Blu-ray Review: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is one of only six films to have ever reached the $1 billion mark in worldwide box-office receipts. Place it alongside fellow features in that category — Avatar, Titanic, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and The Dark Knight — and even if you like the film it is amazing it is the sixth member of a rather unique club. Along with Dead Man’s Chest it is the second Disney film on the list and those two are really the only two you raise an eyebrow at and say, “Really? Those two managed to make more than $1 billion while so many other great films couldn’t?” As much as we scrutinize box-office numbers, it goes to show they don’t always tell the entire story.

All that said, I am not in the “I Hate Alice in Wonderland” core of critics, nor am I in the “I Love Alice in Wonderland” group. I’m more in the group that looks at it is a mild diversion and a film that will most likely be enjoyed by many families, while scoffed at by cinephiles and old school Tim Burton fans.

Much of the hatred for this film from certain online sectors, I presume comes from the fact that Burton seems to be recycling film after film, using the same set design, same actors, same color palettes and similar sounding Danny Elfman scores. After Burton and his jury at Cannes awarded Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives with the Palme d’Or, Peter Howell at the Toronto Star wrote how he believes Burton’s jury awarded the film because Burton was “delighted to see other people taking chances that he’s afraid to take himself.” Hating on a director because he isn’t making the film’s you want him to make is dishonest. I have seen other people call Alice in Wonderland the worst film of the year, which is to say they obviously haven’t seen Leap Year, Cop Out or Valentine’s Day or several other films that hardly even strive for mediocrity, let alone greatness.

My biggest complaint about Burton’s Wonderland is the lack of character development. Each character in the film seems to exist merely because the story calls for their involvement and even an attempt to create a back-story for the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) comes across as time not well spent. I’m more interested in a crazy character simply because he’s crazy, and I would even argue the Hatter isn’t all that crazy, just a bit eccentric and not even overly so. Depp portrayed Ed Wood and Raoul Duke as crazier than this guy. The Cheshire Cat was equally disappointing, despite being an excellently designed CG character. The March Hare was probably the craziest of the bunch, and the most enjoyable for that reason, but the level of fun I expected to get from this film never surfaced.

As for this Blu-ray, it does as good a job as can be expected though Disney’s decision to convert this film to 3D in post is obvious as certain elements of the feature pop off the screen and distract from the scene taking place primarily due to a distracting inconsistency in depth of field. CG creatures float through the air, appearing to exist outside the feature itself. Obviously, this is a complaint targeted at the film alone, as the video presentation is top notch, but what else is to be expected from a nearly all-digital shoot, primarily shot on green screen and made of mostly digitally created backgrounds and characters. Perfect is really the only option, while the actual CG is another story.

The audio is equally impressive, as is often the case with Disney BD releases. It seems one of the many things the studio makes sure to master with the majority of their Blu-ray releases and this is no different. Fans of the film should be more than happy with the audio and video presentation, but if they were looking for anything more in terms of features than what is already available online you shouldn’t expect much.

Disney did its very best to keep Alice in Wonderland in the online news cycle with several making of featurettes, most of which are included here. They aren’t the exact same as they were online, but if you were to scour the making-of featurettes found right here you should be well into the featurettes offered in this set. It was, however, interesting to learn the Hatter’s Futterwacken Dance was actually done by David ‘Elsewhere’ Bernal and not 100% CGI as I previously thought. The scene is still my most hated from the film, but that was interesting.

Otherwise, this Blu-ray release also comes with a DVD and Digital copy of the film.

Overall, no, I wouldn’t suggest you add this to your collection unless you are already a big fan of the film. I imagine most of you will be satisfied watching this on ABC Family one day down the road or perhaps as a rental, but I just can’t recommend this as a purchase.

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