Alice In Wonderland
Release Date: March 5th, 2010
Walt Disney Pictures
Directed by Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter with the voices of Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen and Alan Rickman
Alice is back but this time with a darker makeover thanks to the unique and sometimes divisive vision of Tim Burton. For the most part I have enjoyed at least some aspect of each Tim Burton movie. There are of course duds like Planet of the Apes and Mars Attacks but I also believe the man has made some truly great films like Big Fish, Sleepy Hollow, and Beetlejuice just to name a few. You can argue that his style may not be for you but you can’t argue that the man definitely has a unique visual command of film that is often mimicked but never replicated. Lately he seems to be shying away from original stories and instead taking well known stories/properties and infusing his own weirdness to create a madcap version of the original piece. Alice in Wonderland is no different, the core idea is there but the final product is about as Burton-esque as you can get. What works and what doesn’t? Is it a total failure or the visual treat everyone has come to expect?
In the latest story adaptation, Alice is much older at nearly 20 and remembers nothing of her adventures in Wonderland when she was younger chalking it all up to a dream. Naturally Alice finds her way back down the rabbit hole more or less revisiting the first few major sequences in the book and the older. Scenes like the shrinking juice and the tea party are here albeit weirder and not really related to the plot. No one believes that Alice is the right Alice and she mostly goes from minor character to minor character discovering the truth and also there’s something about her being fated to slay the dreaded Jabberwocky. Despite a lot going on I can’t help but feel that the plot was paper thin with a rather generic subplots involving the Mad Hatter’s origin and the relationship between the Red Queen and White Queen. Alice meets a bunch of quirky characters, fights a dragon and that’s it.
Speaking of quirky side characters, all your favorites are here including a battle hungry Dormouse, a ADD March Hare, the twins, and the wise caterpillar. Some of the characters are rather one-note and considering the talent involved woefully underused. There is no reason the White Rabbit should have been voiced by Michael Sheen, I mean it’s great that he did it, but he is barely in the movie and talks even less. Helena Bonham-Carter has been getting some attention for her childlike, bloated head portrayal but truthfully I didn’t really care for her performance all that much, anyone could have played it with just as much if not more gusto and fear. Anne Hathaway seems to be acting in a totally different movie as the White Queen. There were as many good performances as bad. Stephen Fry’s Cheshire Cat is brilliant in both execution and voice talent, great choice and performance. I though the March Hare, voiced by Paul Whitehouse, surpassed both the Mad Hatter (more on him later) and the twins as a comedic character worth any attention. Crispin Glover also kills as the Knave of Hearts despite some spotty CGI issues with the character model. I’m missing something…what could it be…
So how are the main characters Alice and the Mad Hatter? These two are clearly being advertised as the main draws for the movie. Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter is more or less a mixture of his past two children’s characters Jack Sparrow and Willy Wonka. I mean this quite literally as to convey his “madness” Depp goes between quiet wispy talking to a swaggering Scottish accent to highlight his darker side. Not only is this annoying but really distracting. In fact the entire character is entirely too distracting never allowing the kind of screen time that Alice may deserve. He’s just too much and despite generally liking Depp he just didn’t really do it for me here. On a side note if I ever see that stupid dance again I can die a happy man. Mia Wasikowska does get some screen time as Alice despite Depp constantly vying for the same spotlight. For the most part she is ok, but that’s about it really. Nothing special, nothing real new about the character. She is serviceable and stands as a mediocre take on the character.
Like all Tim Burton movies, the visuals are the stand out aspect of the entire movie. It is very much a Burton affair taking everything you thought you knew about Wonderland and turning into a dark, twisted mess of a place to have a dream. The colors and environments are suited to the story and exactly what you would expect. Bright colors contrasted with dark, gothic base design. Where the movie might not have much in terms of story and acting, it almost makes up for it in gorgeous visuals effectively making it more of an event spectacle rather than actual movie. The environments may be imaginative and interesting but some of the CGI is painfully odd looking and certainly not great.
The bigger creatures such as the Jabberwocky and Bandersnatch look pretty detailed and really good against the environments. The smaller CGI characters however range from ugly to just strange. I have no idea if this is the case but the Knave of Hearts seems to have a CGI body or it just looks really bad against the background because every time he popped into the screen I kind of cringed. This is too bad because Glover does such a fantastic job with the role that it’s somewhat overshadowed by his painful looking render. Alan Rickman’s caterpillar fares well but the other animal creatures do not with the White Rabbit being the sore thumb. Something about the body and the hair that just looks like a cartoon and brings back memories of Roger Rabbit. In fact the entire movie is more less a big budget cartoon with some live action. There’s some great stuff there in terms of characters and environments but for the most part the film is a big, pretty looking mess.
I am a big Tim Burton fan, so much so that many people cringe when I tell them I genuinely enjoy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I think the guy is unique and his movies are visually interesting if nothing else. Often times I can lose myself in the world that a film creates. This is one world I just could not get into at all. It’s pretty and some of the performances are fun, but having your main character go through the first half of the movie discovering answers that we as an audience already knew going into it is just plain boring. Even when the main plot kicks back in with the Red Queen and the Jabberwocky it feels as if it doesn’t belong at all with what we have just seen. This could not be more evident by the CGI filled final battle sequences complete with Narnia battle charges. It completely loses the audience and delves into the same generic crap that recent children's movies boil down to. By the time the Jabberwocky actually appears you will have likely given up.
Obviously people found something to like as the movie has made over 1 billion dollars worldwide to date. I may be in the minority here but I just didn’t find the movie appealing, interesting or even the slightest bit entertaining overall. There are some neat aspects to the movie but it feels lazy and more of a paycheck kind of movie for Burton. We will likely be graced with some sort of sequel based on the box office returns, let’s all hope someone else tries because Burton seems to be finally running out of ideas.
Good: Some of the CGI and color usage is great, visuals, Stephen Fry and Crispin Glover
Bad: Sort of loses me at the end, Johnny Depp not at his best, not enough of the better performances, mostly forgettable
Score: 5
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