Alice In Wonderland – or should we say UNDERland…

Posted on 08. Mar, 2010 by Corey Tess in Art & Poetry, Featured, Film (Movies), General

Why Re-Write a Perfect Story?

No one can argue that Tim Burton is the KING of Visual Stimulation and EYE POPPING if often Gothy/Emo Imagery… and that his ability to “snap his fingers and summon” Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter consistently results in characters that both strongly intrigue and mystify.

However, Alice In Wonderland (In Amazing 3-D) had an obvious lack of something basic… a great story! Which is confusing because commissioning the rights to Lewis Carroll’s great work of allegorical fiction, Alice in Wonderland and seemingly also “Adventures Through The Looking Glass” it’s sequel seem to guarantee rollicking good fodder for play!

Alas this absolutely GORGEOUS film suffers from a full tilt rush toward nothing… and I can’t image how confusing much of the references were to people who never read the second book as many of the character names, recitations and speak refer to what Carroll re-coined “Portmanteau” a practice of taking two words and sort of mashing them up and giving them a new meaning… such as Jabberwocky and FunderWhack.. The film itself rather mashes the first and second books together in an odd way – really matching the theme of neither.. the first more than the second… the first book had the structure and theme based on a card game, where as the second was based on the game of chess.. the card game is more represented in this version and yet the majority of the speak and character names come from the second novel…

I think children will enjoy the experience of this film immensely and adults will enjoy the visuals as much.. my sister said she would have enjoyed it much more with the sound OFF and in many scenes this was the case for me as well…

Johnny’s “Hatta” the Looking Glass version of “The Mad Hatter” was pleasing and yet sadly not explored or supported in a way that was really captivating.. visually, he was a banquet of tastiness but his story and his dialogue and his virtually invisible character development or arch was disappointing to say the least… his scene with the destruction during a lawn party is supposed to supply us with a reason for his sullen and manic depressive change from the crazy fun Mad Hatter she knew in Wonderland… before…

Helena’s “Red Queen” was hysterically funny. Very well done and probably the best developed character in the film. Her need for love and to be surrounded by people with more freakish physical attributes than her own made her endearing actually… It is so much easier to develop an evil character than a good one, but if I had to choose the best character in the film.. it would be Red Queen.. she was indispensable.

Anne Hathaway.. mmmmm I am a fan, but in this role, she just didn’t sparkle… The White Queen was virtually an after thought.. she simply filled a void where “good” needed to be represented to off set the evil… her pantomiming elegance was broken through in only one seen with the dog and should have been explored further.. was she really a dungaree gal under her over played Disney princess mannerisms or was this her true self? You got signals that supported both and neither and rendered her character almost totally useless except to serve as the famous brunette that goes platinum blond for Tim Burton… (Wynona Rider = Edward Scissorhands, Christina Ricci=Sleepy Hollow)

Alice wh0 is played by Mia Wasikowska was solid.. her’s was the best dialog in the film and although her development was predictable and not really pleasing in any way, the story did serve to put her into a mind frame that supported the story’s ending where we find her stronger and more able to defy those in power over her… (though this was not really a strong development, as she seemed pretty defiant before hand..)

Cheshire Cat was a bright spot in the film. He was used as sort of a Deus ex machina in some scenes.. most notably the “be-heading of the Hatta” but still the animation was amazing and the purring and classic kitty positioning and menace was appreciated.

The Blue Caterpillar was under-used really, one of my favorite characters from both novels, he represents the YODA of this story and yet only seems to serve as a rest in the pace during two scenes.. a pity because i do love Alan Rickman’s voice!

For all my complaining, I was really disappointed in only ONE aspect of this film… the screenplay… which of course effected the entire film and everything in it..

Not a MUST SEE, but a SHOULD SEE if you do 3-D, otherwise.. kind’ve a waste… (please do 3D if you see it)

and I have to say though the Funderwhack was cute.. it was anti-climatic and rather haphazardly inserted… i think there may have been an editing fail here as well… and through out the film.. because the pacing was erratic and often didn’t support climax moments…

WIN! The dresses and clothing they put Alice in… great designs…