The 2010 blockbuster movie season is officially underway with Tim Burton’s take on Alice breaking records and celebrating all things mad and fantastical. Alice is only tangentially related to Labyrinth, but this movie has long been on the radar of gobblin readers, so I thought I’d open up a thread to talk about it.
My mini review: I really enjoyed it! There were moments I felt a little giddy excitement about being swept away to someplace truly wonderful. I absolutely loved the Cheshire Cat, Red and White queens and the colors and fashions. I thought Alice herself was wonderfully cast and played, but in the middle part of the movie, I would have liked to see her assert herself more, as Alice the girl from the original story, was rather precocious and not one to just step in line with heroics. The one element that didn’t work for me at all was the Mad Hatter. (Sorry, Mandy!) He didn’t strike me as particular mad, just quirky, and those quirks I found more annoying than endearing. I really liked the ending in the real world, which might have been anachronistic, but felt right. The movie is clearly not an adaptation, but even though it takes place 13 years later with a young adult Alice, it isn’t exactly a sequel either. Really, the story feels more like a Narnia or Oz book with the clear good guys and bad guys and the Hatter cast as more of a Scarecrow like “dear friend” role. It’s not necessarily the update to Alice in Wonderland I would have imagined, but it works and I was glad to go along for the adventure.
Okay, that’s my “short” take. What did you guys think? I’m also curious what you guys thought about the importance of 3D for this movie. I watched it in 3D, but in retrospect, I’d rather have saved the $3 and awkwardness of wearing double glasses to see it flat. Let the Frabjous comments commence!
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I’d like to go see it, but I’m kind of split between going to the 3d or the regular version. Regular is nicer, otherwise I’ll have to wear my contact lenses, but if it’s that much better in 3d…
I saw it in 3D on a large but not Imax screen (San Francisco’s only Imax is still running Avatar), and I didn’t think the 3D added much to the film in the way that Avatar or Coraline benefited from it. Personally, I’m not a fan of adding 3D for the sake of 3D as I find that in most movies, the blurriness that occurs in action scenes and the fact that it calls attention to itself makes movies less immersive, not more. But I’m a fuddy duddy who mostly watches art house fare that won’t be going 3D anytime soon, so who am I to judge?
I’d say just see it in 2D. 3D is really cool and all, but not really worth the extra money (or the trouble of contact lenses too). I have not seen it in 2D yet, but I’ve heard it’s just as good either way.
Haven’t gone to see it yet, but I really want to!
Kept hearing some strange things though, like something going on between the Mad Hatter and Alice? Gotta see it for myself though. ^_^
I hadn’t heard that. Perhaps you’re thinking of the Syfy miniseries Alice, which has a romance between Alice and Hatter?
I don’t think the film suggests romance, but it does suggest a bond between the characters that was absent in the original books. Alice’s bond with the Hatter seemed sort of like Dorthy’s special affection for Scarecrow. I confess, though, that I was worried they would take things in romance territory, but I don’t think it crossed that line.
First time I saw it, I was a bit disappointed by a few things, but the second time around I had gotten over that and enjoyed it much more (yes, I saw it twice; I’m a nerd x_x). They could have done quite a bit more with the story and some of the characters. Sorry Jake, but I loved Mad Hatter, he was so much fun! The March Hare was hilarious, and Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts was just perfectly creepy (in a good way, he was one of my favorites). I love how they depicted Alice; she was a much more relaxed and quiet heroine, no annoying screams or whining.
Overall, I thought it was great. Could it have used some more work? Yes. I think we all could have waited a few more months for a film that would blow us all away. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5
see, when there is a movie in 3d, you kinda got to watch it in 3d, or els you will end up wondering what it was like in 3d and end up going to see it in 3d any way…
I liked the move and liked being able to go see a movie… I hardly ever see any in theaters…
Don’t say it like that. xD I can’t see 3D because my sight just can’t seem to pick it up! Not that I would not want to see it in 3D, but ehh. :: shrugs :: 2D is all fine with me.
Personally, I think they are over-doing the trend. :3 But it’s all good, yes.
Don’t feel too bad, gσßℓιη★ρяιηcεss, I can’t see 3D either.
I’ve never really been a fan of Alice in Wonderland. I like fantasy, but there’s a point where it gets too bizarre for me. I actually was interested in this one, though. So my friend and I went to it in 3D and I liked it very much. Maybe it was because I like Tim Burton or maybe it was because it was Through the Looking Glass and Alice was older, I don’t know… I’ve never read either one of the books anyway, so I don’t know.
Honestly, I was not impressed with it in 3D though. Nothing really seemed to pop out. The only cool thing really was the Cheshire cat’s head. It’s not a big deal to see it i n 3D really, so save your money.
I like the chemistry between the Mad Hatter and Alice. I thought it would have been cute if something happened between them but I want that to happen to everyone because I’m just a sucker for romance between the characters, but yes… I agree with you Jake. It was like Dorothy and Scarecrow, and I don’t think it would be right to put Dorothy and Scarecrow together. Alice and the Hatter’s relationship just need to remain like dear friends instead of a romance.
I loved the Hatter though. He was really crazy, which I loved, but I also liked how they made him inspirational as well.
I quite enjoyed it. The secret for me was to forget all about it being Alice in Wonderland, and just approach it as a quirky fantasy film in the same vein as Labyrinth. I did love many elements of the film, especially the Cheshire Cat.
And it was hard not to draw parallels with Return to Labyrinth, since both are stories about a young woman and a fantastic world that she visited and then later forgot. (But you did it first, Jake!)
Yeah, Tanuki — I was thinking of RTL throughout the whole thing. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before the White Queen in that movie is used as Mizumi in AMV’s on youtube. If I were writing the movie for RTL, not to take away from the manga but to put a spin on it, I’d make a trailer where the voice of Mizumi is relating how a powerful king once fell in love with her but later dumped her for a mere human girl — all in flowerly language, of course. As soon as she mentions the girl, a ghostly image of Teen Ballroom Sarah would appear in a bubble — and then pop as we reveal Mizumi, frowning, vowing to find her own key to the heart of Jareth’s kingdom — and acquires a young adult or teen Toby.
Don’t worry about it. I didn’t think it was Johnny Depp’s best role either. To be honest the make up sort of bothered me. It didn’t feel right for the mad hatter. And I didn’t quite understand the shifting accent. So yes, I was a little disappointed with the Mad Hatter too.
And you’re right about the Oz feel to it. This was like Return to Oz if done Wonderland (Underland) style. I think Tim Burton would have happier adapting one of the Oz books and settled for Alice in Wonderland. The title is very misleading. It probably should have been called Return to Wonderland.
Alan Rickman was perfect as the Caterpillar and I loved the Cheshire cat. I felt a little bad for the Red Queen but I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to. I mean she knew she was malshaped and she felt uncomfortable about it so she invited all these misfits (or what she thought were misfits) to be her courtiers. There’s something kind of tragic about that. But I’m not sure I was supposed to feel sorry for her.
I loved the visuals (though the Bandersnatch’s eye bit actually made me a little squeamish and wonder if it was really only PG rating). The end felt a little rushed to me. Visually it was fantastic though. I love Tim Burton’s work and I usually love Danny Elfman’s scoring but the music felt recycled from Charlie and the Chocolate factory except for the opening music. That was wonderful. What I’m really looking forward to though is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows.
@Mandy, I’m definitely looking forward to Dark Shadows too, as it’s absolutely a character based story, which is something I’m glad to see Burton return to after a series of movies with such extreme characters. it wasn’t just the bandershatch who got a serious poke in the eye — the Jaberwocky and Knave did too. Getting poked in the eye in Alice is like getting your arm cut off in a Star Wars movie.
gσßℓιη★ρяιηcεss, I can’t see 3D either. Optic atrophy. My left eye is blind. No depth perception. So what I appreciated about the film was mostly the surreal imagry.
By the way, I’ve linked a very funny review of it by That Guy with the Glasses. Nostalgia Critic is far superior to Nostalgia Chick who gets her facts wrong on a near regular basis and is obsessed with her own gender.
I must agree with you on this: That wasn’t Depp’s best role. :S He didn’t seem mad enough, he wasn’t as excentric as in the original story.
I must say i was a little disappointed with the movie as we have been waiting for a long time and we have built expectations for it. The whole thing about Alice being not Alice wasn’t use to it’s fullest. She was making a journey where she had to rejoin with her old self and I didn’t see an «evolution» of her character in it. It was like: at some point, pouf! She now is The Alice! At the end of the movie, we saw that her trip to wonderland manage to change her, to help her regain her confidence, be we didn’t saw the emotional level of stress that she undergo: she kept saying that she was dreaming and would soon wake up, but as the time went by, she didn’t seem to stress that she wasn’t waking up and that the world might be real: being face with that reality, she should have shown a little mix of some emotions, being as she already went there and thought for all these years that it was only a bad dream.
Also, even though it wasn’t meant to be a real sequel, the story didn’t seem to have any big twists: Alice went with about anything that happened to her and it wasn’t really a surprise. : |
What was interesting is that we manage to see some insights in some characters, but again, those traits weren’t used to their fullest. As in, not every one is an absolute familiar with the original story and without that, there were a lot of things that could not be comprehend. As it was kind of a mix between a sequel and a readaptation( the litte: «she doesn’t seem to remember» and the flashbacks helping on that aspect) , it should have been able to stand for itself, without the help of an external background.
The visual effect were spectacular though! I saw it in 2D and there was already enough detail to look at without having to look at 3D effects!
Overall, it was a good movie but was lacking some depth.
That’s a good analysis, Norehnka. It is almost as if the movie was a sequel to the memories we have of these characters, rather than a sequel to anything Carrol actually wrote.
I found Alice very disappointing, but I have only myself to blame for getting my hopes raised. I thought Burton would be perfect for it, but found that his spin on the characters and the landscape just didn’t gel for me. He moved so far into the fantasy/adventure zone of storytelling that it almost stopped feeling like Alice for me. I understand that he wanted to construct a more coherent narrative than what was present in the original books, but found that by giving the story a sense of logic he removed the ingredient that Alice in Wonderland is best known for: unpredictability.
Also, Alice was frustratingly limp and passive for huge stretches of the film. I know she had the big battle against the Jabberwock at the end of the film, but that just seemed tagged on and insincere. Everything about her fulfilling a prophecy to kill it seemed contrived, and she came across as being reluctant to the point of bored at some points, both due to the script and the acting. Also (sorry, I’m good at complaining. It’s an English trait) the way she spent the first half of the movie being carted around from place to place by various friends/creatures quickly got tiring, and I found myself waiting for Alice to do something – anything, really – of her own initiative. For comparison, I know Sarah isn’t the most pro-active heroine out there, but I think that’s allowed because she wasn’t supposed to have her basis in another character; at the start of Labyrinth at least, Sarah was meant to be somewhat infantile and useless, so she could grow out of those traits as the movie progressed. Book Alice, on the other hand, was extremely stoical and independent as a seven year old, traits that seem to have been drained out of movie-Alice. I really think it would have worked better if Burton had constructed his own, original fantasy, because he’s never going to escape negative comparisons by basing his films on works as highly established as Alice.
On the plus side, I did enjoy some of it very much. The whole thing looked beautiful, and Helena-Bonham-Carter as the Red Queen was absolutely hysterical throughout, the perfectly overgrown-toddler monarch.
Despite my tirade, I am glad that people enjoyed the film and that it’s doing well; hopefully it will lead to a lot more quirky (not high!) fantasy films appearing in cinemas.
I just saw alice and I feel I must watch it a second time in order to give a good review BUT I must say I did enjoy it a bit.
And since everyone seems to have something to say about him My take on the Mad Hatter is that he has a case of multipule personality disorder, at one piont he says to Alice something like ” I feel cramped in there” refering to his head that Alice is holding as she is trying to calm him down after one of his Scotish rants.
* When Christopher Lee is going to be a voice in your movie, I don’t care if you are Tim Burton, give the man more than two lines. Gosh.
* “THEY KILLED MY JABBER-BABY-WOCKY?” – amazing.
* “…..spoon.” – FTW.
* KNEADING CHESHIRE CAT. squee
* Alan Rickman. ’nuff said.
Ahem. Yeth. I liked it. ^_^
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’m planning to do it soon, probably with some friends. But everybody from my class, who has seen it, says that it’s quite good, so it can’t be that bad. I do remember, though, when reading the books that I found Alice a bit annoying. Ah well, she has 13 years and Tim Burton to change in.
P.S. I was in Dublin this week so happy belated St. Patrick’s Day! This has got to be the national holiday for the goblins as well, with all that beer consumation going on all the time.
At least the march hare was delightfully mad.
“SPOON!”
I liked the animation. I wanted to cuddle the Cheshire Cat, he looked so soft, and the Jabberwocky was impressive.
In general, it was OK. The only thing that really annoyed me was the White Queen. She was just…. annoying. xP
I will refrain from going into a big rant, but I honestly detested this movie. There were a few moments that weren’t too bad, but over all I thought it was a rather bland story, full of uninteresting characters, and focused way too much on trying to be eye candy that altogether made me feel like I had wasted an afternoon going to see it.
Kristi,
I’ll be honest — my “really liked” in regards to this movie is more of a “yes, it’s true, I enjoyed it” than a real endorsement. I must have caught it on a good day, but I could have just as easily come away feeling the way you did. As eye candy and a few funny bits, it entertained me, but in a shallow way. Maybe it was Stephen Fry’s Cheshire cat that soothed me into a moderate “thumbs up.”
I think that Alice in Wonderland is just one of those movies doomed to have divided opinions. As I said, I detested it, but my friend who I saw the movie with loved it. The movie doesn’t really stand on it’s own, so its degree of how good or how bad it is is dependant on the personality of the person who sees it.
As for the Cheshire Cat, I spent too much time questioning the shape of his skull to really enjoy his performance. Same goes for a few other characters actually, I spent far too much time questioning their design or personality to just let the movie sink in.
But yeah, I can see how this movie would get an “Okay” rating. As I said, a few interesting bits, but not at all what I would call a good movie.