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For more than two decades, Tim Burton has been the film industry’s own Mad Hatter, pouring a fantastical blend of enchantment and insanity into his audience’s cups. With his reinterpretation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland,” however, the director decants a brew much weaker than expected.
“Alice” follows the titular character back down the rabbit hole 13 years after her original tumble. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is a stubborn young woman who runs away from a bland English lord’s marriage proposal and finds herself in a whimsical world she believes to be Wonderland, a locale from her reoccurring childhood dream.
The place, actually called Underland, is much gloomier than Alice could have ever imagined.
Though she does not remember any of them, the people of Underland have been waiting for Alice for a long time. They believe she is destined to slay the Red Queen’s (Helena Bonham Carter) jabberwocky and reclaim the realm in the name of the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).
The fact that “Alice in Wonderland” is filmed in 3-D feels like a gimmick. While it does provide for a vivid picture, the movie rarely utilizes the “jumping off the screen” effect that the technique is known for.
With all its color, riddles and loopy characters, Carroll’s classic should have been the ideal outlet for Burton’s eccentric voice. Unfortunately, the visionary seemed tethered by conservative Walt Disney Pictures.
His grownup “Alice” is darker than Disney’s first version, but isn’t filmed through Burton’s unique perspective, as it should have been. It is obvious the creepy landscapes and richly distinct characters and costumes sprang straight from his mind, but other aspects of the film felt completely watered down.
While he did a good job representing all the characters of Wonderland / Underland, the new sequel-type story imagined with the help of Disney was formulaic and dull. It is clear to the audience 20 minutes into the film exactly how things are going to turn out, and Burton doesn’t even attempt to throw any twists in its way.
Even with go-tos Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Danny Elfman providing the score and his real-life leading lady Bonham Carter, “Alice” was missing that Burton flare.
Elfman’s scores have accompanied more than a dozen Burton movies, but never before have the two felt so removed from the finished product. Just as the director’s vision seemed diluted, the composer’s music lacked its typical breathtaking emotion. Someone without Elfman’s talent and experience could have easily crafted the sounds.
While it may not be the Burton masterpiece fans hoped for, “Alice” nonetheless makes for a mostly enjoyable viewing experience. The effects and imagery are bright and dazzling while the actors do their best with the scripts handed to them.
Bonham Carter and Depp both sink completely into their roles, becoming two of the story’s most recognizable characters.
Depp puts the “Mad” in Mad Hatter, using zany accents and manic gestures to entertain. He once again plays the unbalanced outcast under Burton’s direction, but this time does not steal the show from the rest of the cast.
With a complex stemming from her CGI-enlarged head, Bonham Carter plays a monarch with a flare for the dramatic and an appreciation for all those with over sized features. Her incarnation of the Red Queen is as fond of cutting of heads as ever, and even has them littering the moat around her home.
Wasikowska shines in “Alice.” She embodies the stubbornness and wonder typical of the traditional idea of young Alice while still making it clear that the blond girl in the blue dress has grown up since her last foray in this topsy-turvy world.
With interesting characters but a milquetoast and forgettable imagining of Carroll’s tale, Disney’s latest crack at “Alice” was perfectly fine. But not quite wonderful.
Grade: C+
Bangor Daily News