I had mixed feelings going into this movie. On the one hand, it’s a Tim Burton movie featuring Johnny Depp. On the other hand, it’s a Tim Burton movie featuring Johnny Depp.
For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised. The graphics are amazing and the plot, while a bit confusing and helter-skelter at parts, held my interest for the whole film.
The film adds to the story of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass” with the story of a fully-grown Alice (Mia Wasikowska). When pressured to marry someone who doesn’t really like her, she instead chases after a rabbit in a waistcoat and finds herself tumbling to “Underland” once again.
This movie was much darker than I expected, although I should have known better. The original story may be creepy in its own right, but Burton’s touch amplifies it.
One of the most disturbing moments I’ve ever seen in an ostensibly children’s film has a miniature Alice working her way across the moat to the Red Queen’s castle by jumping from one bodyless head to another.
Although I’ve grown up with the phrase “off with their head!” ground into my brain, I still was not expecting to see the gory aftermath.
I found Depp’s Mad Hatter to be problematic. I felt like he, like much of the rest of the movie, was trying too hard to make everything confusing. Although, to be honest, I had a hard time concentrating on what he was saying because his enormous green eyes kept distracting me.
His split personality between a happy hatter and an intense revolutionary with a Scottish accent jolted me out of the story instead of drawing me into it.
The supporting characters were masterfully done, especially Helena Bonham Carter’s Red Queen and Anne Hathaway’s White Queen. Chessur (Stephen Fry) and Absolem the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) both are interestingly animated and voiced.
Like most of Burton’s films, it’s hard to talk about this one without mentioning the scenery and costumes. The art, like most of his other films, is simply stunning.
Although the movie did have some excellent parts (including a sword vs. sewing supplies fight), the ending was weak.
Burton created an interesting movie, with a unique plot and memorable characters, and ended it with just another story of a female protagonist rebelling against Victorian gender roles.*
Written for the Royal Purple.
*I’d like to clarify this, which I didn’t have enough time to in the original article. I feel as though far too many films force modern ideals on a historical time. Feminism is an example of this. While I know that there were many women who were ahead of their time socially, I get tired of so many historical films focusing on them. Just because we think a certain way now does not in any way mean that this was always the opinion. I think it’s lazy of filmmakers to always have the protagonist with modern sensibilities instead of taking the time to show us why they might have a different outlook.
