Tim Burton once again teams up with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter to deliver Burton’s usual dark vision – this time of Alice in Wonderland. Mia Wasikowska takes on the role of Alice, now 19, and convinced that everything she experienced in Wonderland 13 was nothing more than a nightmare. The film is being shown in both 2D and 3D, however, only the 2D version is going to be reviewed.
Alice’s Return to Wonderland
For 13 years Alice Kingsley (Wasikowska) has been having dreams and nightmares about a Mad Hatter, a white rabbit in a waistcoat, a smiling pussy cat and a big headed red queen. During the day her life is being laid out before her and as a 19-year old in Victorian society she will soon be called upon to marry and have a family. After receiving a proposal from a thoroughly uninteresting man, and seeing a white rabbit in a waistcoat Alice runs off and finds a rabbit hole at the base of a tree. She peers into the hole...
After tumbling down the rabbit hole she makes her way into the bizarre world she has seen in her dreams for years. Once there she encounters the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry). The cat leads her to the Mad Hatter (Depp) who protects her from the soldiers of the Red Queen (Bonham Carter) and informs Alice that in her absence the Red Queen has taken over Wonderland using a fearsome creature called the Jabberwocky that only Alice can slay.
In her journey to return home Alice is forced to face the Red Queen and find allies in the unlikely form of Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), the Hatter and the Red Queen’s sister - the White Queen (Anne Hathaway)
Winning Team Reunite Once Again
Johnny Depp and Tim Burton have proven themselves to be a great team time and time again, and Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp also have a great onscreen partnership that has previously been successful with films that include Sweeny Todd (also directed by Burton). As a result there are two great actors and a director famous for his gothic style and visionary imagination. The three take on a story in which both Depp and Bonham Carter can play the Hatter and Red Queen respectively in as weird and wonderful way as they desire set against the bizarre Wonderland Burton creates.
To her credit Mia Wasikowska does not look out of place beside the well known faces around her, and manages to portray Alice with a naive charm and initially the firm belief that she is going to wake up at any moment.
However, Depp is without a doubt the star of the show and in exactly the same way he did when he portrayed Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean he steals every scene. He will also leave the audience with the feeling that they could have watched the Hatter all night and not gotten bored. One of the best parts of his portrayal is the fact that the Hatter’s voice changes to reflect his mood going from high pitched and even squeaky one minute to deep and dark the next. After giving audiences the brilliantly weird Captain Jack it would not be surprising if Burton simply allowed Depp to portray the Hatter in whatever manner he saw fit.
Alice in Wonderland is kind-of a sequel but to nothing in particular. It helps if the audience has seen a film adaptation or are familiar with the story but if they haven’t or are not then it doesn’t really matter because they will still be able to follow what is happening. The 2D version of the film is colourful, imaginative and Depp is a delight to watch, however, audiences may wish to experience the full vision of the film by heading back to the cinema and watching it in 3D.
4/5
Depp is a joy to watch and the film itself is an excellent take on the Alice in Wonderland story
Christopher Sharman - In 2009 I self-published my first novel entitled The Darkness Saga: The Light (currently available at amazon.co.uk) which has been ...
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