Alice in Wonderland as only Tim Burton can do it. Well rested from his last venture (Sweeney Todd back in 2007) Tim Burton emerges with some of his best imagery yet. The characters, the scenery and even Burton’s new take on the story of Alice are a must see. Step into Burton’s head for 109 minutes and enjoy the wonder of Underland.
We meet a 19 year old Alice, who still encompasses her childhood innocence and is ever so matter of fact. After following the White Rabbit and falling down the rabbit hole, Alice once again finds herself in Underland faced with the mighty task of battling the Red Queen (Bonham-Carter) who has taken rule over the land from The White Queen (Hathaway). Helped along by her old friends The Mad Hatter (Depp), the blood hound (Spall), the Cheshire Cat (Fry), the White Rabbit (Sheen) and the dormouse (Windsor), Alice must eat this and drink that to shrink and grow along the way.
There are lots of laugh out loud moments, especially when Alice encounters The Mad Hatter and The Red Queen who between them provide most of the quote-worthy moments. Depp and Bonham-Carter are fantastic as usual, lending their eccentricities to the story and exploiting the sense of spoilt-childlike wit in the characters. Alice, played by new-comer Mia Wasikowska, is perfect and immediately commands the love of the audience with her innocence and awkward stance. Burton’s imagination runs wild in Underland with overgrown plants, colorful settings, weird and wonderful characters all feeding the themes of identity and growing up which plague Alice.
Most of the film was shot in front of a green screen with backgrounds and even some characters added in afterwards, which only adds credit to Burton’s directorial ability. The effects at the end are very LOTR in appearance, actually the whole scene with the Jabberwocky is very LOTR. I wonder what would happen if Burton got his hands on The Hobbit!
Here’s the trailer:
