“Do you think I’ve gone around the bend?” – Alice
Today my library brings me to the Lewis Carroll classic story Alice in Wonderland from 2010 directed by Tm Burton. There are so many versions of this movie it is hard to keep track of them all, thankfully I only own this one. This one stands alone in my opinion because it takes pieces from Carroll’s classics and mashes them into this movie. With Tim Burton at the helm you of course have to have Danny Elfman doing the music, Johnny Depp as a supporting character and Helena Bonham Carter as the most interesting role. Not that I am complaining I love just about anything they make together.
Even though the whole story is done thru computer animation it doesn’t come off as having too little happening or it being too dense. The colors and background it uses gives us a sense that Wonderland could be just down the rabbit hole or in our next dream. Other British made Alice in Wonderland movies have tried this but they just don’t work. They don’t look like Alice fell through a rabbit hole or went through a looking-glass they looked like Alice went out into a forest. This one though just worked between the good acting, great CGI, and an original story based on all of the good elements of every Alice story.
The Hatter and Cheshire Cat seem to represent Lewis Carrol in this movie. They both drive the story, mad in their own way, speak in riddles, and both always have something hidden up their sleeve. From start to finish though this movie is fun and pays the right homages to the story and stays true to Carroll’s original vision. Helena Bonham Carter gets the great honor of being a great villain and the most original character in this movie. At a certain point you can see Wonderland from her eyes and you see why she is the way she is and you almost feel bad for her. Well nothing really makes up for the animal cruelty but hey they tried. The casting was great and they didn’t act it as though they were in a movie they acted as if they were on a Broadway play which works since this story is so crazy. Which worked very well these days since people are so much more vocal about being a little mad or weird. Which thankfully I’m a little of both myself watching and owning over 300 movies mostly alphabetically.
The next movie up is the Marvel superhero get together The Avengers. Time to watch Thor bring down the hammer, watch the Cap take point, Iron Man blast some ACDC, Sam Jackson gets to motivate us with a good speech, Hawkeye get a good shot, Black Widow to show off the goods, and let the Hulk smash. Until then this cinephile is out.
Sean O'Keefe 