Years after the original Alice in Wonderland, Alice is now the captain of her Father's ship "The Wonder". But when the ship, her Mother's home and basically her whole life is on the verge of being taken away, she finds herself returning to Underland through a mirror. She arrives to find the Hatter's health deteriorating. He believes his family is alive after they are presumed killed by the Jabberwocky. It's up to Alice to travel through time to find them....but Time is against her.
Cast
Who will like this movie
With it's bright colors and wondrous effects and action, young viewers will certainly be entertained. Not too young, however because of it's sometimes dark themes. Fans of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaborations may be disappointed by this, their 9th work together.
Phantom Thoughts
This review didn't exist when the original "Alice in Wonderland" came out in 2010. That's right....it's been 6 years since the last movie. That's kinda significant. But more on that later. And although I am quite the fan of The Depp, I was not really too impressed with that adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic.
Needless to say, I wasn't overly excited to see the "sequel" this past week. And I put sequel in quotes because Alice in Wonderland was already a mix of the two books: Alice Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. So when they wrote this one, they had to come up with a brand new story to tell with no reference to pull from. Add that to the fact that Tim Burton only produced this one, as opposed to directing it like he did the first, and it spells out failure from the start. Still, I've been pleasantly surprised before, so I gave it a shot. Seems my first thoughts were the correct ones unfortunately.
The story centers around the search for the Mad Hatter's family and looking for them through time. Time is personified as a new character and brought to life by Sacha Baron Cohen. Poor Johnny Depp has almost no lines that doesn't include the word "Family" in it....and it gets annoying really quickly. So rather than suffer through it, I suggest changing it into a drinking game.....everytime the Mad Hatter says "Family" while watching this movie, take a drink. You'll be hammered in 20 minutes and won't care that you're basically watching a colorful passage of two hours of your life.
The Mad Hatter is not as "mad" as he was before.....and Cohen is not as whimsical as most of his characters are. But there is one interesting twist on his portrayal of Time....see, he is first presented as most older people see him... a villain. But as the movie moves forward, you come to realize that Time is not bad or good. It just is.
One other small perk that the nerd in me found....the slight Doctor Who theme that rose for just a moment as Alice and the Hatter are racing through the time vortex.
Well played, Sir....well played.
I mentioned that they had to write a new story for this one, but they still needed some connection to the first. So references were written in to accomplish just that. Here's the problem...I told you it has been 6 years from that one, so for me at least, the references were lost. Except one. We do see the ironic fate of the Knave of Hearts who was played by Crispen Glover's disembodied head. For half of Alice in Wonderland, I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong with that character. Then I realized that his WHOLE BODY except for his head was CGI. I figure it was to make him look more comical and dream-like....but I just found it unnecessary. Oh....and the irony I referenced? The Knave of Hearts dead body is seen sitting in a chair at one point....and then his skull rolls off his body. Haha!
The thing that disappoints me most is that THIS was the final movie of the great Alan Rickman, the voice of Absolem, the Caterpillar (the Butterfly in this version). He deserved such a better send off than this. Maybe I'll go watch his other winged role....Metatron, the Angel in Kevin Smith's Dogma. It would be a much better use of my...Time.
Until next Time, see you in the center seat.
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