Here it is, Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland for the Lord of the Rings/Chronicles of Narnia crowd, complete with a battlefield action climax. Sigh. But this is also a Tim Burton movie, and for a long while it gets by on his demented whimsy and always interesting (if, for lack of a better word, ugly) production design, and an enchanting lead performance by Mia Wasikowska.
Wasikowska plays Alice Kingsleigh, who has had a recurring dream of falling down a rabbit hole since she was a child. Closing in on twenty, she’s about to be proposed to by Hamish (Leo Bill), the son of the man who purchased her deceased father’s shipping business. But she isn’t sure of what she wants, and is easily distracted by that rabbit in a topcoat dancing in the bushes…
These early scenes – set at a kind of nineteenth century debutante’s ball – are some of the best in Alice, grounded in reality but peppered by unique faces and exaggerated gestures. One really pines for Burton to attempt something grounded in semi-reality (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood) again.
And then it’s down the rabbit hole, and into a CGI wasteland. Wonderland (here referred to as “Underland”) is a murky, muddy, foggy blur of undefined landscapes. It looks so dirty you’ll want to wash your eyes after seeing the movie; this is what they’ve come up with?
Character design is an improvement, though once you’ve seen the stills of the Red Queen and Tweedledee and Tweedledum, seeing them in action doesn’t add all that much. But they’re the best: Helena Bonham Carter’s giant, globe-like head atop a tiny frame, Matt Lucas as the Humpty Dumpty-like egg-shaped duo.
Crispin Glover’s Knave of Hearts – he’s just a head atop a CGI body in some shots – feels stiff and awkward, and Anne Hathaway’s White Queen is downright bland.
And then there’s the only other live action Wonderland character: Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter, who is transformed into something of a romantic lead (!) in Burton’s vision of Alice; I’m sure they cast Depp, then wrote the character. Depp just about pulls it off, though, overcoming an unappealing character design (and a ½ inch gap between his front two teeth) to win us over with some Scottish-accented madness.
The rest of Wonderland is all computer-generated, to varying degrees of success. White Rabbit (Voiced by Michael Sheen), March Hare (Paul Whitehouse) and Dormouse (Barbara Windsor) have plenty of screentime, but too often blend into the background blur.
Alan Rickman’s Blue Caterpillar fares better (Rickman’s voice acting might have something to do with it) as does Stephen Fry’s Cheshire Cat. They always get the Cheshire Cat right; it’s that smile.
Screenwriter Linda Woolverton takes the traditional Alice narrative into some different directions – the film could be boiled down to a tale of female empowerment, with Alice learning to choose her own path in Wonderland and in life – but more often than not those directions lead toward the generic. That Wonderland battle scene, with Alice taking on the Jabberwocky, Mad Hatter vs. Knave of Hearts, and all the other CGI characters dueling it out against the red army, is an unbearable exercise in poor taste.
People remember Alice in Wonderland for the characters and the individual vignettes, not for any all-encompassing plot, which Burton tries to force-feed us (see also: Sleepy Hollow). They’ll remember this one, too, for the bizarre design and demented characters, which are really out there, even by Tim Burton standards.
Most memorable, though, is Wasikowska in the lead; against a parade of murky CGI, she carries the film impressively. Depp is also quite good. Music by Burton-standby Danny Elfman is nothing special, and a particularly awful Avril Lavigne pop song begins the closing credits.
Recommendation: catch Jan Švankmajer’s Alice, another demented version of the tale that I’m sure Burton drew some influence from.
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