In the much-anticipated, wacky re-imagining of “Alice in Wonderland,” director Tim Burton (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”) takes us to a magical land for which only he could be responsible. “Alice in Wonderland” is a nonsensical, eccentric tale, and Burton’s visually stimulating version is both beautiful and bizarre.
Burton’s reincarnation of “Alice” becomes a coming-of-age story about finding your way and following your convictions. The film also serves as a reminder of why Alice isn’t featured in the Disney Princess franchise — its leading lady is far from prim and proper. In this extension of the original story set forth in the 1865 novel by Lewis Carroll, 19-year-old Alice returns to the magical land she visited in her youth. When we meet Alice, she’s on the verge of an unwanted engagement to a fussy, uptight noble. At her engagement party, Alice spots a White Rabbit wearing a coat and pocket watch. Intrigued, she follows the Rabbit and tumbles down a hole into the dreamland of her youth, where she finds that anything can happen, and nothing is as it seems.
It is the individual characters that make this “Wonderland” magical, and the acting in the film is superb on all counts. Fresh-faced Mia Wasikowska (“Amelia”) almost effortlessly nails the role of Alice, a dreamer who refuses to wear a corset or stockings and regularly believes in six impossible things before breakfast. Wasikowska is the darling newcomer in an otherwise veteran cast, but her performance as Alice is the blueprint of an ideal Burton character — courageous, awkward, dainty, and a little disturbed.
But it is Johnny Depp (“Public Enemies”) as the Mad Hatter who truly steals this show. Depp might be everyone’s favorite sexy swashbuckler, but in “Alice,” he morphs into a bedraggled madman with ease. As the Hatter, Depp sports electric orange hair, overgrown eyebrows, an ascot dotted with soccer balls and the Hatter’s signature tophat. The Mad Hatter’s makeup and accent change often with his mood, giving the impression that his head is crowded with multiple characters.
Not to be confused with the Queen of Hearts, the Red Queen is the wicked ruler of Wonderland — or, as it is called in this version of the story, Underland. The delightfully creepy Helena Bonham Carter (“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”) plays the Queen with a head that’s distorted so that it appears three times its normal size. (“What a regrettably large head you have,” the Hatter tells the Queen at one point.)
The antithesis to Underland’s cruel ruler, the White Queen, is gentle and kind. However, like everyone else in “Alice in Wonderland,” she’s gone a little mad. In true Burton fashion, her beauty is laced with a grotesque humor. Anne Hathaway (“Valentine’s Day”) portrays the White Queen like a spaced-out model on a parade float who has taken a few too many painkillers.
The plot of Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” veers from the original story and the 1951 Disney animated film, and Burton’s efforts to rework this classic story leave it feeling simplified at times. The film lacks many of the intriguing elements of its predecessors; for example, we barely get to know the evaporating Cheshire Cat, or Absolem, the hookah-smoking Caterpillar. The story loses its eerie, mysterious quality and becomes somewhat predictable as the lives of Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen are forced together. In the words of the Mad Hatter, “Alice in Wonderland” is missing some of its “muchness.”
Visually, though, “Alice in Wonderland” is spectacular. The combination of live action and animation allows for an unparalleled use of special effects in what is essentially a children’s fantasy film. The costumes can only be described as whimsical couture (or “Wonderland” chic?), and the scenery, particularly the castle where the Red Queen resides, is just as brilliant as anything Burton has created in a previous film. Aesthetically, it doesn’t get much better than “Alice.” (It also doesn’t hurt that Danny Elfman is responsible for the film’s score).
Despite its minor pitfalls, “Alice in Wonderland” is a very important date for fans of Tim Burton and the fantasy genre. Audiences will enjoy the re-imagined trip down the rabbit hole, and Burton’s vision of Wonderland will certainly be remembered as some of his most imaginative work to date.
3.5 stars out of 5.
