Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland: A Movie Review

Like everyone else, I watched the trailers for Alice in Wonderland for a couple of months and thought, eh. Of course, as the parent of an 11 year old, I was besieged with "pleases" that grew distinctively more emphatic when he learned several of his friends were going. So I dragged myself to the theatre this afternoon, for the earliest afternoon matinee on opening day available and sat through Alice in Wonderland, prepared to be disappointed. I most definitely was not. I should mention we saw the standard format, not the 3-D version.

Those friends of my son's happened to be the children of fellow Associate Content writers Tamara L. Waters and Kate Kirkman. We all had our reservations and were all equally surprised. You can read Tamara's review here and Kate's here.

Like most of Burton's films, Alice inWonderland has a darker tone than most and certainly darker than the Disney animated version released in 1951. There's no singing and sunshine in Burton-land. What there are in Wonderland are ingenious special effects. Alice falls from the real world where she is fleeing an arranged marriage proposal and falls down a rabbit hole into what she believes to be yet another of her recurring dreams.

In this world, everything is slightly off. Animals and flowers talk, people's eyes and heads are disproportionately large. Playing card and chess piece soldiers are as lifelike as the human actors. The Cheshire Cat appears and disappears magically and you are so engrossed in the story that you never stop to ask how they did that. Several creatures such as the Jabberwocky and Bandisnap are imposing and fearful creatures.

The actors are all enchanting. Alice is played by Australian actress Mia Wasikowska. She is sweet and self-reliant. Convincing the audience that she believes this all to be a dream, she is calm and matter-of-fact as she waits to awaken from it. That is until she meets the Mad Hatter. It is here where Alice begins to form attachments to Wonderland and its inhabitants, particularly the Mad Hatter and who could blame her.

The Mad Hatter is played by Johnny Depp, once again bringing one of the quirkiest characters in the film to believability. He is by turns charming, vulnerable, cunning and yes, mad. He has a fondness for Alice and there is a bit of the Edward Scissorhands sadness to him. Without giving away the end of the movie, there is a moment once Alice has returned to the real world when you expect him to appear and join her.

Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and Anne Hathaway as the White Queen are adequate but not outstanding. Alan Rickman's voicing of smoking caterpillar is liquid honey to the ears.

This film is definitely one to watch and my son is already clamoring for us to add it to our personal collection when it comes out on DVD. We most definitely will.