Many of us grew up with Disney movies and it is very likely that our first exposure to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was the 1951 animated Disney film. In this film Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and enters a bad acid trip she calls Wonderland. The entire film follows Alice as she meets a bunch of nonsensical and insane characters along her journey. Eventually she wakes up and the movie leaves you wondering if it was real or just a dream.
59 years later Tim Burton decides to create a sequel to that and thus Alice in Wonderland is born and released. But how does it hold up?
Plot
In this movie Alice is 19 years old. While attending a party at a Victorian estate she sees a white rabbit in tail coats and chases after it. Like before, she falls down a hole and enters Wonderland, which is now called Underland. Alice, unfortunately, does not remember her previous visit to this world and thinks it’s just a dream she’s having.
She soon finds out that the Red Queen conquered Underland by stealing the ruling crown from her sister, the White Queen but Alice will slay the Red Queen’s guardian, the Jabberwocky, on the Frabjous Day using the Vorpal Sword. This is foretold in a scroll that tells the whole history history of Underland. So right off the bat you already know how the film will end.
Of course Alice meets many of the various characters she met when she was a child, including the Cheshire Cat, Absolem the smoking Caterpillar, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Mad Hatter, and so on. And there’s some new characters, including a talking dog and some weird monstrous large, white beast.
At the end the two sides meet on the battlefield and, well, I’ll leave it up to you to figure out what happens knowing that the ending is foretold from the beginning.
The Good
It was entertaining. The characters are all delightfully mad. The art is pretty good and colorful for the most part (considering it’s a Tim Burton film that’s pretty weird). I really liked the Cheshire Cat this time around.
The Bad
Well, like I said, you know how the movie will end (at least with the whole Underland part) from the beginning. There are some things that could be considered plot holes or at least idiocy on the part of the characters. For example, they have the ability to create cake that causes people to grow to gigantic heights. Couldn’t they just pass that out to all their knights and step on all the queen’s forces? Even if you say “well, that only works on HUMAN girls” then, well, consider this. They have a cat that can morph into whatever he wants and teleport to and fro wherever/whenever he wants. Poof, he’s behind the queen with a knife. Oops, the queen is dead. The war is over! Anyway..
What the?
The futterwacken dance by the Mad Hatter. Yeah.
Overall though, it may not be the best movie in the world but it was entertaining and I didn’t find myself looking at my watch going “dear lord just how much longer will this go on?” I actually found myself liking it, even though it can be a bit predictable at times. So I’d say go see it if you think the trailers look good. But don’t expect a deep movie with lots of deep plot twists.
Oh yeah, keep in mind I also saw the 2d version. I have no idea how the 3d version is by comparison.
