Film:	Alice in Wonderland
Directed By:	Tim Burton
Screenplay:	Linda Woolverton
Novel:	Lewis Carroll
Cinematographer:	Dariusz Wolski
Editor:	Chris Lebenzon
Sound:	Steve Boeddeker
Music:	Danny Elfman
Cast:	Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne      Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor, Paul Whitehouse, Timothy Spall, Marton Csokas, Tim Pigott-Smith, etc

 

 

              

This film is actually about Alice’s second visit to Wonderland, a place which she’d visited as a child, but doesn’t really remember. All she has are bad dreams, which her father used to make easier to live with, but he is no more. Her father loved impossible dreams and instilled that love in Alice, but his death has left the family in a pecuniary mess and therefore a rich suitor has now been found for Papa’s not-so-little-dreamer. She’s nineteen now, on the verge of getting engaged to a man she doesn’t particularly care for, when the sight of the rabbit-in-a-waistcoat scampering around the engagement venue offers her a hope of escape from what seems to be the chosen tedium of her life. Leaving behind her suitor on his knees, and hundreds of shocked party guests, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) runs after the rabbit, down the hole, down the crazy shaft with objects flying past… till she reaches the room with a key. No, she doesn’t remember what to do, whisper the voices, as Alice again makes the same mistakes that she did years ago as she alternately sips the potion or bites into the piece of cake to grow big, grow small, and then big again, and small again! As Alice finally manages to step out into a fascinating world, there is much debate in Wonderland – now called Underland – about whether she is the right Alice. Alice says she is beyond doubt the right Alice, since it is her dream!  

We go on now to meet the array of crazy characters – the twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee, March Hare, Chesire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry), the blue caterpillar Absolum (voiced by Alan Rickman) and of course the Mad Hatter (Depp). The wise, hookah-smoking caterpillar tells Alice about her destiny as the slayer of the dragon Jabberwocky (from Carroll’s nonsense poem of the same name) and Alice, not wanting to slay any fearsome creature, promptly declares that she’s not the right Alice. Mad Hatter of course knows that this is the right Alice who is going to help them get rid of the deliciously evil Red Queen (Bonham Carter) and reinstate the slightly quirky but good White Queen (Anne Hathaway).   

What I liked about the film is that, while retaining the original crazies, it added a new dimension to Alice’s character by making her a feisty nineteen year old who eventually dares to follow an impossible dream. I also liked the fact that the film didn’t linger on endlessly to showcase CG, but treats the CG world almost casually, as a part of the storytelling. It is also interesting that the Red Queen with the swollen head actually for a moment wonders whether it is better to be loved rather than feared. Of course she finally retains her love for executions and chooses to be feared. The White Queen leaves you wondering about how her vows leave her exempt from facing actual danger!  

The film’s world is a mix of real characters and CG ones, and the landscape of the Underworld (created by Robert Stromberg, who also did ‘Avatar’) is rather awesome. Some of the CG characters created – like Caterpillar and Chesire Cat – are so much fun to watch. The perils that Alice faces are never ever very scary because nothing is ever sinister, just bizarre, much like the mad flavour of the original story. Mad Hatter hiding Alice in a teapot as the Knave of Hearts and his hounds look for her is such a deft little enjoyable scene. Where the film does falter is with the Jabberwocky angle, turning Alice into someone the characters of Underworld have been waiting for to deliver them from the Red Queen. Alice’s story now starts suspiciously like many other fantasy tales and this proves to be the film’s biggest undoing.  

Mia Wasikowska’s Alice is rather enthralling. Johnny Depp once again gets it right as a crazy character, and though there may be a feeling of déjà vu while watching him, his Mad Hatter is a cool act. Anne Hathaway’s White Queen makes one feel uneasy. Crispin Glover is a mean looking Knave of Hearts. And of course Helena Bonham Carter makes for such an immensely watchable Red Queen who uses animals for furniture and sport, and loves beheading people.  

Yes, one does wish the film didn’t have that Jabberwocky end, but it is still a lot of fun and fantasy. Worth watching for sure.      

Rating: Three stars out of five      

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