Disney / Buena Vista | 2010 | 108 min | Rated PG
Despite its title, Alice in Wonderland is more of a sequel to the Carroll novels, not a reworking of them. Return to Wonderland, or Alice’s Continuing Adventures in Wonderland, would have been more accurate titles. But then it would have been obvious that someone had written a sequel to a pair of 140-year-old beloved novels, and that might have upset purists, so from a marketing standpoint, it was probably a wise choice to attach a title that suggests it’s merely a remake.
In no way though is this bad thing. As is his custom, director Tim Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King), have managed to fashion a new adventure, while retaining the personality traits that makes each character so memorable. The film plays out like a tour of a strange, oddball world, inhabited by fabulous actors having a lot of fun.
Fleeing from a surprise engagement party and a boring, pompous young man (Leo Bill) she has no interest in, 19-year-old Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) follows a white rabbit (Michael Sheen) down a rabbit hole, and finds herself in Underland, a place that seems all too familiar to her. Upon her arrival, there’s some speculation, on the part of The White Rabbit, the Dormouse, and the Tweedle brothers, on whether she is the same Alice that they all knew thirteen years prior. You see, the “right” Alice is prophesized to retrieve the Vorpal Sword from the den of the Bandersnatch, kill the dreaded Jabberywocky, and overthrow the rule of the horrid Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) on Fabrous Day. And this is exactly what happens, though there are numerous complications along the way.
Though the screenplay by Linda Woolverton may first appear to be a rehash of the original stories (even harkening back to Disney’s financially disappointing 1951 animated feature), the early foreshadowed memories of the nineteen year old Alice in the opening sequences quickly confirm that this is indeed a follow-up adventure to Lewis Carroll’s original tales. The new tale may conjure up thoughts of the Narnia films, and to a lesser degree, The Wizard of Oz.
Young Mia Wasikowska is the film’s standout, giving us a willowy, dewy-eyed Alice that’s sweet and open-hearted. She’s aided on her quest by many of Carroll’s now-iconic characters, who pop in to lend a hand or dole out some wisdom. Alan Rickman gives Absolem the hookah-smoking caterpillar his molasses-y intonation, and Stephen Fry voices the Cheshire Cat, who ethereally dissipates and reappears, his mouth turned up in a creepy grin. As the White Queen, Anne Hathaway floats along as if on ice skates, her arms perpetually held aloft in a strangely regal pose. Crispin Glover, the guy you’d expect to be an absolute nut in a film like this, plays perhaps his straightest role ever as the one-eyed Knave of Hearts.
In what is really a supporting role, Johnny Depp gives everything he has to his role as the Mad Hatter, affecting a split personality that falls between a fey English lisp and a Scottish brogue. With his shock of orange hair, pallid face, and sunken eyes, he looks like a bit like a demonic, yet happy clown. Completely offer her rocker is Helena Bonham Carter’s tantrum-throwing, balloon-headed Red Queen, who coos about her “fat boys” Tweedledee and Tweedledum, props her feet up on a pot-bellied big, and screams “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!” every chance she gets.
Because I didn’t see Alice in theaters, and heard lots of negative things about it, I wasn’t really expecting much. However, I’m happy to report that Alice in Wonderland is truly a lot of fun. Even without the 3-D aspect of the theatrical release, Alice remains a visual feast everyone can enjoy.
Some of the sequences in the fantasy world are deliberately grainy, as when the Mad Hatter recollects how the White Queen was deposed, or when Burton decides to burnish a scene with a golden-brown or blue wash. But for the most part, the AVC/MPEG-4 (48kHz/24 bit) transfer is a good one. Colors are bold and bright in some sequences, and appropriately dark in others. Black levels also vary according to the sequence. But the level of detail is generally strong, and you never think that the shifts are anything but deliberate. Alice in Wonderland is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, “enhanced” for 16×9 televisions.
This English DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio is a dynamic, fully immersive soundtrack. The clarity and reproduction are excellent. Additional audio options are English 2.0 DVS and French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English SDH, French and Spanish.
The Blu-ray comes with the following special features:
• Wonderland Characters (1080p, 27:56). The special features consist of twelve relatively brief, featurettes. The first six fall under the Wonderland Characters heading, and as you might guess, focus on the wily individuals that traipse through Tim Burton’s crooked CGI landscapes. Finding Alice, The Mad Hatter, The Red Queen, and The White Queen features interviews with actors playing the respective characters, Time-Lapse: Sculpting the Red Queen compresses Helena Bonham Carter’s three hours in the make-up chair into a few minutes, and The Futterwacken reveals the secrets behind the dance that the Mad Hatter does at the end of the film.
• Making Wonderland (1080p, 19:29) The remaining six featurettes are devoted to the “making of” aspects of the film’s production. Scoring Wonderland shows composer and frequent Burton-collaborator Danny Elfman doing his thing, Effecting Wonderland hones in on the visual effects required to bring Burton’s vision to life, and Stunts of Wonderland profiles the physical handiwork of the actors and stunt-people. Making the Proper Size is probably the most interesting segment on the disc, as it showcases the digital manipulation required to shrink/grow Alice and make Helena Bonham Carter look so freakishly grotesque. Finally, Cakes of Wonderland and Tea Party Props let some of the production design specialists show off their handiwork.
• BD-Live Enabled
• Standard DVD
• Digital Copy
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