Alice In Wonderland (2010)

Alice In Wonderland (2010)
Written by Linda Woolverton
Directed by Tim Burton

As most people know by now, this film is not an adaptation of Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures In Wonderland' or its' sequel 'Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There'. Instead it is an original story featuring the same characters that acts as a sequel to those stories.

I would say that the film is probably best viewed as a sequel to the animated Disney version of the story. And even then, it doesn't quite work.

The story has more in common with modern fantasy adventure films than it has with the classic novels. It's all about prophecy and champions and all that hullaballo that we see an awful lot of these days. Whilst an element of the insanity and nonsense of the original books is retained it is certainly much less prolific. Indeed one of the few elements of the book to survive in this film are the characters.

It picks up some thirteen years after Alice originally visited Wonderland - that little adventure now remembered as a dream - the only dream she ever has. Alice is an 'outsider' when it comes to regular society - she's different and people scoff at her. So she's pretty much your average semi-autobiographical Tim Burton character. Apart from that there's not too much to her character.

So some guy she doesn't like very much asks her to marry him, and she runs off - following a white rabbit. She falls into a rabbit hole and we get an almost complete replay of Disneys earlier version of the scene - in which Alice shrinks and grows in order to escape a room via a very small door. Anyway, it turns out she's been lured back to Wonderland (except she can't remember the last time she was there) in order to free the people of Underland (it's actual name) from the tyranny of the evil, big-headed Red Queen. She meets the doormouse and the Tweedles (Actually quite liked this interpretation of the Tweedles - kind of played by Matt Lucas of Little Britain fame - but mostly played by CGI. Lost of humerous talking and playful punching)

She also meets the Cheshire Cat, voiced by Stephen Fry. Brilliant, by the way. One of the few things about the film that I liked - give the man a medal. He's very different from the Cheshire Cat I'm used to, but it works on every level. We then move on to The Hatter and The March hare (both of whom have been given odd names). I enjoyed the March Hare - a very stereotypical (but very funny) OTT insane CGI character and vocal performance. Loved it, it was brilliant - he also provides the films only laughs.

Depp as Hatter leaves me cold. His Hatter is not the OTT Mad character that we're used to. Burton seems to be trying to add some depth and humanity to the character - but in doing so he loses what was so brilliant about the character in the first place. Sure he's a bit bonkers, and he changes accents as his personality switches... but he's not The Mad Hatter.

As I said the story is very hum-drum. We've seen dozens of these films about Destiny and Champions and Prophecy's as of late... and they've been better than this. Alice in Wonderland did not need to be this - it's meant to be fun and insane and lighthearted. I liked the Red-Queen, suitably insane... but overall that sense of insanity was missing from the film. Alice in Wonderland is meant to be bonkers...

The thing is Burton was born to make Wonderland. His filmography cries out for him to do it - but what he has ended up directing is a LOTR style fantasty film (without the epic) disguised as Alice in Wonderland. It's a shame... I didn't hate the film, I just did care.

On the Riker scale:

UNIMPRESSED RIKER