REVIEW | Alice in Wonderland
February 26th 2010 04:24
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Alice in Wonderland | Review
Alice in Wonderland combines state of the art animation, computer generated imagery, elements of Through The Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland, Disney magic and an accomplished cast all under the fine tuned direction of Tim Burton.
For Burton fans, this is a departure from the darker core of his work, yet it has not become a completely sugar coated rendition of the story. Most other adaptations have used musical numbers in the productions, everything from I'm late, I'm late for a very important date in 1951 with Bill Thomson playing the White Rabbit through to the equally memorable Sammy Davis Jr singing What's a nice kid like you doing in a place like this?in 1966.
The Official You Tube Trailer is here for a quick bit of fun.
Burton has been working with Johnny Depp for most of his career, and here Depp as the Mad Hatter provides another amazingly curious character.
As an actor he has certainly mastered the ability to use stillness well. His vocal antics are always a little rare and one must grow accustomed to them.
An actor like Meryl Streep seems to completely be a character from the inside out; where Depp tends to work in reverse of that. He finds things in what the character looks like and plays to those things, makes the most of them.
All of the performances are quite fine, although the constant trotting around a world, albeit a wonderfully spooky world on a quest can get a little tiresome without a great deal of spontaneity. Some of these actors, Barbara Windsor for example, have featured in this story before, many times, and she for one must be a wealth of knowledge when it comes to mad moments in the making of an Alice. Burton does not really go for this level of improvisation. Great actors say their lines extremely well, so well you would not question them. So the pomp and circumstance of the world is all very amazing and impressive but the characters are squarely in the story book mould, even though it is a Burton extravaganza it is still Disney after all.
I wonder about the 3D movie experience, it is really fun, but unless there is something that really demands three dimensional treatment, I don't enjoy wearing the glasses over my own glasses. I do not wear contacts; there are various reasons why but I'm not going to bore you with that - I think for the tiny minority like me who really do enjoy the fun of 3D, I have to say it does seem like a lot of concentration being required for something I was hoping would be a relaxing entertainment.
I guess everyone who wants a piece of this new action is going to insist that the script demanded it. The story needed to be told in 3D etc. Time will tell. At the moment I find it distracting, and there is not particular reason why I'd suggest you see this in 3D. The 2D version would be just as much fun.
The lack of songs stood out. I was half expecting some singing. The final dance in both the final scenes, Underworld and Real World were great moments I can hear the kids squealing with laughter already. Girls will particularly enjoy Alice in Wonderland, but there are lots of cool boy things, including Johnny Depp, so I would take kids - over the age of eight; younger ones, maybe not, it's not The Wiggles, that's for sure. People who have been hanging out for the arrival of this moderated mayhem are bound to enjoy it, this is truly a supercali-fragilistic-expiali docious show, particularly thanks to current Disney Queen Anne Hathoway.
I will leave you with this, go back and look at your All Saints DVD Circa 2005 and look for Lily Watson played by Mia Wasikowska. Wasikowska shines. This young actor will step right up from here, she makes a great Alice for the new millennium.
David Jobling
The LA Times has this to say.
Live video feed here so you can follow the recent AIW action.
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