Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Movie Review

Lewis Carroll's book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" has been adapted to film no less than a dozen times. However the 1951 Disney animated version is still the best remembered and most loved. Now almost 60 years later Disney has teamed with director Tim Burton for a live action take on the famous story of nonsense and dreams. The film embraces much of the visual splendor that the setting offers as well as the inherent madness of the cast of characters. However there are some odd things about the way the story was adapted that don't quite sit well.

"Alice in Wonderland" is actually set some 13 years after the Alice (Mia Wasikowska) first visits the nonsense world of Wonderland. She is now a young woman, the heir to a company built up by her beloved and inventive late father. This obviously makes her a keen prospect for marriage. On an outing Alice learns that a weaselly boy of stature intends to ask for her hand. When he does so, in front of a huge crowd, Alice runs away. She spies the White Rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen) and follows him, plunging once again down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland. The thing is though she has virtually no memory of her first visit to the place, having believed it was a dream she let it all fade from her mind. So though Alice doesn't know what's going on nearly every resident of Wonderland already knows her. A small band of odd characters brought her back to fulfill a prophecy that she will slay the Jabberwocky and free them from the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) who has ravaged the land. With the help of the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp,) the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry,) and many others Alice must fight to save Wonderland and find her way back.

"Alice in Wonderland" has two major factors going for it: the visuals and the performances. Tim Burton brings his slightly gothic sensibilities to Wonderland but still keeps it fairly colorful. The look plays with size a great deal as Alice spends the majority of the film either smaller or larger than she would normally be, and it's fun to see the scale of things change. There is a great deal of computer generated imagery and most of the characters save Alice herself have been modified with computer effects in some way (such as the Red Queen's enormous head.) The effects are never completely believable, however given the nature of Wonderland they don't really need to be. The actors all seem to embrace the general oddity of the setting. Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter with his constantly shifting accent and intermittent attacks of melancholy is a character that's impossible to pin down, and that's what makes him fun. Helena Bonham Cater seems to revel in the extreme moods of the Red Queen. Purists will doubtlessly take issue with the fact that the character is actually more like the Queen of Hearts than the Red Queen, but with all the liberties taken with the story this isn't really a film for purists of the book anyways. All of the characters in Wonderland come off at least slightly nuts, and that's a big part of the fun. Even the seemingly benevolent White Queen, played by Anny Hathaway, feels like somebody you wouldn't want to be left alone in a room with for too long. Mia Wasikowska has a little bit of a thankless job playing Alice, since the character is almost entirely reactionary and effectively the "straight man" in any interaction. Thankfully she is able to keep things light and stays pleasant to watch throughout.

There are a few fairly serious issues with "Alice in Wonderland" unfortunately. There were two odd choices made in the making of this film. First is the issue that Alice is returning to Wonderland. Given the fact that Alice remembers absolutely nothing about her first visit it actually doesn't really make sense to not have it just be her first time there. Virtually nothing about the story hinges on the idea that she's been there before, which just makes it a pointless premise. Then there's the overall tone, basically somewhere along the line it was decided to make this into more of a fantasy adventure than the story has even been before. The original book (along with most adaptations of it) is really not much more than a string of odd little events, there's very little over-arching plot beyond Alice just experiencing weird things. In a way it makes sense to try to give the plot a clearer overall shape. However by making it into an adventure story along the lines of "The Chronicles of Narnia" or "Lord of the Rings" it forces a structure onto the film that doesn't let the general oddness shine through as it should. The film still manages a good balance of forward plot movement and strangeness up until the White Queen shows up and the lines of good and evil become clearly drawn. At that point the film loses the wonder of Wonderland.

Despite becoming somewhat generic in it's last half hour or so "Alice in Wonderland" is still an overall enjoyable trip down the rabbit hole. Tim Burton was clearly a good match for the material as a director, he really just needed a tighter script. This will most likely not live on in memory the way that the original Disney animated version will but it's a fun spin on the story, especially in the moments where it's allowed to just get weird. The film is at it's best when the strangeness of the characters is allowed to just be and isn't forced to fit a structure that wasn't meant for this story.

Final Score: 3 out of 5