Alice in Wonderland

Perhaps the most enduring image from my experience seeing Tim Burton’s sequel to Alice In Wonderland came not from the movie itself but from what I witnessed as I filed out of the theatre. As I walked by the people lining up for the later show I saw the kind of thing I expected only from Star Wars, Star Trek or Superhero movies – costumed geek-boys (and girls). There was a mad hatter, a girl in a blonde wig and another wearing white rabbit ears. And I remember thinking ‘Does Alice In Wonderland really have that much pop culture street cred?” But as I thought back on the film, it occurred to me that it had to and it probably hurt the film in the long run.

This is not a reboot of a franchise but rather an old fashioned sequel where we see Alice 13 years after she first went down the rabbit hole. Now as a 20 year-old Alice is surprised to find herself at her own engagement party. A stuffy twit named Hamish asks for her hand although it is clear the two have nothing in common. All these years later, she is still full of wonder and enjoys pondering the impossible while he seems to want to chastise her for wasting time thinking about impractical things. Her hesitancy in answering is proposal is further fueled by repeated sightings of a white rabbit dressed in a top coat. There is something very familiar about this rabbit even though she is convinced her previous experience was nothing more than a dream. She chases the rabbit, falls down the rabbit hole and so begins Alice’s new adventure in Wonderland.

Cue Tim Burton.

What works best in Alice in Wonderland is how Burton is able to combine a world already established in classic literature with his own stylistic vision. This film is visually stunning, along with every other film in Burton’s catalog. He portrays Wonderland (the actual name for the place is “Underland”) as a world of hyper realism. Everything and everyone in it is exaggerated. The scary animals are terrifying, the wicked Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) is grotesquely evil, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is bizarre in both appearance and behaviour, and the good White Queen (Anne Hatheway) has an almost angelic (with just a hint of goth) in the vibe she gives off. Burton does an excellent job in realizing these characters and making them seem fresh and compelling.

Equally strong as Burton’s direction was the performances of the actors portraying the main characters. Mia Wasikowska plays the 20 year old Alice with the delicate combination of wide-eyed wonder and inner strength. I was most captivated by her when she was in her ordinary world standing out as a fresh voice in a world on conformity. Wasikowska plays her not as a some silly flighty girl but as someone who genuinely has something to say and doesn’t feel anyone around is listening. In wonderland she is able to step up when needed to and make that seem believable.

Johnny Depp is brilliant as the Mad Hatter. It seems likely that Depp and Burton are soul mates from another time and universe. Depp is able to play someone who needs to be over-the-top insane with a humanity that makes the audience genuinely sympathetic to him. In the hands of a lesser actor, the character would be a caricature of the Hatter and certainly less appealing.

Where this movie breaks down however is in the story itself. SPOILER ALERT Shortly after she arrives in Wonderland, Alice learns that her return is no accident that she is brought back at this time. A special day is approaching and it has been foretold that Alice will slay the jabberwocky and this end the Red Queen’s evil reign over Wonderland. They even role out a scroll which contains detailed drawings of Alice battling the dragon-like creature. While this works great to motivate why the residents of Wonderland need to find Alice and bring her back, it tips its hand too much regarding the 3rd act.

The main thrust of the story involves Alice getting to the Red Queen’s castle so she can get a special sword that she will use to slay the jabberwocky. Once she has it and escapes to the White queen’s castles they try to make a big issue of whether or not Alice will step up and slay the beast. But by showing the scroll with the never wrong prophesies, they already ruined that dramatic moment. We know she is going to step and do it so all attempts at Hamlet-esque dithering fall short of the mark.

Beyond that there is a more fundamental flaw in the design of this story. In these type of adventure stories, the “brave new world” adventure needs to inform the protagonist on issues he or she faces back in the real world. In the Wizard of Oz for example, Dorothy is unhappy where she is and would rather be anywhere else. After being whisked away to Oz and going through the adventure, what great lesson does she take away from it? There’s no place like home.

In this story, there doesn’t seem to be any connection between the adventure she undertakes and the impact it has on her real life. She doesn’t have to physically best a dragon to know she shouldn’t marry Hamish and instead go on and live a fulfilling life on her own terms. The writer makes this painfully obvious from the opening scenes of the movie. And her life’s decision at the end can’t be traced back to any life lesson she picked up in her second adventure in Wonderland. The jabberwocky scene seems placed there because with the special effects capability Burton has at his disposal, they can’\t resist a drawn out battle. They want to turn Alice into a Laura Croft type at the end of this film. It doesn’t seem to fit in any way.

To the degree this movie works, it is only because of the classic material it uses at a starting point. But the real test is – would this story have been successful if it was released as an original piece today> Sadly, I believe the answer is no. Had it been an original piece more work would have to have gone into making the story work on several levels. But this work wasn’t done likely because they knew they didn’t have to. They could release a fairly flashy yet flat movie and what would be the result? Fanboys and Fangirls lined up and dressed as their favorite characters.

The blessing and the curse of doing a sequel to Alice in Wonderland.