A little trip to Burtonland

Rating: 8/10 (11 March 2010)

Perhaps more than any other Tim Burton project, his "reimagining" of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was anticipated with a healthy mix of excitement and preoccupation: on the one hand, Carroll's wonderfully bewildering literary universe is perfect for Burton's visionary quirks, and it also marks a welcome return to more "audience-friendly" features after the magnificently gory Sweeney Todd; on the other, the fact that the director's former employee, Disney (already famously associated with Alice in the past), with whom his professional relationship has been a bit unpleasant to say the least (he got sacked after making Frankenweenie because his vision was too "unconventional"), had a hand in the project, it was reasonable to suspect the House of Mouse would impose certain restrictions on Burton's creative decisions. Luckily, as it turns out, he walked out of that "battle" mostly unscathed.
Mixing Carroll's original novel and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton (of Beauty and the Beast fame) distance themselves from previous adaptations by depicting Alice not as a child, but as a 19-year old girl (played by In Treatment's Mia Wasikowska). Bored by the high society life of 19th century England, she notices the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) at a party and follows him. She finds a hole, falls into it and ends up in Wonderland, or, as the locals call it, Underland. There she reunites with old friends like the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and the smoking Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), all of whom tell her she is meant to defeat the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), according to a prophecy. Only problem is, Alice has no recollection whatsoever of her past experiences in Underland...
The key difference between this Alice and other ones, aside from the character's age, is Burton's decision to turn Carroll's prose into a coherent movie plot, rather than a string of disjointed episodes. This is, at once, an asset but also the film's main weakness (aside from the gratuitous use of 3D, which isn't very surprising since it was added after filing had wrapped): although it allows for proper character arcs (the script's insistence on giving the Hatter a solid back-story explains why Depp is the first actor billed in the credits, aside from his bankability), it also means the movie slips into a formulaic dead end during the third act which, while fun, is a clear sign of Disney's wish to end the picture in a Harry Potter-like fashion (the comparison is also justified by the coincidence of having four Potter alumni in the cast).
From any other standpoint, however, the film is a joy to behold: despite the PG rating (for "fantasy action/violence" and, hilariously, "a smoking caterpillar"), Burton gets to go anywhere he wants with his visual inventiveness, delivering a spellbinding world (part real sets, part CGI, all gorgeous) that is enthralling and creepy at the same time: how many movies "for kids" feature a scene where the heroine has to walk past a bunch of severed heads? Also, in true Burton fashion, the characters are a delightful group of freaks, and the actors obviously enjoy playing them: the blatant show-stealing turns come from Burton faithfuls Depp and Bonham Carter, the former being loony yet affecting, the latter entertaining but also truly evil. Wasikowska, playing the "straight" role, confirms her status as a young talent to watch, while other live-action treats come from Anne Hathaway and the villainous Crispin Glover. As for the voice talent, it's as good as one should expect when people like Rickman, Sheen, Timothy Spall and Christopher Lee are involved.
In short, for all its flaws, Alice in Wonderland remains a pleasant experience. It may not qualify as essential Burton, but it's still a lot better than his take on Planet of the Apes.