{"id":11287,"date":"2010-07-28T15:00:35","date_gmt":"2010-07-28T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=11287"},"modified":"2012-04-26T08:59:35","modified_gmt":"2012-04-26T07:59:35","slug":"theatrical-review-alice-in-wonderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/theatrical-review-alice-in-wonderland\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatrical review: Alice In Wonderland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"alice_in_wonderland01\"<\/a>\"large_3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Certificate<\/strong>: PG
\nDirector<\/strong>: Tim Burton
\nScreenwriters<\/strong>: Linda Woolverton
\nCast<\/strong>: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter
\nDistributor<\/strong>: Disney
\nRunning Time<\/strong>: 109 mins<\/p>\n

Signing up to direct a pair of 3D films for Disney \u2013 this being the first fruit of this partnership \u2013 Tim Burton\u2019s Alice In Wonderland is not so much a re-imagining of Lewis Carroll\u2019s original tales but an extension. However, as assured and visually stunning as it may be, it finds this most distinctive of filmmakers delivering his least personal film for some time.
\nIt envisages Alice as a 19-year-old in Victorian England, struggling to find her place in a patriarchal society. About to be married off to the twitchy, snivelling Lord Hamish Ascot, Alice, who has been having recurring dreams filled with talking animals and other such \u2018nonsense\u2019, spies a white rabbit in a waistcoat and gives chase, tumbling down a rabbit hole and into the world of Underland (or Wonderland as she mistakenly used to call it). Here she must fulfil a prophecy and defeat a winged Jabberwocky to bring an end to the evil Red Queen\u2019s reign.<\/p>\n

From Alice\u2019s initial arrival, all the ingredients from Carol\u2019s originals are present, if modified slightly: an orange-haired Johnny Depp marks his seventh collaboration with Burton with an eccentric performance as the Mad Hatter, there\u2019s the March Hare, the \u2018evaporating\u2019 Cheshire Cat, and Matt Lucas\u2019s CG-enabled Tweedledum and Tweedledee double act, but what is missing is a sense of Burton. Alice certainly chimes with the series of outsider characters the director has made a career from, but his Underland tale lacks the darker sensibilities that have been pivotal in his most accomplished work. Indeed, the greenscreen\/live action approach renders it a feast for the eyes, one that is sharpened by the 3D presentation, but the unsettling elements of Carroll\u2019s and Burton\u2019s imagination have been softened.<\/p>\n

There are some great performances, though, Helena Bonham Carter especially as the bulbous-headed Red Queen, her court filled with servants that live in fear of her mood swings and animals employed as furniture. Mia Wasikowska, too, is a charming Alice, the young actress adept at conveying the character\u2019s vulnerable side as well as her Jabberwocky-slaying strengths. But Burton and screenwriter Woolverton\u2019s attempts to tell a story that is more than just a series of events achieve mixed results, the end product being an entertaining kids\u2019 film, but one that never capitalises on the meeting of the two creative minds at its heart.<\/p>\n

Wonderland interpreted for a new generation; it’s visually impressive, but lacks Burton’s personal touch.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Or Underland, as it turns out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[869,993],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}