ALICE IN WONDERLAND

“ALICE IN WONDERLAND” (Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter & Anne Hathaway)

I wasn’t planning on seeing this movie; I had little interest in yet another remake of a story that I never cared for in the first place. But we were in an area with only one theatre, the weather was lousy & the other choice was ‘Cop Out’. . . Enough said.
The only reason I decided to check out Tim Burton’s latest ‘fantasy’ flick was due to Grace Slick’s “White Rabbit” – I literally rolled the lyrics thru my mind as each character from the song was shown onscreen... There’s the hookah smoking caterpillar... There’s the dormouse – Wonder if she’s going to say “Feed your head”?... Okay, how did they get Helena Bonham Carter’s head to fit on that tiny body while interacting with ‘normal’ sized actors, that’s pretty impressive & woo-hoo, she said it, “Off with her head!”
So visually, it was fun to watch, but if it wasn’t for the song, I wouldn’t have thought much of the plot or the acting; Carter was clearly the ‘queen’ of the cast.
I’m sorry if this comes across as sexist, but Mia Wasikowska was a poor choice to play Alice because of her rather plain looks – she seemed much too ‘boyish’ to me. Even though I understood that this was Alice’s second trip to ‘Underland’, she seemed bored with everything that took place.
Sorry, Johnny Depp fans, but other than his large, hue changing eyes, Depp brought very little to the table from an acting standpoint. His Mad Hatter came across as a gay cartoon character as he hammed it up like a bad actor with a lisp.
Anne Hathaway’s White Queen was so badly over-acted, it was embarrassing to watch.
Carter, however, appeared to be having a ball playing the evil Red Queen – she is the lone savior among the ‘human’ cast members.
What made the film worth watching though were the creatures; the rabbits, dogs & cats, etc. It clearly would have been a better film if everyone except the Red Queen were created totally via computer graphics.
At times exceedingly childish and confusing (Let’s be honest, this world was created by someone who had taken more acid trips than all 4 Beatles combined) the ‘Alice In Wonderland’ saga has always been a little too far out in left field for me... Maybe it’s a ‘guy’ thing – I wouldn’t buy a boy taking on a giant dragon armed only with a shield & sword, why would I believe a girl could do it? So you already know the story & you know what happens – is there any real reason to sit thru another re-telling of this weird fairy tale? Only if, like me, you get a kick out of talking rabbits & dogs – otherwise, you’re only going to be cringing at the awful acting by 90% of the cast.