Alice in Wonderland (Fantasy)

How good is Gold Class?! I love being greeted at the door and personally escorted to my big red comfy seat. I love flipping through the menu and deciding which unnecessary treats I’ll have brought to me and at what time. I love kicking off my shoes and reclining with a glass of red wine in anticipation of the upcoming movie. Gold Class just makes the whole movie experience more enjoyable. So much so that I may’ve found even less to enjoy about “Alice in Wonderland” had I not at least had the consolation of seeing it Gold Class style. The latest film version of Lewis Carroll’s classic fairytale, Alice in Wonderland, is directed by Tim Burton who is best known for his film noir including Edward Scissorhands and McSweeney Todd. Usually I love watching Burton films, but after seeing “Alice in Wonderland” I’ve decided he should stick to dark adult movies, fairytales Burton-style don’t really work – even in Gold Class.

“Alice in Wonderland” is essentially a sequel to Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’. In this version, the 19 year old Alice (played by the Australian Mia Wazakowski) returns to the magical world of her childhood adventures. She reunites with her old friends: the White rabbit, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Chesire Cat, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (both played by Matt Lucas of Little Britain fame), and the Blue Caterpillar. In Burton’s film, Alice is the daughter of a wealthy businessman who has since passed away and is now feeling trapped in a world of proper etiquette. The movie begins at a garden party that Alice soon discovers is to be her engagement party. She is set to marry a very unattractive, but wealthy ginga called Hamish (played by Leo Hill). As she’s dealing with the terribly confronting news that she is expected to marry someone she doesn’t love, Alice becomes distracted by a rabbit in a white coat. After completely embarrassing the ginga by failing to give him an answer in front of hundreds of guests, she tells him she needs a moment, runs off to follow the white rabbit and subsequently falls down a hole..

I found the storyline bizarre, but maybe that’s mostly because I was hoping for a story a bit closer to the original. Apparently Tim Burton has said that he had never felt an emotional connection with the story Alice in Wonderland because it simply felt like some girl wandering around meeting one crazy character after another. So rather than make a film about a series of random events, he wanted to make it a story. I found this particularly ironic given that I actually came away from the movie feeling like it was a series of random encounters with one strange character after another.

It’s worth mentioning that “Alice in Wonderland” is another 3D movie. I’m still not sure how I feel about 3D but apparently it’s here to stay. Like Avatar (although admittedly the effects for Avatar were a million times more impressive), I thought the whole 3D experience was amazing for the first hour or so - I even physically ducked a couple of times in my seat as Alice threw things at me – but after a while I just found it distracting and really wanted to take off those ridiculous glasses. With all the advances in technology you would think they could make some relatively cheap but not unattractive 3D glasses wouldn’t you? Personally I think the old cardboard versions with one red cellophane eye and one green one was preferable.

On a positive note, the film did include engaging and entertaining performances by several perfectly cast actors. Unfortunately, Alice wasn’t one of them. I felt she wore the same expression and tone the entire movie and found her to be quite devoid of emotion which is such a shame for the character whom the movie is named after. Johnny Depp on the other hand was incredible as the Mad Hatter – he came across as Mad as a cut snake. And maybe that’s simply because he is mad, rather than being a testament to his incredible acting talent! Either way, the screen lit up every time he appeared. Helena Bonham Carter was also awesome as the Red Queen. She was positively awful and detestable just as she was meant to be. I also particularly enjoyed Stephen Fry as the voice of the Chesire Cat and Paul Whitehouse as the March Hare.

The film also deserves credit on account of the many fun and valuable lessons for kids it effectively incorporates into the story. It even served as a great reminder for adults! For example, there’s the reminder about the power of daring to imagine, and daring to dream. I love Alice’s conversation with the Mad Hatter when she says: “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast” “That is an excellent practice” says the Hatter. I could benefit from believing a few impossible things before breakfast.

I also liked the reminder about being careful not to lose your spirit as you move through life given that expectations and obligations can start to weigh us down. Sometimes we all need someone to remind us about the childhood spirit we once had when we were free of expectations, just like the Mad Hatter does for Alice upon being reintroduced when he exclaims: “You used to be much more muchier. You’ve lost your muchness”. We could all get a little muchier.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, there were a couple of real missed opportunities in Burton’s adaptation. Firstly, there were a number of interesting things that were touched on in the script but never really developed. For example, the desirableness of madness is a theme running throughout the movie. As the Mad Hatter says several times - “Mad is best” (perhaps Burton is trying to reassure himself!). Alice’s father also fondly tells Alice that ‘all the best people are mad”. I thought this was a great underlying theme that could’ve been used to explore the character’s motivations a little deeper and help really tie the story together. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Another disappointment for me was the final battle during which Alice is prophesised to slay the Jabberwocky and overthrow the Red Queen so that Wonderland can again be free. Unfortunately the final battle scene is quite underwhelming. If it weren’t for Johnny Depp’s funderwhack dance (which even I have to admit is particularly impressive in 3D), the last scene would’ve been completely anti-climactic.

So whilst I think “Alice in Wonderland” is a reasonable good family film, is visually entertaining, full of gorgeous costumes, and includes a delightful take on some of the whimsical characters from one of my favourite childhood tales, overall I found the movie disappointing. In short: not much happens, there are too many under developed characters, and for the most part the narrative is pretty uninteresting. In conclusion, if you’ve got young kids, “Alice in Wonderland” will make for a fun family outing during the school holidays. If you’re without kids, be sure to see this film Gold Class with a big glass of vino and a cheese platter - otherwise the film alone is likely to leave you feeling underwhelmed.

• “Alice in Wonderland” marks the 7^th time Johhny Depp has worked with Burton and the 6^th time for Helen Bonham Carter.
• The name of Alice’s father, Charles, is thought to be a tribute to Lewis Carroll, the author of both ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’, also known as Charles Dodgson.
• There are lots of references to both Alice in Wonderland and also ‘Through the Looking Glass” throughout the film. For example, the Red Queen has a rivalry with the White Queen, as she does in ‘Through the Looking Glass’ but the character in all other ways is based on the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, including her obsession with decapitation, and her love of Flamingo and Hedgehog croquet.