowed teeth, ghostly pallor and frazzled ginga noggin diminish his undeniable beauty.

Anne Hathaway plays overly affected grace and whimsy to perfection. The model/actress playing Alice gets to wear some very cool frocks, which she does with panache and style, and then some super hot armour in the closing battle scenes. She's Joan of Arc all over and she does feisty pretty damn well.

I thought it was a good romp; exciting, moving, funny, witty, fantastical and foolish. Clever stuff.

Liz Buckle (DI Reviewer), 26/04/10

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Ever since Alice was a little girl she’s had dreams of a place called Wonderland. Years later when she is about 19 years old, she is taken to a surprise engagement party. Running away, following a white rabbit down a hole, she finds herself in this world still believing it is a dream. It appears the world is actually called Underland and Absalom the Caterpillar has an ancient scroll which foretells that a champion named Alice shall kill an evil creature called a Jabberwocky. The Red Queen is ruler of Underland, controls the Jabberwocky and guards the sword that can kill it. Her sister The White Queen is banished to her own domain. You can probably guess the rest.

Verdict

As I haven’t read Alice in Wonderland in many years and not sure if I ever read Through the Looking Glass it was slightly easier to watch with an open mind. Admittedly most of the plot is predictable within 5 minutes of Alice returning to Underland with possibly the slight exception of The Mad Hatter. The battle between good and evil is so similar it really depends on whose side you’re on. Slight difference in that The Red Queen is a widow and The White Queen really just wants someone to kill a beast so she can reclaim the throne. Besides all that it was enjoyable to watch. Most characters were well cast except for some reason I just didn’t like The White Queen that much although not sure why. One of the biggest mysteries about this movie is why there was so much hype over whether or not it would be in certain cinemas?

The Cast

Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse, Timothy Spall.

The Dancingman (DI User), 16/03/10

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I gather the Odeon chain nearly didn't show this film. Pity that didn't happen. How dare anyone call this Alice in Wonderland - especially in Oxford where the real thing was written!

Not only Lewis Carrol must be turning in his grave but also Charles Kingsley - whose name is ludicrously and for no apparent reason taken in vain as the soppy father of this ersatz pretender - who supplants the Alice Liddell of Christchurch.

The surreal verbal humour of the real Alice is displaced by a kind of sub Tolkienesque entirely predictable plot. The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) becomes a kilted rap dancing Braveheart figure in one of those daft Scottish red wigs.

It has f- all to do with the book. So why falsely raise expectations by stealing its name? It could have been called something like "Disney's Alice in Underland", - or Wunderland - or Blunderland.
And how many great actors are wasted in this rubbish! Only huge amounts of money on offer could have tempted them to lower their standards and be in this farrago. And the 3D isn't up to much either.

To be fair though - some children who don't or can't read and like a lot of action may enjoy it. But if they are very young watch out for the bit where a talking mouse skewers out a Bandersnatch's eyeball. (You'd never have got anything That crude in Lewis Carroll.)

artlover (Unverified), 15/03/10

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Alice in Underland is absolute guff. a real disappointment. Alice has a lovely smile, but is either a rotten actress or badly directed as her performance is wooden. The film is a cross between a bad Shrek and Sleepy Hollow but with no story, and not vaguely psychedelic. The question is what is it?

The 3d effect is dull: (take those dreadful glasses off and you'll see real colour, a bit fuzzy of course!) and only in the last 20mins does it add anything, particularly when the film finishes with a butterfly flying out of the screen and all the kids in the audience jumping up trying to catch it! Oh and I dozed off twice, with my wife prodding me. That's how riveting it isn't!

moviemoghul (DI User), 14/03/10

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Rather than a straight telling of Alice in Wonderland, this is a straight re-telling of every Hollywood genre pic since about 1933. I guess TB needed to make it feel and sound like Harry Potter meets The Wizard of Oz in order to get the funding.

There are costs, of course. It's a bit sad that a whole generation of children will grow up associating Alice in Wonderland with everything else they currently get fed: an identikit goodies v baddies fairytale. Considering it is rooted in Britishness, it's also a shame this most English of tales has all the playful narrative irony, so characteristic of its time and culture, removed and replaced with a syrupy parable about puberty. (When Alice gets a phial of blood at the end, you'll want to vomit.)

On the other hand, Jonny Depp gives a performance that is so beautiful, subtle and heartbreaking that it is absolutely worth seeing. It's a performance that couldn't have worked in the original context of the story, since it requires a psychological depth which Carroll's playing-card aesthetic wouldn't have let him develop. So Tim Burton's sell-out has a brilliant by-product.

It's still sad, though.

BB (Unverified), 12/03/10

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Alice in Underland. The missing W is, of course, deliberate. Not the original story, this is Tim Burton's take on Lewis Carroll's colourful characters.

Alice is now 19, a mercurial, independent woman about to be married to a foppish man - because it's expected. But something's stirring in the bushes - read it how you will. And she's off - chasing after a mysterious White Rabbit and falling down, down the rabbit hole and into Underland. Alice doesn't remember she's been here before. But the Mad Hatter does. And the Red Queen won't be pleased she's back. Hailed as the foretold slayer of the Jabberwock, Alice must brave the monstrous Bandersnatch, and find her way back home. Otherwise, it's off with her head.

Underland? It's what happens when you grow up - losing your sense of wonder. It's finding out who you really are. It's trouble and strife, the dark things of life. It's Tim Burton: his milieu from Edward Scissorhands to Sleepy Hollow, from the Nightmare Before Christmas to Willy Wonka, from Corpse Bride to Sweeney Todd. Characters on the cusp of adulthood, fears and fantasies in a melting-pot where anything's possible.

Should Mrs Burton - Helena Bonham Carter - be worried? Burton's topsy-turvy fantasies are often precipitated by marriage, the approach of it, the impossibility of it. A youthful angst, riven with dark, turbulent dreams is conjured up in many of his films. No surprise then, that Burton's alter ego has long been Johnny Depp - a teenage pin up even in his forties, an ever-youthful peter pan who wonderfully inhabits such neverland worlds.

Mad as a Hatter is true. Depp researched the role well, how hatmakers' mercury sent them a bit doolally. His Hatter is all quirks and giggles. Less childlike than Wonka. More mettlesome too - with a streak of spy-like deception and a mean swordsman. Which means lots of fun and games, as the Hatter helps Alice escape the clutches of the toddler-headed Queen.

And in Aussie actress Mia Wasikowska, Burton has found a wonderful Alice. Feisty, bewildered and headstrong, it's a riveting performance. It needs to be. Although Burton's attempted to escape the episodic nature of Carroll's stories, it's still a fitful film. Jittery pacing and over-familiar touches lessen the impact: a climactic battle seems second-hand, routinely added now in most CGI kids films. And such grandstanding lacks the intimate action of Burton's best work.

But sit back and wallow and it's a fun, dark-edged ride - a brightly lit ghost train of a film. All credit to the actors: much of the film was shot in green-screen, the scenery, props and creatures added afterwards. Bonham Carter is brilliant as the Red Queen, barking for her 'fat boys' Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Matt Lucas), and bounding around like a two-year old in a temper.

The monsters are suitably scary - all fangs and foetid breath. And Alice in armour ups the girlpower, proving she's all growed up, a far cry from the blue-dress Alice of old. Younger kids will enjoy the colour and comedy. But Burton's aiming for an all-age audience. Taking his time with the talky Edwardian set-up, and risking youthful fidgets, it's soon action all the way.

Alice's eat-me, drink-me scene is superbly shot. And a running joke of Alice outgrowing, or drowned by, her clothes is deftly handled. Surprising then that some touches seem slapdash - some voices aren't easily heard; some CGI (Crispin Glover's uber-tall henchman) is easily spotted.

But it's a thoughtful, energetic movie. And Burton once again treats kids with respect - giving them scares and spinning a fast-paced tale. Adults may enjoy contemporary riffs, like Anne Hathaway's Nigella impression as she cooks up a ghastly potion.

Fittingly, it's rooted in Britishness - Burton and Depp live here. And the voice-cast - Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Gough, Michael Sheen - is the cream of English talent.

So, go see. Just don't expect a straight telling of the Alice in Wonderland story. Why would you? It's a Tim Burton film after all.

Glenn Watson (DI Reviewer), 03/03/10

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