The old Alice doesn't live here anymore
Tea party anyone? Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. (Walt Disney Pictures)
Alice in Wonderland
Running time: 109 minutes
MPAA rating: PG (fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar)
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Welcome to Alice in "Underland."
Not Wonderland?
Nope. In Tim Burton's garishly stylized retooling of Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," the abstract, bizarre world below Victorian England is called Underland. Get used to it, as Alice, now 19 and no longer a little girl, must.
I expected to be blown away, magically transformed and seduced by Burton's helter-skelter take on the "Oz"-like classic.
Not Wonderland?
Nope. In Tim Burton's garishly stylized retooling of Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," the abstract, bizarre world below Victorian England is called Underland. Get used to it, as Alice, now 19 and no longer a little girl, must.
I expected to be blown away, magically transformed and seduced by Burton's helter-skelter take on the "Oz"-like classic.
After all, Burton has one of the most creative minds making movies in the new (and latter former) century. Special effects are an electronic playground with no glass ceiling these days, and Burton's got favorite leading man Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.
From this aisle seat, though, falling down this rabbit hole to an other-world ruled by the tyrannical Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) felt a lot like revisiting the classic "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" under Burton's reworked title "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which was actually the original title of Roald Dahl's book.
Confused? Me too. But stay with me, we're not even to Underland yet.
It may be best to forget all you know about the original "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" or any of the several "Alice in Wonderland" incarnations. They run the gamut from animation to live action and even, ahem, a porn version (You saw that one? Shame on you).
This is something grandly skewed and distanced from any version that has come before. Frankly, I feel ballerina-turned-actress Mia Wasikowska ("Defiance") is the weak link in all this stylized madness as the title character.
This Alice has just been proposed to by a boring English Lord with a sensitive stomach when she follows a rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch. All the usual Wonderland -- excuse me, Underland -- suspects show up once she's managed to enter the lush garden world through a tiny door.
There is never any question that Burton, working from an adapted script by Linda Woolverton ("Beauty and the Beast") Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass," will focus primarily on Depp.
Wild eyed and sporting bright orange hair, he's the Hatter driven quite nuts by mercury poisoning associated with spending too much time making hats. It should come as no surprise that Depp chews the scenery with ravenous gusto. He speaks with a lisp at times and seems to invoke a Scottish accent on a couple occasions. I'm not really sure what's going on there.
Bonham Carter ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince") is also a Burton frequent collaborator, of course, and his significant other in real life. She has no problem (and little challenge) with her ever-present "Off with his/her/their heads" dialogue.
You'll probably come away infatuated with some of the supporting characters. Globe-shaped twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both voiced by British actor Matt Lucas) were a particular favorite of mine, although Bayard, the talking Bloodhound (voiced by Timothy Spall), is quite special as well.
Certainly the special effects are colorful and trend-setting and Burton and his actors give it their all. Part of me wishes Burton had sent Alice down something more closely related to the old rabbit hole, however.
Oh well. Tweedledee, Tweedledum.
From this aisle seat, though, falling down this rabbit hole to an other-world ruled by the tyrannical Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) felt a lot like revisiting the classic "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" under Burton's reworked title "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which was actually the original title of Roald Dahl's book.
Confused? Me too. But stay with me, we're not even to Underland yet.
It may be best to forget all you know about the original "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" or any of the several "Alice in Wonderland" incarnations. They run the gamut from animation to live action and even, ahem, a porn version (You saw that one? Shame on you).
This is something grandly skewed and distanced from any version that has come before. Frankly, I feel ballerina-turned-actress Mia Wasikowska ("Defiance") is the weak link in all this stylized madness as the title character.
This Alice has just been proposed to by a boring English Lord with a sensitive stomach when she follows a rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch. All the usual Wonderland -- excuse me, Underland -- suspects show up once she's managed to enter the lush garden world through a tiny door.
There is never any question that Burton, working from an adapted script by Linda Woolverton ("Beauty and the Beast") Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass," will focus primarily on Depp.
Wild eyed and sporting bright orange hair, he's the Hatter driven quite nuts by mercury poisoning associated with spending too much time making hats. It should come as no surprise that Depp chews the scenery with ravenous gusto. He speaks with a lisp at times and seems to invoke a Scottish accent on a couple occasions. I'm not really sure what's going on there.
Bonham Carter ("Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince") is also a Burton frequent collaborator, of course, and his significant other in real life. She has no problem (and little challenge) with her ever-present "Off with his/her/their heads" dialogue.
You'll probably come away infatuated with some of the supporting characters. Globe-shaped twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both voiced by British actor Matt Lucas) were a particular favorite of mine, although Bayard, the talking Bloodhound (voiced by Timothy Spall), is quite special as well.
Certainly the special effects are colorful and trend-setting and Burton and his actors give it their all. Part of me wishes Burton had sent Alice down something more closely related to the old rabbit hole, however.
Oh well. Tweedledee, Tweedledum.
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