Alice in Wonderland can best be described as the sequel to the 1951 Disney film. It also utilizes story elements from the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. However, some rather odd changes have been made.
We meet Alice as a young girl who suffers from nightmares, where she sees a dodo, blue caterpillar and white rabbits in vests. Several years later, Alice is a grown woman (19-20 years old) and still suffering from the same nightmares. She and her mother are off to the Ascot estate where she will meet Hamish Ascot. She is required to marry this man. Suddenly she sees a white rabbit, follows it and falls down the rabbit hole once more.
Back in Wonderland, which she doesn't remember, she meets the Mad Hatter, Red and White Queen, the Caterpillar, march Hare etc. She is expected to slay the Jabberwocky on Frabjous day so that the reign (or tiranny) of the Red Queen will end. Alice is hesitant and continuously believes she is stuck in a dream.
The movie follows the original story to a certain extent: falling down the rabbit hole, following the white rabbit, meeting the Mad Hatter. Yet it differs strongly as well: slaying the Jabberwocky etc. It is also worth noting that they combined the two novels. So the Red Queen is basically the Queen of hearts AND the Red Queen combined.
Something that didn't exactly bother me, but made me wonder why, is the fact that everyone and everything got a name. Alice Liddl, as she is known in the original story, is changed to Alice Kingsleigh. The Mad Hatter's name is Tarrant Hightopp, the White Queen is called Mirana and the Red Queen is Iracebeth. The same goes for the animals: Cheshire Cat is Chessur, the Caterpillar is Absolom and so on. I could understand why they were given names, but I simply could not understand the name change for Alice really.
The acting was okay. Most people said this movie was a showcase for Depp to show how odd he is, and well it is. But I didn't feel he attracted all the attention. The Hatter is an interesting character. He's like a mood ring and you can see it in his eyes. They turn green, yellow, red etc, apparently his clothes change too, but I didn't notice. I have to admit I quite like this Mad Hatter.
Alice was rather stoic throughout the movie, but I can partially understand that. She continues to believe she's stuck in a dream and that nothing can harm her.
The Red Queen was excellent. I'm surprised Helena Bonham-Carter wasn't out of breath after that much shouting. I quite liked her performance. The White Queen however, I liked less. She had some funny moments, but she portrays this being of light and etheralism, and only breaks that once to run to one of her subjects and when no one is looking. I wish she had done that more often.
The voice acting was great. I did feel that Christopher Lee was completely unnecessarily cast. He only has TWO lines, which reminded me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where he had such a lame role as well.
I have to admit, I liked the movie despite its flaws. But there is only one big grievance I have and it's going under the spoiler warning. So ye be warned, me hearties.
Throughout the film, you see something going on between Hatter and Alice. Perhaps more Hatter at first and later Alice. By the end it is obvious (as many others have stated as well), that they may have feelings for each other. Alice just drinks from the vial and goes home, instead of taking the Hatter up on his offer to stay.
To many, and myself included, there was something missing. I'm a romantic at heart, so I was expecting a kiss or at the very least a hug (finally). But nothing. Even after she returned home, no mention of the Hatter at all. It left me a bit sad as I had expected more.
I'm not sure what rating to give as of yet. I felt they could have done much more with the movie as a whole. I saw this in digital by the way and not 3D, although i *am* curious about the 3D version now. I wonder how that will look like. (har har 3D of course)
Saw it and don t really know what to think about it. It is quite beautiful in its way, I mean graphically, but I didn t feel involved in the story. Alice in Wonderland reduced to a teenage heroic fantasy movie like a kind of honest sequel of Narnia.
Tim Burton should be able to do better than that. His last movies have ups and downs, sometime better than some people say, I don t think he has lost his talent or anything, but here clearly something is missing from the "real" Tim Burton. His talent shows up only a couple of times in the movie.
Maybe a hint something is not going well : he began his career escaping from Disney's studios, and now seems having been absorbed by them, with Avril Lavigne singing on the ending credits ( yes, Avril Lavigne, for real, THE Avril Lavigne... after movies with amazing scores by Danny Elfman, or Stephen Sondheim for the musical Sweeney Todd, what happened exactly ? seems we are down in the hole...)
I would put 4/6 for the visuals that are really beautiful (once said, some ugly flaws : the cat, for example) , but for the rest, closer to a 2/6...
Well this movie wasnt bad or anything but i can hardly say that there was a very good storyline in this movie i was pretty dissapointed about that, but still its one of my favourite childhood movies when it was only a cartoon so it will get a 4/6 , though they did a bad job with this movie