"We're All Mad Here" - The Cheshire Cat

Rating: 8/10 (21 August 2012)

Say what you will about this Tim Burton film, but I like it! Of course, it does have its flaws: first of all, the plot seems rather rushed, and the action/suspense sequences seem crammed in together. Like the 1999 Hallmark film, this film suffers from too MANY special things, to the point where the "heart" of the story gets lost in the madness. The second main problem, and possibly a result of the first, is that many great actors and Wonderland characters do not get their "due," so to speak. Michael Gough is a good example: his Dodo (named Uileam, though, for some reason, this is not given in the movie itself) has a grand total of three lines. One of these is whispered, so that we barely catch it, and the other is spoken offscreen. We see him last at the Queen's Croquet Game, as a caddy, and then he just...disappears. We never see or hear from him again. Was he rescued? Executed? Is he standing around, going "Hello? I say, where is everybody?" at the end of the movie? This being said, he's probably lucky he appeared at all; a good number of "Alice" characters do not make it here: from the first book alone, we have the Mouse with the Long, Sad Tail, the Lory, the Eaglet, the Owl, the Duck, Bill the Lizard, Pat, the Duchess, the Cook, the Pig-Baby, the Gryphon, the Mock Turtle, and the Giant Puppy, and from the second, the missing persons include the White King, the White Knight, the Walrus, the Carpenter, the Sheep, the Lion, the Unicorn, Humpty Dumpty, the Goat, the Horse, the Man in the Paper Suit, and the Gnat.
This being said, the characters that do appear, are, in my mind, pretty well done: Tim Burton takes the old adage of "nothing is what it seems" very much to heart in this take on Carroll's masterpiece and its equally famous sequel. The Queen of Hearts/Red Queen and the White Queen are a prime example: the Red Queen is our villain, who is uncertain if what she is doing is really right, and, in all honesty, just wants people to love her. She wants friendship, she wants attention, and she feels she deserves it. But, as if her temper wasn't a big enough problem, she has a tumor that causes her head to swell up to three times its normal size, so that alone will make people disgusted. As for her sister, she is our "good queen," but is not entirely kind and lovely herself: behind her flighty, smiling demeanor, she hides a vicious side, and the capacity to be just as cruel, if not even crueler, than her loathed sister.
Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter (a.k.a. Tarrant Hightopp) is the source of much debate about this movie. I think he does a pretty good job. His Hatter takes the mercurial history of this character a step or two further: rather than simple mood swings, this character has a split-personality disorder, signaled by his eyes and accent changing colors, from neon green irises and a sweet, puppy-like, faintly Ed Wynn-esque voice and persona, to an orange-red eyed, Scottish-accented berserker. Mia Wasikowska, our Alice and the other top-billing star of this film, is beautiful in her part, and she's the only Alice I can see fighting something as dark and monstrous as the Jabberwocky and not lose any affection for. Her search to find her "muchness" is compelling, despite how rushed the film makes her journey, and she's just excellent overall.
Stephen Fry's portrayal of Chessur (the Cheshire Cat) is marvelous, and Paul Whitehouse as Thackery Earwicket, the March Hare, is hilarious (even if his character does get the short end of the wishbone). Crispin Glover is deliciously slimy as the Knave of Hearts, Illosovic Stayne, and Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter play the two Queens to the hilt. Michael Sheen's White Rabbit, Nivens McTwisp, is so much like the original character it's almost frightening, Absolem the Caterpillar is brilliantly voiced by Alan Rickman, and Matt Lucas delights as the voice (and...er...face) of both of the Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
The real show-stealer for me is the Mallymkun, the Dormouse, played by Barbara Windsor. Feisty, loyal, skeptical...and, despite, or perhaps because of, her small size, a darn good swordswoman...er, swords-rodent. This is my favorite incarnation of the Dormouse, a testament to the phrase "dynamite comes in small packages...and sleeps in teapots." All this I've mentioned is heightened by the fantastic art direction, which brings a decadence to Wonderland befitting the supposed decay the Red Queen has brought upon it, yet still fits in this world, giving it a timeless look, as if it has been there all my life. All this is done brilliantly...and rarely looks like the work of the great John Tenniel, but, then, that was to be expected from the beginning, when this movie was first spoken of in mere, whispered rumors.
So, in conclusion, here are the up-sides: great art, great characters, a great story, and, very often, a great cast. The down-sides: the story, while good, is rushed, and the effects get in the way of the emotions, giving this film too much madness and not enough magic. Still, I love it. I am through with this rant of a review. Thank you.