Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Well, I suppose it was inevitable I would talk about this one.

I have made mention of this before but Tim Burton has always had a very "Hammer Films" approach to his adaptations. His movies like Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and even Batman are not entirely faithful adaptations.

 However, they're not bad ones either.

I really didn't hate this film. I wasn't entirely in love with the overall "Tween Disney" feel to the film. Or how it was given a very Chronicles of Narnia vibe to it by giving the characters and what the "drink me" bottle contained.

However, I'm not the film's intended audience for this film. Then again. I'm not the intended audience for the original Alice story.

Much like the original Alice tale, it was intended to delight and amuse children and not have craggy 36 year olds to endlessly debate and philosophize over it.

Although in this case, I think the film is geared more towards the tween crowd. And it's in 3D. And it's Disney. So of course there's going to be a pop hit and the Mad Hatters hip hop style dancing thrown in. Yes. That annoyed me.

But again. Read above.

As I mentioned before, Tim Burton creates his own version rather than doing the original. So instead of young Alice discovering Wonderland (or Underland) for the first time, we have a much older Alice escaping her engagement party from a potential fiance who could quite easily win the Upperclass Twit of the Year Award.

By establishing this is a much older Alice, Tim Burton doesn't treat his audience like they're stupid by making them believe Mia Wasikowska is supposed to be playing a seven year old girl. It gives Burton a chance to tell a slightly older action/fantasy style story.

And older kiddo's will connect with an older Alice rather than a seven year old one. I suppose it also allows filmmakers to get away with more too. Like the insinuation of a giant naked Alice standing behind a shrub. Try and film that with a seven year old and yes you will have police stopping by your house to question you  and probably confiscate your computer Ala Gary Glitter.



Tim Burton seems to have casted all my favorite actors in one film with Stephen Fry as the Chessur the Cheshire Cat, Michael Sheen as Nivens McTwisp The White Rabbit, Alan Rickman as Absolem, the Caterpillar, Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky and Michael Gough in his last screen performance as the Dodo. Gough had retired from acting. However, he would break from retirement to star in one of Tim Burton's movies.

It wouldn't be a Tim Burton movie without Johnny Depp someplace as some character. I know Burton has received some criticism for working too much with Depp over the last decade or so. And that Depp has become a bit over-exposed between that and the Pirates of the Caribbean series.

But in Johnny Depp's defense, as an actor you want to work. If you don't work you don't get paid. Although, I suppose there's also royalties. But I digress.



But it's Helena Bonham-Carter who absolutely steals the show as the very childish Red Queen. She is an actress I really like because she puts everything she has into her performance. Despite how silly the role seems, she plays it like it is the most important role in the world.

And I respect that!!

I did not get to see this film in all it's 3D glory. So watching the film without the aide 3D glasses many of the objects and characters flying towards me made me feel as though I was watching the Paddle ball scene from Vincent Price's House of Wax. Another film made during the 3D craze of the 1950's that seem to lose a bit of it's Oomph without the aid of 3D... you know the scene I'm talking about.

But as stated, it's not a bad film and worth at least one viewing. 3D glasses or otherwise. If you take it at face value as a fun adventure story, it's enjoyable.

If you over-analyze it... well... think of it this way. You're over-analyzing a children's booking.

Up Next... Alice: 1999