Alice in Wonderland

Movie Title-- Alice in Wonderland

Release Year-- 2010

Running Time-- 1 Hour and 49 Minutes

Film Company-- Disney

Director-- Tim Burton

Cast-- Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter, Mia Wasilkowski, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover



The story beings with Alice, age 6, being put back to bed by her father after she has waken from a nightmare. The story then flashes forward thirteen years to Alice and her mother in a carriage on their way to a garden party. Once at the garden party, Alice finds herself distracted after seeing a white rabbit in a waistcoat. She follows the rabbit, coming across an old tree and a rabbit hole. As she inspects the hole she takes a tumble down into a room full of doors. After unlocking the smallest door and entering "Wonderland"(after some folly with food and drink labeled "Eat Me" and "Drink Me") she comes across some fantastic, although eccentric creatures. In Wonderland she befriends a Mad Hatter that is leading a revolution against the ruler of Wonderland, The Red Queen, but because he is mad he is only seen as a fool. After some antics, Alice comes to the realization that she is supposed to help save Wonderland by becoming the champion of the White Queen (thanks to the help of Abosolom, the Blue Caterpillar). In the end, Alice believes that some truly impossible things really are possible.




When I first heard that Tim Burton was making this film I was very excited, only to become even more eager to see the film once hearing Johnny Depp was going to star in it. I am a big fan of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaborations, so to me this was going to be a must see movie. The movie had the things that I favor in a Tim Burton movie; the dark colors, the fantastic wardrobe and the altered appearances of the actors. To me those are the things that make up a Tim Burton film, of course, do not be confused, just because the settings are dark it does not at all mean that the story onscreen is. To me, this movie fell a little short. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" are very often portrayed as one feature (and this movie did the very same as most movies do and combined the two books to make one movie) but both books have dark undertones which I do not think were portrayed like they could have been in this film. I went into the film with lowered expectations because after all, it is a movie filmed for Disney, so I knew that it could not be portrayed as dark as it should have been but I was a little disappointed by how lacking it was. The movie was meant for people that have never really seen any other adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" other than the 1951 cartoon adaptation that Disney made. That however was not Burton's fault, after all, he was not the one that wrote the screenplay. I do think that if another film company had made the movie, there would have been more room for Burton to input that "freakishly disturbing twist" of his on it, which would have enhanced the feel of the movie.

Tim Burton's cast of regulars were in the movie, including Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham-Carter as the Red Queen, as well as cameos by Alan Rickman as Abosolom the Blue Caterpillar and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky. Also including actors that seem unusual to a Burton film such as Mia Wasilkowska as Alice, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen and Crispin Glover as Stayne, the Red Knave.

As much as I love Johnny Depp, it seems as if his heart was not really in this role. He did a good job when he was being "mad" but whenever the Mad Hatter slipped off into a sullen, more disturbed side of himself, Depp's Scottish accent and seemingly ill mood didn't seem to flow with his own personal acting style.

Anne Hathaway as the White Queen seemed to be very flighty and fake and onscreen those aspects showed through. I am not sure what Anne Hathaway's best work is but this is far from it. It almost seems as though she took the role in this Burton film to get away from previous roles she has played (like her roles in "The Princess Diaries" or "The Devil Wears Prada") but after this one, maybe she should go back to those roles and leave behind roles in films that Burton and other similar directors make.

Helena Bonham-Carter as the Red Queen was by far the best performance of the movie. The manic and shrill screams of "off with her head" seemed to resonate through-out the theater during the movie. Bonham-Carter played this role very well and she perhaps had the best script of everyone that was in the movie. She played the Red Queen as if she were a force to be reckoned with and of course, as we all should know, the Red Queen IS a force to be reckoned with. Her performance seemed to be the only one that did not suffer what the script writer had written for her but that could be because she felt the need to excel to get the audience past her very large, awkward bobble head.

In my own opinion, this movie wasn't the best one out there to see and if you are going to see it, at this point I would suggest just waiting for it to come out on DVD, however it isn't the worst movie I have ever seen. Don't see this movie for the story, just about everyone knows the story of "Alice in Wonderland", see the movie for the costumes and Bonham-Carter's performance. Just go into the movie knowing you may be a little disappointed when you come out of it and don't forget the popcorn!