Stoutonia

Issue date: 3/11/10 Section: Entertainment

In his latest film, Tim Burton, director of such movies as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Edward Scissorhands," teams up with Disney again to craft the new, major 3D motion picture, "Alice in Wonderland."

Burton takes the rather unexpected route of producing somewhat of a sequel to the original Lewis Carroll tale of "Alice in Wonderland," which ends up resembling something more akin to the second book in the series, "Through the Looking Glass." This is the very first problem I encountered with this film - the extremely misleading title. I expected that the film would be a darker version of the original novel, but, instead, found that the film was a mix of both stories in the series.

Title confusion aside, I found myself pleasantly surprised at this interesting and somewhat creative twist on the animated Disney version of the "Alice in Wonderland" story. The film opens with a brief glimpse at a young Alice who is plagued by strange nightmares of smiling cats and white rabbits in waistcoats. Later, an older Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is 19 and, unbeknownst to her, is being set up by her family to be married to a man she hardly knows. Alice is asked for her hand in marriage and finds herself in need of some time to consider her answer. She ends up spotting a familiar white rabbit and chases it down a ridiculously long rabbit hole. Alice winds up in Underland, more commonly known as Wonderland, and embarks on a journey with some odd characters to some oddly familiar places. Convinced that she is dreaming, Alice refuses to believe what is happening to her, especially the part where she discovers she is the girl named Alice who will slay the Jabberwocky, a dragon that is controlled by the evil Red Queen, and free Underland from her tyranny.

Johnny Depp is convincing as the Mad Hatter and thus successful at keeping viewers interested throughout the film. Jumping schizophrenically from a happy, insane drunk to a strangely dark Scott, Depp is excellent in this role. Other famous faces include: Ann Hathaway as the quirky, endearing White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter as the amusing-but-not-quite-frightening-enough Red Queen, Crispin Glover as the unnerving Knave of Hearts and, most importantly, Mia Wasikowska as the sincere heroine, Alice.

Long-time Tim Burton fans may be disappointed to find that this is indeed a Disney filmed aimed at children. The tone of the movie fights to be docile and kid-friendly while also being purposely weird and trippy, which does not work well and creates a disjointed feeling at times. Parts of the film worked for me with their energy and whimsical nature; however, I was disappointed to find this was not the dark and edgy adaptation that I was hoping for, although it does have its moments of twisted weirdness. I would recommend it mostly because of the strength of the visuals (like the mesmerizing Cheshire Cat) and some of the performances (especially Johnny Depp's). As far as the 3D experience goes, I cannot comment because I saw the 2D version of the film; 3D movies make me dizzy and not in a good way.

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