Alice in Wonderland (I) (2010)

19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen's reign of terror.

Director:

Tim Burton

Writers:

Linda Woolverton (screenplay), Lewis Carroll (books)

Stars:

Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter

Won 2 Oscars. Another 20 wins & 42 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Depp	...	Mad Hatter
Mia Wasikowska	...	Alice Kingsleigh
Helena Bonham Carter	...	Red Queen
Anne Hathaway	...	White Queen
Crispin Glover	...	Stayne - Knave of Hearts
Matt Lucas	...	Tweedledee / Tweedledum
Michael Sheen	...	White Rabbit (voice)
Stephen Fry	...	Cheshire Cat (voice)
Alan Rickman	...	Blue Caterpillar (voice)
Barbara Windsor	...	Dormouse (voice)
Paul Whitehouse	...	March Hare (voice)
Timothy Spall	...	Bayard (voice)
Marton Csokas	...	Charles Kingsleigh
Tim Pigott-Smith	...	Lord Ascot
John Surman	...	Colleague #1

Storyline

Alice, an unpretentious and individual 19-year-old, is betrothed to a dunce of an English nobleman. At her engagement party, she escapes the crowd to consider whether to go through with the marriage and falls down a hole in the garden after spotting an unusual rabbit. Arriving in a strange and surreal place called "Underland," she finds herself in a world that resembles the nightmares she had as a child, filled with talking animals, villainous queens and knights, and frumious bandersnatches. Alice realizes that she is there for a reason--to conquer the horrific Jabberwocky and restore the rightful queen to her throne.

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Plot Keywords:

queen | destiny | rabbit | engagement party | animal | 

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Taglines:

The Cheshire Cat

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Genres:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar

Details

Official Sites:

Disney [Germany] Disney [France]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 March 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alice in Wonderland: An IMAX 3D Experience

Filming Locations:

Antony House, Torpoint, Cornwall, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£10,555,220 (UK) (5 March 2010)

Gross:

$334,185,206 (USA) (2 July 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Pictures, Roth Films, Team Todd

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX SDDS Sonics-DDP (IMAX version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor, Christopher Lee, Michael Gough, Imelda Staunton, and Jim Carter all recorded their dialogue in one day.

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Goofs

When Alice and her mother arrive at the engagement ball, the mother's hair switches many times from over her shoulder to behind it.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Lord Ascot: Charles, you have lost your senses? This picture is impossible.
Charles Kingsleigh: Precisely. Gentlemen, the only way to achieve the impossible, is to believe it's possible.

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Crazy Credits

The beginning credits are seen to be flying through a city. The 3D version makes this twice as amazing.

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Connections

Referenced in Malice in Lalaland (2010)

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Soundtracks

"Painting Flowers"
Written by Alex Gaskarth
Performed by All Time Low

User Reviews

Movie Review: 'Alice in Wonderland' is a beautiful world to behold

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is a sequel and not a retelling of the original children's novels by Lewis Carroll. In this film, Alice is now 19-years old, and soon after the death of her father, is proposed to be married away. Feeling pressured, she runs off, following a white rabbit, which leads her to Wonderland, a place she only vaguely remembers from childhood. There, she meets past familiar faces as the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), and eventually the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), who has been terrorizing the land with her harsh rule and beheading of heads. Alice finds out that her destiny is to end the Red Queen's rule by slaying the queen's dragon, Jabberwocky, as written in the prophesy. Along the way she meets up with all sorts of colorful characters.

If you remember, Steven Spielberg's Hook was the live action sequel to Peter Pan. Similarly, Tim Burton's film is very much like a close cousin, except it's about Alice. The progression of the story is also kind of similar, where the main character, Alice, like Peter, must rediscover herself and finally defeat her nemesis. Likewise, both films are both elaborately staged, they are both about growing up and making choices, and there's a big showdown. Chances are if one liked Hook, one will find many things to like about Alice.

Tim Burton's version of the Wonderland's environments are gorgeous, imaginatively created, lots of colorful details, and breathes life. The castles are sleek and intricately designed. The creatures are generally live versions (CG) of the Disney's previous animated version, and they're even more odder and fun to look at. I particularly loved the portrayal of the Chesire Cat in this film, and the way he snakes through midair like water feels very natural, although it wouldn't feel so natural in real life. Only complaint I may have in terms of visuals would probably be where we see CG versions of natural creatures like dogs--they're not particularly stylized so their CG-ness can be more noticeable.

Danny Elfman's score fits the environment just right, giving added intensity when needed. This film is essentially Tim Burton's playground and even if there wasn't any story, it still would be plenty of fun to just watch the loony characters in their environment. I will add that 3-D aspect of it helped a lot.

Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter with usual gusto, as he brings much energy and quirkiness to such an oddball character. I suppose there is a mix of Willy Wonka and Jack Sparrow in there somewhere. Given that other characters are mostly or completely CG, Johnny Depp's character can feel a bit of out of place, as he still feels human. Helena Bonham Carter as the big-headed (literally) Red Queen is fun, expressive, and extremely likable for such a short-tempered character. Mia Wasikowska is particularly noteworthy as Alice, which she plays with free-spirited pluckiness, charm, and beauty.

The story, admittedly, is a simple one, although it is to the story's credit that Alice is now an adult--it helps since many happenings in Wonderland can be quite unfriendly, bizarre, and grotesque. Thankfully, no more worries about some dream causing some lifelong trauma to some poor child. I also appreciated the fact that her Wonderland, like dreams, is an extension of her frustrations with the "real" world, where she felt she had many "expectations" from outside forces. At the same time, it's not like Where the Wild Things Are, where other characters are actually projections of real-life people from the main character's life. For example, to read Mad Hatter as an extension of her father feels a bit like a stretch, although the Red Queen could possibly represent her future mother-in-law since they both dislike animals. Certainly, one can merely enjoy it at face value and the creativity of this world and be fine with it.

Overall, I enjoyed this world of Alice. In one sense, that may be the important thing, if one were to stick to the flavor of the original novel. The story within the Wonderland, I felt, wasn't as poignant as "real life" moments, which were filmed with much love and detail. Given the fact that original story consisted of series of random events and character interactions, it was nice to see the characters work together a bit. The overall result isn't something beyond what one would expect from this style of work, but it's fun, and where it succeeds, it succeeds well, thanks to the consistency of Tim Burton's imaginative visuals. *** out of **** stars.

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