Luke
stu-kicks
CibbuanoAlice in Wonderland
July 20th 2010 22:39
I'd hate to be seen as just the latest in a long line of people putting the boot in on Tim Burton after his biggest commercial hit but, to be frank, I haven't really ever forgiven him since Planet of the Apes back in 2001. There's something parasitic about Burton wanting to use these popular and pre-established texts (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Planet of the Apes) and just keeping the concepts he wishes to 're-imagine'. Alice in Wonderland probably represents the worst of these re-imaginings as he proposes it as a sequel to the original texts and somewhat betrays the essence of Lewis Carroll's two Alice stories.
Alice (Mia Wasikowska) has grown to womanhood, convinced that her experiences in Wonderland are just half-remembered dreams. Her father has passed on and she now feels her family and peers pressuring her towards marriage with a rather feckless suitor. As this suitor proposes to her she finds herself distracted by a white rabbit, and follows it down a hole. She enters Underland, a strange and fantastic realm where the Red Queen (Helena Bonham-Carter) has placed the populace under her own particular brand of tyranny. The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and other assorted characters from Lewis Caroll's original books have banded together as a rather motley resistance force, luring the adult Alice back to Underland in the hope that she will be able to defeat the Red Queen's champion, the Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee).
I'd have to say that Johnny Depp really missteps as the Mad Hatter... his wildly fluctuating Scottish-British accent (whilst apparently deliberate) isn't clearly explained enough to be anything other than distracting. A lot of the time he looks like a slightly bizarre Mick Hucknall, only imagine Hucknall as a five-year old girl who got into her mum's make-up. Depp's quirks feel like a grab-bag borrowed from his other performances, and the end result isn't original or strong enough to be of any real note other than as a parody of himself. Helena Bonham-Carter on the other hand is brilliant, and her line delivery is hilarious. Anne Hathaway is mildly interesting, but Crispin Glover is a little bit embarrassing - it's the sort of role that's a bit beneath his unique talents. The rest of the cast is recognisable enough but don't really make any impact.
It's somewhat ironic that Burton has made comments to the effect that the original Alice novels did little to engage him on an emotional level - hence his generic re-structuring of this film. I say ironic because Burton's Alice in Wonderland is all business and no charm. The CGI feels like a whitewash of animation, there's little connection to be had with the characters - even when it's the non-CGI Johnny Depp or Anne Hathaway. For all his criticism of Carroll's adherence to the 19th century fantasy genre, Burton's quest format feels unneccessary and at odds with the iconic characters. In fact, I fail to see why he would even want to make this film if he was such a non-fan of Carroll's books. There's a strong similarity between this film and Steven Spielberg's Hook, with both being re-imagined fantasy classics where the protagonist has forgotten about their original adventures. Both are also by celebrated filmmakers, and pretentiously set themselves as official sequels that apparently know better than the original texts. The main difference is that Hook still manages to be a fun enough film if taken on it's own merits, whereas Alice in Wonderland more than outstays it's welcome. For all it's visual flair, Burton's take on the story falls flat in a very big way.
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