Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were published in 1865 and 1871 respectively and have become two of the most enduring pieces of fiction ever written. They have been made into several films and television adaptations, the most recent of which was helmed by Tim Burton and combines the two books into something which is more of an homage, or perhaps a sequel, to Carroll's works than a strict adaptation.

The film begins with a 6 year old Alice being comforted by her father after having yet another strange dream about falling down a rabbit hole into a strange world. Many years on and Alice, aged 19, is being pushed into marriage as her father has died and, as society dictates, she needs someone to support her, in this case a chinless wonder and peer of the realm.

Strolling around the garden of the country estate in which Lord Hamish Ascot is going to propose to her, Alice notices a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat running through the borders and, just as he is about to pop the question, Alice decides that she is in no fit state to answer the question and so would much rather follow the rabbit. Coming across his rabbit hole, she falls down and down and down, bouncing off objects and eventually landing in a big room with several locked doors and a key that will only open one door which is only big enough for her head to fit through. Fortunately, there is a bottle on the table with the label 'drink me' attached to the neck but, when Alice drinks it, she shrinks and becomes too small to reach the key on the table. Before she can take a bite out of the piece of cake on the floor with 'eat me' iced on the top, there is much speculation on the other side of the door as to whether she is the 'right' Alice as she is unsure what to do.

As everyone who has either read the books or has seen a previous incarnation of Alice in Wonderland knows, Alice eventually becomes the right size to fit through the door and into Wonderland where she comes across an array of weird and wonderful creatures. The liberties taken with this adaptation see Alice returning to 'Underland' where people such as Absalom the blue Caterpillar, the dormouse and Tweedledum and Tweedledee don't believe she is the 'right' Alice. This is a land that has changed a great deal since Alice last visited and has basically been carved in two by a feud between two sisters: the White Queen and the Red Queen.


As Alice is prophesied to be the White Queen's champion who will defeat the Jabberwocky on Frumtious Day, the Red Queen is desperate to prevent this so wants her taken prisoner. Thrown into this mix is the Mad Hatter, a bloodhound called Bayard who the Red Queen is using by keeping his wife and children prisoner, the terrible Bandersnatch and the mysterious Cheshire Cat.

Alice in Wonderland is a bit of a step into the unknown for Tim Burton because of the sheer amount of CGI involved, with most of the action shot against green screen and most of the characters either entirely animated, partially animated and shot using motion capture technology or filmed looking at tennis balls or crosses in midair. Burton used a degree of green screen technology and CG animation in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street but this is something altogether new and worlds away from films like Ed Wood.

Where the film is not found wanting however is in the casting department as Mia Wasikowska, who I last saw in the HBO drama series In Treatment, proves herself to be a very good Alice, Helena Bonham Carter is quite obviously channelling Miranda Richardson's Queenie from Blackadder II to play the Red Queen and does so with relish and Matt Lucas does a tremendous job to pay both Tweedledum and Tweedledee, playing one part opposite a body double and then repeating the scene as the other twin. Burton has reunited with several actors that he has worked with before who provide the voice talent: Timothy Spall as Bayard, Alan Rickman as Absalom and Christopher Lee who voices the Jabberwocky.


Most of the attention will be on Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter who dominated the trailers, posters, billboards and is on the front cover of this set. As is normally the case when Depp works with Burton, he almost completely disguises himself in order to get away from his everyday self so he can distance himself from the finished film and pretend that it has gone -- he almost never watches a film in which he has appeared and so rarely does commentaries or other DVD/BD features. In this version, the Mad Hatter is a more complex character than in other incarnations and switches from an American accent to a Scottish one when he moves from the slightly barmy man at the head of the tea table to someone who has deep mental scars from when the Red Queen launched her attack and split Wonderland in two.

When I saw this at the cinema I simply could not get into the film because there were bored children in the auditorium and I found the 3-D that had been added in post-production to be utterly distracting. Watching the film in 2-D at home was a completely different experience as I wasn't put off by the retrofitted stereoscopic aspect and could watch the film in peace and quiet. Whilst Alice in Wonderland is undeniably magnificent visual achievement with quite incredible CG animation and breathtaking visual touches by a director who is renowned for the time and effort he spends on the visual aspects of the film, it is found sadly lacking when it comes to engaging the viewer. Unlike Burton's best work, this is a film that is quite emotionally shallow and one where the scenes that should really engage you on an emotional level fail to do so and it is therefore a film that I watched and appreciated rather than liked.

The Disc

Extra Features
For such a visually complex film with a rich literary background and a Who's Who of acting talent, this is a set that should have plenty of material for special features and supplementary material so it is a massive disappointment that all that is included are three featurettes with a combined running time of under 20 minutes.

In The Mad Hatter, Jonny Depp and Tim Burton talk about their visions for the character and the most interesting thing are Depp's own watercolours. Finding Alice is a brief look at the character and the effort that went into building different sets and costumes for her different sizes throughout the film. Effecting Wonderland shows the extent of green screen during filming and explains how Matt Lucas was able to play both Tweedledum and Tweedledee and how the computer wizards changed footage of actors in green bodysuits into fully realise characters.

None of these really go into enough detail and I was left extremely disappointed, not by what was there, then by what wasn't. There should have been hours of supplementary material that went into the screenwriting process, casting, locations, costumes and all other aspects of filmmaking so what you have here really only scratches the surface. The positive, if there is one to be found, is that all three featurettes are in high definition.


The Picture
Watching this in 3-D at the cinema and watching it in 2-D in high definition at home are almost two completely different experiences. Whereas I found the 3-D to be extremely distracting and something that added absolutely nothing to the viewing experience, the film in 2-D is much more vibrant and colourful and one that really showcases Tim Burton's keen visual sense. The animated backgrounds are beautifully realised and the interaction between the actors and green tennis balls is so well 1 track (the back of the box actually has it as a 5.1 track, but it is in fact a 6.1 matrixed track) which is extremely immersive with crystal clear dialogue and allowing Danny Elfman's wonderful score to suck you into Wonderland. When the action sequences come about, the whole sound system comes to life with LFEs giving a reassuring rumble when the Bandersnatch is on the run and run Alice takes on the Jabberwocky.

There are standard def DTS 5.1 tracks in Italian and Dutch, a Dolby Digital 5.1 Belgian track and an audio descriptive English track, plus English and English HoH subtitles to cater for both the hard of hearing and visually impaired viewer. These aren't just limited to the BD; the DVD also has an audio descriptive track and English HoH subtitles.


Final Thoughts
I went into Alice in Wonderland at the cinema with really high hopes and was left feeling deflated by the film and angry about the abysmally bad retrofitted 3-D. Watching it at home on BD has gone some way to remedy my initial misgivings but I still feel that this is a fairly weak Tim Burton film which does not have the emotional depth that it should, nor the darkness and surreality of Lewis Carroll's books. Even so, this is a film that is well worth a watch and with films like Sex and the City and Confessions of a Shopaholic providing girls with dreadful role models, it is an extremely pleasant change to watch a film with a strong female lead who follows her heart and does not give into society's expectations of what a young woman should be and how she should behave.