Alice in Wonderland (2010)Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough
It has been thirteen years since Alice (Wasikowski) was last in Wonderland, she has grown up and has managed to convince herself that her memories of this magical place are nothing more than recurring dreams. Alice and her mother attend a party which, unbeknown to her, is to mark her pending engagement to the horrible Hamish, whom she has no interest in marrying. Alice flees the party and falls down the rabbit hole. She returns to Wonderland, convinced that she is dreaming, and finds a world in turmoil. The Mad Hatter (Depp) explains to her that the Red Queen (Bonham Carter), with the help of the Knave of Hearts (Glover), reigns oppressively over Wonderland. However, there is a prophecy which claims that it is to be Alice who will slay the Jabberwocky (Lee), the dragon who serves the Red Queen and assures her power, thus ending the rain of the Red Queen, restoring power to the much loved White Queen (Hathaway) and bringing peace to Wonderland.
This film was not intended to be a straight retelling of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland, but unfortunately I think it would have been better served if it was. The new narrative really lets the film down. The storyline feels very 'Chronicles of Narnia', and thus has a real sense of familiarity to it. It feels just like any number of family fantasy films which have been released over the last five or so years. As a result, the story really fails to grab you. The film still has interesting characters and individual scenes and settings are engaging, but the story itself doesn't inspire wonder.
With a background in animation, Tim Burton really established himself as a director in late 1980s. After his debut feature Pee-wee's Big Adventure did moderate business, Burton gave the world their first insight into his unique style with Beetlejuice. With a growing reputation built on his Gothic inspired visual style and outsider based stories, Burton would go on to make some marvelous films in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s including the example par excellence of the Tim Burton style, Edward Scissorhands, as well as his two installments in the Batman series, Batman and Batman Returns, and the brilliant but relatively unknown biopic Ed Wood. He also wrote and produced Herny Sellick's The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, since the mid-1990s Burton's work seems to have become more formulaic. Burton's films have become quite predictable and as a result have failed to reach the heights of his earlier work. For example, despite all the hype surrounding it's release, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has proved itself to be an amazingly forgettable film.
As a Tim Burton fan, I've been particularly frustrated by his seeming unwillingness to try something different. Obviously, he has a personal style and people want to see that. There is no one who does Tim Burton like Tim Burton. But there is room within that style for him to try things. This is particularly the case in casting. When Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was in the early stages of pre-production there were all sorts of rumours surrounding who would be playing Willy Wonka. The two which had me genuinely excited were Christopher Walken and Michael Keaton. Both had worked with Burton before and both had the potential to make Willy Wonka a wonderfully creepy character and really fit the Tim Burton mould. But instead he just went with Depp. I actually found Gene Wilder creepier in the original. The seemingly automatic casting of Depp in the Burton's films suggests that he doesn't even consider other options. Even Alice in Wonderland feels like part of the motivation behind the changing of the storyline was to make the Mad Hatter, and thus Johnny Depp, a more central figure.
As I alluded to in my response to Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, Tim Burton has his people that he likes to work with. Danny Elfman has scored pretty much every film that Burton has made. Burton also has an ensemble cast that he likes to work with and Alice in Wonderland contains many of the familiar faces, or at least voices, along with a few nice additions. As well as the stock standard Johnny Depp and Mrs. Tim Burton, Helena Bonham Carter, in the lead roles, it is nice to hear the familiar voices of Christopher Lee and Michael Gough (who frankly I'm surprised to find that he's still alive). Crispin Glover fits right in with the Burton feel, so much so that it's amazing they haven't teamed up before. Matt Lucas, of Little Britain fame, does a lovely job as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. Alan Rickman and Stephen Fry lend their amazing voices to the Blue Caterpillar and the Cheshire Cat and fit the bill perfectly. Unknown Aussie Mia Wasikowski has been copping a lot of flack for her performance as Alice and while yes she is boring, I don't know that her part was all that well written so perhaps all the blame shouldn't be shouldered by her.
The film contains a couple of jarring moments which really don't fit the tone that has been established. Primary example being the Hatter's little dance scene at the end of the film. But one which really hit me too was the choice to play an Avril Lavigne song over the start of the end credits, rather than just continuing with the Danny Elfman score. It is really quite a jarring contrast to finish the film on.
Also, I'm still yet to be really convinced about the merits of 3D cinema. It doesn't give me headaches or anything like that, but I find it distracting a lot of the time. It prevents me from engaging with the film. I've seen about half a dozen films in 3D now, and with the exception of Avatar and maybe Coraline, I usually come out of the film thinking that I'd have preferred to see it in standard 2D.
This has come across as a really negative response to the film. Really, it is not all that bad. A lot of people will quite enjoy it, but as a Tim Burton fan, I had just hoped for a bit more and thus was left disappointed by the film. His next film though, Frankenweenie, is a feature length version of a short he made in 1984, so I hold on to the hope that it may be a return to the Tim Burton of old.
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