It’s Tim Burton so you immediately expect scraggly trees, muted colors, a circus inspired, yet ominous score by Danny Elfman, and stars Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp. You also realize the film is going to be something that makes sure these common elements have a world to inhabit and what better source material than Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”? No doubt Burton finds the stories to fit his sensibilities, but he still has to do something with it to make it worth our time, and I would argue he has, but with a few caveats along the way.
With Alice in Wonderland Burton hasn’t done anything that will blow you away, but I will say he’s made a perfectly entertaining film. There are missed opportunities that could have taken it over the top, but at the same time there are some things that I really liked.
Burton’s Alice assumes those watching have had some experience with Carroll’s Wonderland before, be it by movie or by book, as the story centers on a 19-year-old Alice returning to Wonderland, a world she once visited, but now only remembers as a dream. It’s an excellent decision that keeps this film from having to tell yet another origin story we are already familiar with.
All the characters we already recognize are here; the Mad Hatter (Depp), the Red Queen (Bonham Carter), Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both played by Matt Lucas), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman). Crispin Glover plays the Red Queen’s right hand man, the Knave of Hearts, and Anne Hathaway flounces around as the White Queen who’s in a bitter battle with the Red Queen (also her sister) for what is referred to as Underland.
Alice in Wonderland is reliant on these characters in order for it to work, and all of them do, but most only work on the most basic of levels. Some exceed expectations, such as Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, the absolute best part of the film without question. Sporting a bulbous head, she calls for Tweedledee and Tweedledum, referring to them as her “fat boys” and orders them to speak to one another. “Amuse us,” she says while resting her weary feet on the belly of a pig serving as a foot stool. Johnny Depp, on the other hand, looks as crazy as they come as the Mad Hatter, but the character’s motivations are unclear and his purpose in the film only seems to be because the story calls for the Mad Hatter and Burton reserves the highest of profile positions for his longtime collaborator.
Also disappointingly bland is the Cheshire Cat. Stephen Fry’s voice fits, the large grin is perfect and the animation is spot on, but considering the fact the Mad Hatter’s insanity is somewhat muted I at least hoped the Cheshire Cat would add a little bit of mischief, if not a dose of black comedy. The fact both the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat missed the mark is disappointing. At least when Alan Rickman, as the voice of the Blue Caterpillar, referred to Alice as a “stupid girl” it added a little more of what the film needed and Bonham Carter seemed to be the only other one meeting the demand.
Mia Wasikowska plays Alice, and outside of a few small roles up to this point, this is the native Australian’s break out role. She does nothing to overly impress, but also does nothing to have me questioning her talents. She said her name was Alice and I was convinced of that, not much more. Then again, Alice’s importance to this story is to get us from one wacky character/situation to the next. She’s a gateway into Underland and in that respect she satisfies.
While much of what I’m saying may sound bad, it’s not. It’s wishful thinking that would turn a film I enjoyed into something much better. As far as what Burton has delivered goes, I had a good time. At 109 minutes I was never bored or looking at my watch, although I could have done with a much better ending than what basically boiled down to a Narnia-esque climax that pretty much put the entire narrative into question.
However, I guess offbeat additions to the story, and questioned motivations could be looked at as fitting for a story that is supposed to be the square peg forced into a round hole. But, to steal a line from the Mad Hatter, this film falls short on “muchness.” It could have been “much muchier”.
