Alice in Wonderland (2010)
by V.E. on March 16th, 2010
filed under entertainment, recap/review
I did nothing to prepare for Alice in Wonderland (wiki). That is, I didn’t watch the animated Disney version. I didn’t read the books (Wonderland and Looking Glass). I didn’t check any reviews. I didn’t even look up the original author. I wanted to see what Tim Burton (the director), Johnny Depp (who played the Mad Hatter), and Mia Wasikowska (who played Alice), could do with the story without any more input than I’d already given it. That is, I have seen the original Disney animation, but not recently. I’ve read up on Lewis Carroll and know a little about his quirks, but that was years ago.
Right, so, my father and sister and I saw it Sunday evening for “Family Night”. My mother couldn’t go because she was writing a paper for a class that ended yesterday (yay!), but she told us to go ahead and have a good time. The movie was Bunny’s idea, not mine or my dad’s. It wasn’t on my top-10 must-see list or anything, but basically: it was better than I expected. I didn’t expect it to be terrible or anything, but it was sort of like, “Tim Burton + Johnny Depp = more of the same”… Burton and Depp are good friends, I’m told, and Burton has a strange sense of humor that goes along well with Depp’s strange sense of humor.
Well, that certainly came out in the movie. It wasn’t knock-your-socks-off awesome, but it was better than I thought it would be. I expected more Mad Hatter and less of a plot, but I learned after watching it that Burton actually wanted more of a plot than the original story, which was “always about a girl wandering around from one weird character to another and he never felt a connection emotionally…” Burton “wanted to make it feel more like a story than a series of events”—which it did. I remember the animated film being more like Lemony Snicket than an actual story, and—while it was certainly strange—Alice’s entire goal in that movie was to get home (reminding me of Oz), or to “wake up” (which she eventually does). Tim Burton is known for darker films (Beetle Juice, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd), but this wasn’t as dark as I thought it would be. (I guess I was expecting something more like American McGee’s Alice; I don’t know.)
Actually, the main thing that annoyed me was the combination of the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen. In case you don’t know, the Queen of Hearts appears in the original novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The Red Queen appears in the following novel, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. Read the books for yourself if you don’t believe me. That’s the one thing that always stands out to me in any Alice portrayal—do they get the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts right? That is, are they separate characters? In this version, they’re not.
If you were planning on seeing the movie anyway, I’d recommend it. I can’t speak for the 3D aspect, though, because I didn’t see it in 3D, so there is that. If you were on the fence about seeing it but like the Alice metaverse, then go see it. You might get more out if than someone like me, who didn’t prepare. If you were planning on not seeing it because you think Johnny Depp is overrated or something, then, yeah: don’t see it. Though, I was surprised how little he was actually in the movie compared to the hype surrounding his involvement in it. Not to say that he’s not in it (he is, and quite a bit, actually), but the story really is about Alice, not the Mad Hatter. For that, I’m grateful. Don’t get me wrong: I love me some Johnny Depp, but the title is “Alice in Wonderland” for a reason.
Actually, wait. I did watch this before seeing the movie. I’m a fan of Anne Hathaway’s, and her favorite part of the filming made a lot more sense after watching the movie. Just sayin’.
By the way, why is a raven like a writing desk?
