The highly anticipated adaptation and remake of “Alice in Wonderland” seemed to have missed the wonderful aspect with a spotty plot line that left audiences with a sense of confusion and uncertainty, but the film succeeded in its wow factor with visually stunning effects and a distinct art direction and darkness commonly associated with director Tim Burton.
A story many are familiar with, “Alice in Wonderland” tells of a young woman named Alice who follows a peculiar rabbit wearing a waist coat and carrying a pocket watch down a hole into a fantasy world she has seen in her dreams where the impossible becomes reality. After various interactions with animals who can speak and people who are mentally unsound, Alice learns she is part of a prophecy to be the savior of Wonderland and release it from the reign of the foul Red Queen and back into the kind hands of the White Queen. Alice denies her role and says she cannot defeat the Red Queen’s beast, the Jabberwocky, but later claims her duty of overthrowing the Red Queen in a battle and fights to an end.
Like much of Burton’s work, “Alice” kept many of the elements he used in other films consistent, such as original music composer, actors and art direction style. Although these aspects have been successful in his other films, they did not seem to be enough to make “Alice” as successful.
Fans of both Burton and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” waited long months and had high expectations for Burton’s rendition of the classic tale only to be disappointed with a plot that had a few rabbit holes of its own. An important aspect of the film, the audience knows that the Red Queen, portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter, has overthrown her sister the White Queen, who is played by Anne Hathaway, and taken control over Wonderland. However, the story of why or how she came to do it was absent. Also, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter gave a genuinely raving performance, but he seemed to come in and out of the portrayal with a seemingly random Scottish accent that was never really understood by the audience its purpose. It is known that the Hatter is clearly maniacal and all over the place, but what is the significance of the Scottish aspect of the Mad Hatter about? Some of these small gaps in back story or the plot were enough to distract audiences from the film’s focus.
Though the story line faltered, Burton assembled a fantastical cast and crew that created the dream world Alice new as Wonderland. Mia Wasikowska portrayed the title character of Alice with the curiousness and bravery expected of Alice, despite the age difference in the book and the film (Alice is meant to be seven in Carroll’s version, while Burton’s has her 19). Between Depp and Carter, the performances were colorful and vibrant, leaving the audience entertained as well as humored. Like the acting, the visual factors of the film were also vibrant and embraced the ability to create the fantasy of Carroll’s tale. For “Alice,” the talents of production designer Robert Stromberg came through brilliantly, just as they did when he worked on Avatar. Similar to Avatar, “Alice” has nice color pallets that lend to the strange and dream-like world, but some of Burton’s signature darkness and gothic art direction is still present with intricately twisted trees and structures and saturation of color. Another element lending a hand to create Wonderland was the original music done by Burton favorite and regular, Danny Elfman. Elfman’s orchestrated and complex compositions give the film its mystery and suspense creating nicely the mood “Alice” needed to draw in its audience.
Despite the faulty plot, “Alice” had aesthetics that couldn’t go unnoticed, but is this enough to keep audiences fully attentive and flowing into box offices for Burton’s latest, or will they be just as eager as the Red Queen to yell, “Off with his head!”?
