How many people remember the books "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carol? I checked the two books out not too long ago, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. The novels are classic works of literature, and have eventually been made into a cartoon film by Walt Disney. Well, Disney has produced yet another version of the film, this time directed by Tim Burton, and the movie has already sold more tickets than Avatar, which I consider to be a very good movie. Be sure to read my review of it if you haven't already. Anyway, the new Alice in Wonderland movie isn't too bad, but there were some things that I still think could have been better.
The plot of the movie takes place after "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". Alice is much older, presumably in her teens, and she winds up in Wonderland much the same way as she did in the first novel. However, the plot slowly starts to take a firm twist from the originals, as the residents of Wonderland debate whether this Alice is the one they were looking for to slay the dreaded Jabberwocky, whom the Red Queen uses to oppress the creatures of Wonderland. At first Alice is doubtful and has no memory of her previous visit, but as the movie unfolds, she finally starts to accept that that is what she was destined to do. This eventually drives her to search for the Vorpal Sword and free Wonderland from the tyranny of the Red Queen.
There were some things that I did like about the movie. Disney did take a huge creative license with the movie, and it still felt like Alice in Wonderland, so I had no problem with that. They got away with setting it after the 2 novels, and they even gave the hookah smoking caterpillar a name - Absalom. The movie also had a little bit of cheeky humor, like the scene where Alice is in the Queen of Hearts' garden buck naked because she outgrew her clothes, which made me snicker a little bit.
Despite those things, however, there were some things that irked me about the movie. For one, even though they got Johnny Depp to play the role of the Mad Hatter, there were times were he would seem to randomly pick up a Scottish accent for no reason, which seemed kind of annoying at times. But what bothered me the most was one detail that either Tim Burton or Disney didn't seem to care about. The movie makes no distinction between the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts. In the novels they're 2 entirely separate characters, but in this film the Queen of Hearts is simply referred to as the Red Queen, and it can't have been by accident because all of the White Queen's soldiers look like chess pieces, so they must have known what they were doing.
Overall, if you enjoyed the novels and the original film, you will definitely like this movie. Despite the box office results, however, I still enjoyed Avatar a lot more. I give this movie an 8 out of a possible 10.
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