Not bad - but is this what Burton intended?

Rating: 5/10 (7 March 2010)

Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland is essentially a sequel to the original story, featuring an older Alice revisiting the familiar characters in Wonderland and charged with saving the Mad Hatter et al from the rule of the evil Red Queen.
It is probably to be admired that Burton did not try to regurgitate a story that has been told so many times and instead created a new chapter. However, the execution falls somewhat short and whilst the CGI world and its inhabitants are impressive, the film seems to lack solid foundations, meaning the outcome of Alice's adventure is not particularly gripping or suitably interesting.
Much had been made of Johnny Depp's performance as the Mad Hatter, but in truth it is a fairly routine performance from a talented actor who spends far too much time in quirky, off-beat roles like this. Some of the voice contributions are enjoyable - Stephen Fry's Cheshire Cat springs to mind - and Mia Wasikowska is not out of place in the lead role. What lets down a lot of the incidental roles is the lack of a sharp script - several of the allocated 'comedy' parts are either underused or simply not funny enough, Paul Whitehouse's March Hare being the most clear example of the former, Barbara Windsor's Dormouse a case of the latter.
It must be said though, that the opening three quarters of an hour are pretty enjoyable as we meet the characters and see the outline of the plot unfold. However, somewhere around the hour mark we lose a fair bit of the obscure fun typically associated with Alice in Wonderland, and are drawn into a fairly formulaic post-Lord Of The Rings 'good vs. evil' yarn. It also becomes increasingly obvious that this is a film for children, and that Burton has sacrificed the typically darker hue of his films for this reason, as well as, sadly, much of the substance. Towards the end, the Mad Hatter character performs a CGI-enhanced dance to a cringingly modern dance beat, at which point those who wanted to give Burton the benefit of the doubt will have surrendered.
There's nothing particularly wrong with making a new Alice In Wonderland with a recognisable story line for children. But is this really what Tim Burton was trying to achieve? Perhaps - but it seems unlikely that something any experienced Disney film-maker could have produced is what the director was aiming for. There is also the fact that Burton stubbornly continues to use his wife, Helena Bonham-Carter, and Johnny Depp in pretty much all his films, and that - coupled with his perennial dark fantasy motif - is going to get old whichever way you slice it. The task for him now should be to find a new approach and, preferably, some new stars.
Alice In Wonderland is great to look at and enjoyable for the most part. But it's not a classic and should indeed mark a crossroads for Burton and Depp, from where they need to decide whether they want a new challenge or not.