Okay, but not for small children

Rating: 5/10 (25 October 2010)

The story takes up when Alice (Wasikowska) is about 18-yrs old, leaves a party after being asked to marry, sees a rabbit in a waist coat, follows the rabbit and falls down the hole again, but this time into a world called Underland. She has no memory of being there before.
If I were a child again and watched this adult version of Alice, I would go to bed every night with a light on. There was nothing wonderful about it. It was sort of scary, menacing, confusing, and frightful. Hey, when scary animals show their teeth in a menacing way I want no part of it even as an adult. Oh, the dialogue was good for the most part, but when we really get into the story and meet the Red Queen (Carter) we see no reason for children to see this. The Red Queen is mean as opposed to the White Queen (Hathaway) who is super nice. I forgot how many times the Red Queen shouted out, "off with his/her head." There is a way to be mean or not nice without being mean or not nice. Really, and the trick would have been be to incorporate some humor with the supposed meanness. See? Didn't happen.
I didn't see this in 3-D but on a DVD. Not sure if 3-D would have helped, but there is a awful lot of detail regarding colors etc in here.
I suppose the whole idea of the story is to transform Underland into Wonderland again and restore the White Queen to the throne. But to do that Alice needs to defeat the Jabberwocky, a fire breathing dragon. Is action hero Alice up to the job? Hmmmm..
The acting throughout was very good. I wouldn't have minded if Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter) was more animated and I think he should have been. He could have been the comic relief that was missing throughout. Didn't happen. He was too serious a Mad Hatter. His put-on smile doesn't count.
On the whole not bad, but not for small children. Let them read or read to them the original Alice in Wonderland and let it go at that.
You know, having a night light on at night isn't such a bad idea anyway. Hmmmm.. See, the movie did have some impact on me.
Violence: Yes. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: No.