Tim Burton must feel an affinity with social misfits and worlds which show a warped, off-balance presentation of setting and time. After all, this is the director who for over twenty-five years now has shown his distinctive view of a world he does not seem to understand through films which offer characters who do not fit in. Burton has done this with solely original works, like the Frankenstein-inspired Edward Scissorhands and his ode to cross-dressing B movie director Ed Wood, and with pre-existing stories onto which he puts his own “Burtonesque” spin. The latter has been his moviemaking sensibility as of late. In the past decade or so, Burton has tinkered or “re-imagined” numerous pop culture namesakes . Audiences have seen his view of the Headless Horsemen story with Sleepy Hollow, labored through his arduous Planet of the Apes rebirth, and wondered at the lavish, yet creepy candy factory owned by Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now, moviegoers are privy to his take on Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland.
As with his previous works, Alice in Wonderland presents Burton with the chance to yet again present a character who retreats from the social norms of the world in which they reside. Alice assumes that role here, joining Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka, and Ed Wood in Burton’s cast of the different. Here, though, Burton paints Alice in a different light from his other film leads. Alice is not odd to society because of her looks or actions, but because of her ideas. As the film opens, Alice, as a young lady of appropriate age residing in Victorian London, is expected to enter into marriage with a man for whom she has no feelings for no other reason than that is what she is supposed to do. This is not what Alice has in mind. Independent-minded, she stands athwart the social conventions of the time and questions why this has to happen to her. As hundreds of guests, her mother, and her groom-to-be await her marital decision at a lavish outdoor engagement party, Alice flees into the woods chasing a white rabbit that is lurking among the bushes. She winds up, however, falling down an endless hole and landing in the magically strange world of Underland.
Once in Underland, Alice encounters characters from Carroll’s book, and the 1951 classic Disney film, that audiences will recognize, such as the White Rabbit, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter. All the characters inform Alice that as a child she once visited their land. Having no memory of the trip and believing the talking animals and dark world she is encountering to be a dream, Alice agrees to help them fulfill the reason the White Rabbit has lured her back to Underland: to defeat the Red Queen who viciously rules Underland by slaying a horrific dragon called the Jabberwocky.
Burton has a steady hand on creating a specific look and style for Alice in Wonderland. If Burton succeeds at anything as a filmmaker, it is crafting visually arresting films with a style that is uniquely his own. Always borrowing from the look of German Expressionism films, Burton molds Alice in Wonderland into a dark, brooding world lurking with fog, shadows, gloomy skies, buildings with crooked, off-centered architecture, and forests gleaming with strange happenings at every turn, like the Cheshire Cat dissolving into a green mist. Like Burton’s other films, this is a hauntingly beautiful movie to watch and is hypnotic because the screen constantly calls on the audience to marvel at the gorgeousness of the images Burton provides. Most of the film is computer generated but it is done well. The only qualm is that the film is shown in 3-D. Nothing is gained by projecting this movie in the 3-D format. It feels more gimmicky than anything else and only reflects a trend that is now coming from Hollywood because of the success of Avatar and that is that money is to be had from 3-D movies.
The actors also aid in making this a wonderment to watch. Newcomer Mia Wasikowska has a silent movie star quality to her, portraying much with her eyes and movements. She gives Alice a gentle, yet firm presence. She is young, but not naïve. Gentle, but not soft. This is the perfect balance for Burton’s view of Alice as an independent-minded young woman vexed by contemporary society who finds escape and a chance to make her own choices once she goes down the rabbit hole. The rest of the cast is a lineup of Burton regulars. As the Mad Hatter, who aids Alice in her quest to overthrow the Red Queen and kill the Jabberwocky, Johnny Depp maddeningly giggles and parades his way through a very animated performance. His pale white makeup, huge eyes, and puffy, orange hair resembles a manic clown. This is Depp and Burton’s seventh collaboration together and Depp’s performance here is probably the least captivating role of those films. There just is not much for Depp to do beyond acting peculiar, showing off some inane dancing, and offering nuggets of encouragement to Alice. Helena Bonham Carter, Burton’s real- life partner, is quite campy as the Red Queen. Her digitally enlarged head and Kabuki-like makeup certainly make it fun to watch her. Anne Hathaway as the White Queen does a good job acting serenely and Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts, the Red Queen’s chief henchman, is deliciously sinister. The rest of the cast is made up of British voice talent, including Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky, all of whom do no disappoint.
For all the work Burton puts into making Alice in Wonderland visually stunning and character-rich, much more work should have been put into what happens to Alice once she tumbles into Underland. At first, there is excitement and a sense of apprehension emitting from the story as Alice meets the various characters who inhabit this strangely odd world. But instead of making a story that is as unconventional as the universe in which Alice finds herself, Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton go as conventional as they can and have the main crux of the story revolve around a heroine, in this case Alice, leading an army and destroying a giant monster. We have seen this before- in the Lord of the Rings, some of the Harry Potter films, and other contemporary fantasy works. Not that it does not work in Alice in Wonderland- it does. The film’s climax is well-executed, but at the same time we feel that Burton, knowing that this is his chance to put his own stamp on an existing story that is so weird and odd to begin with, should have done something that was a little different and not so average. Perhaps it is time for Burton to move on from this “re-imagining” phase he has been pursuing and get back to making more original films like Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood. Maybe this will give Burton the opportunity to pursue more uniquely original stories that fit his grasp for intriguing visuals and rich characters. Alice in Wonderland ultimately entertains but, like Alice questioning societal norms, it leaves the audience wondering if this is how it has to be.
Grade: B-
