Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland


I had ambition to write an entertaining review of the film, which I very much enjoyed, despite the dire disappointment and disapproval of many critics, but an entertaining review has already been written. I will consider my review complete simply by linking you to a writer worth reading; I disagree with nearly all of his points of contention, but they are written with such style and passion that I can't not enjoy reading them. I hope the same for you. In fact, I liked his words so much, I'm going to underline the ones that particularly piqued my mind.

"Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland; Not nearly curiouser and curiouser enough." By J. Hoberman Tuesday, Mar 2 2010

Walt Disney mulled an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland for decades before producing an animated feature in 1951, although by all accounts, he didn't much care for the prim little protagonist, let alone her supporting cast of "weird characters." One wonders what Uncle Walt would have made of his studio's 21st-century, 19-year-old Alice—a tousle-haired 3-D action figure, who not only consorts with weirdos but decapitates a dragon and drinks a vial of the creature's glowing puce blood.
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The brain child of renegade Disney disciple Tim Burton; the new Alice is casually absurd, off-handed in its violence, and doggedly on message; Alice is a straightforward allegory of female actualization; Alice returns to Wonderland to escape her womanly fate—namely, an engagement to a particularly bilious aristocratic twit; She's a runaway bride and much of what transpires in that moist, warm realm down there demands to be read in specifically feminine terms; Alice may be the healthiest protagonist of Burton's career; the nubile girl is often in an unself-conscious but unmistakable state of dishabille.
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Alice may be a babe, but Eros is largely sublimated; Mad Hatter, his golden eyes matched by an orange fright wig, is scarcely more eligible than Crispin Glover's thoroughly creepy Knave of Hearts; In any case, Wonderland is a gynocracy and rivalry; Carter's irascible Red Queen (her CGI-created bulbous head accentuated by pursed, bee-stung lips) contends for power in Wonderland with the languid, girly White Queen (Anne Hathaway, who needs little more than death-pallor pancake and near-black lipstick to seem equally freakish).
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Presiding over a theme park of total design; terrorizing her deformed, prosthetic-enhanced courtiers; This castrating mega-[w]itch not only unleashes the monstrous Jabberwock on Alice but her own competitive jealousy ("Arrest that girl for unlawful seduction," she screams).
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Lewis Carroll's literal-minded little Alice was something of a logician; Burton's is comfortable with adult irrationality; neither is his Alice the least bit lysergic. On the contrary, the movie is positively sober in its positive image projection and concern with itself; the character of actualized as well as action Alice. Alice even has a plan that involves expanding her jilted father-in-law's enterprise to China. Walt's corporate heirs must be proud.
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Mouse Factory imagineers; Robert Zemeckis's punishing Christmas Carol. The resulting 3-D is shallow and largely superfluous; giving Alice's engagement party the quality of a paper-doll pop-up book. The ferociously popular Burton show; less a retrospective than a cabinet of curiosities; when it was populated by a dazed crowd of dour dweebs, serious goth girls, stroller babies, and Japanese tour groups. The sound of Danny Elfman's sepulchral hurdy-gurdy emanates from a darkened gallery; "Tragic Toys for Girls and Boys."


What else needs to be said?

I have a few descriptors of my own; Fantastic. Inspiring. Crazy. Scary. Delightful. All that a movie should be. All that life should be. Fantastic writing, fantastic movie, fantastic.

Hope all your fantasies come true.


: : Alice in Wonderland: Ebert's Review
: : Alice in Wonderland: J.Hoberman's Review
: : Alice in Wonderland: Wikipaedia page
: : Alice in Wonderland: Amazon page for DVD
: : Alice in Wonderland: Official site