Alice in Underland
I know I said that I’d probably have my review up a couple days ago but as it turns out that wasn’t the case. But anyway, if anyone’s interested in my opinion, here it is.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland has been adapted for the screen many times and I have yet to find one that didn’t make me cringe. It’s understandable that directors would have difficulty trying to portray what made the books so special, but that’s no excuse for the half assed meshing of Carroll’s characters into something better classified as junk. Bearing this in mind, it’s obvious that I was weary of going to see the newest rendition of the story.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There are mostly comprised of conversations and logic that one would only find logical in a dream, which is something that rarely transfers to the screen, which is probably why the many adaptations have become just one of those trash movies in the $5 and under bin in Walmart.
If anyone were going to make a decent film from these stories, it would naturally be Tim Burton, master of the surreal and macabre, right? Well yes and no.
The Alice in Wonderland, released in theatres on March 5th actually wasn’t an adaptation of Carroll’s work, rather an unofficial continuation of the story. Being that Burton has opted to tell his own story, using Carroll’s characters and the unique fantasy setting portrayed in the novels, there is much more that could go wrong.
Such an endeavour has been attempted before in American McGee’s Alice. McGee’s vision of an older Alice, driven mad in the wake of her family’s death, returning to a Wonderland transformed by her own madness was disturbing and yet built off Carroll’s original work in a way that seemed natural in the flow of Alice’s story.
Burton, renames Wonderland as Underland and builds a story in which nineteen year-old Alice Kingsley (Mia Wasikowska) ends up in a strange world that remembers her, while she recalls only from the reoccurring dreams she’s had since she was a child. It is prophesized that Alice is to be the savoir of Underland, slaying the Jabberwock and freeing the land from the tyranny of the Red Queen (Helen Bonham Carter). To do so, she joins with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), to restore the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) to the throne.
The Good
The world of Underland was truly a visual treat, which was only to be expected from Burton. One thing that has never disappointed me in his works is the setting.
Another well done aspect of the movie were the animal characters, from the worrisome White Rabbit and the hilariously maniacal March Hare to the hookah smoking Caterpillar voiced by Alan Rickman, these CGI animals populating Underland really made the movie for me. But without a doubt my favourite would have to be comedian Stephen Fry’s Cheshire Cat! In every way this character managed to win my approval.
On a final note to well handled aspects of the film I have to mention how once again Danny Elfman has done an excellent job on the score. It was stimulating and well suited to the world of Underland.
The Bad
What I found to be poor in the movie, was the plot. While not being Carroll’s Wonderland, I suppose I expected more than the overly cliché and rehashed plot. There was the prophecy about the hero freeing the world, the task of stealing an important item from a sleeping beast and then the huge climatic battle. The story within Underland wasn’t even the main story, being a bit underplayed due to the overarching story of a young woman finding herself and learning to live her life not to please others - I did not appreciate that kind of twist on the story in the least.
I also found that while different, the majority of the “human” characters in the movie were almost painful to watch, the Mad Hatter in particular. I don’t know what the heck they did to Johnny Depp’s eyes but it just killed me - he was more like some sort of messed up clown than the Mad Hatter. I feel that the CGI distortions of characters like the Red Queen were more distracting than enhancing for the movie.
I didn’t watch the 3D version, but from what I hear and what I’ve read, there’s nothing to be missed if you end up seeing the 2D version. In critique elsewhere in the web it was said that, “aside from some protruding bits of scenery and some random objects flying towards the screen most of the 3D effects were just depth perception tricks.”
The Ugly
Probably the most annoying aspect of the movie, was the useless flashback for the Mad Hatter, it makes you think that there is going to be some character development, perhaps a portrayal of how it was he became “mad,” and yet it ended up being just a piece of useless and unimportant information.
Furthermore, Alice was dull and uninteresting; her constant denial of Underland being real was truly irritating. This is my dream this and this is my dream that, tch I swear by the fourth time I heard it I just wanted to slap her.
Despite my negative criticisms, I did enjoy watching the film. It was far from what I expected and to be perfectly honest, I doubt that I’d find myself watching it again for anything but taking out all the clips of the Cheshire Cat. I suppose you could say that Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is something that you feel inclined to watch but becomes just another one of those dust collectors at the back of the shelf. Or perhaps I’m just too tough a critic :P