ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton

An In-DEPPth Look at Depp and the Mad Hatter! (Phew! Now that we've gotten the ridiculous pun out of our system, let's get on with the review)


The Incoherent Intro

Call me strange but I've never been particularly fond of Alice in Wonderland. I remember reading the simplified children's version when I was six and thinking how obscure and contrived the story was (okay…I probably didn't know those words at that age, perhaps the more accurate feeling would be "tak best ah cerita nih.. pening!"). It was perhaps second in my list of Least Favourite Children Stories (right after The Real Princess which just made me feel like smacking that whiny and ungracious bimbo of a princess!!). I probably just read a very bad adapted version but that kind of ruined it for me, to a point where I did not find the original Lewis Carrolls's Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass books enjoyable at all, despite reading it years after. (Okay all you Alice's fans.. please don't fly off the handle here!)

Having said that, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are (two great) reasons enough for me to want to see this movie. Besides, one would definitely be curious to see what modern technology can do to showcase such a brilliantly imaginative and colourful children's classic. The movie posters and trailers were indeed seductive and tantalising enough. So watched it I did. (in 3D some more! First time mami tengok 3D chekk oooiii!). And it certainly did not disappoint. Burton's take combined elements from the original two books into a sequel of sorts, following Alice 13 years after her last adventure. Only remembering them as bits and pieces of her nightmare, Alice now a young woman, was being forced to conform to norms and marry an uptight young British gentleman (with digestive issues as we came to learn), the son of her late father's business partner. During the proposal, Alice got so distracted by a rabbit in a waistcoat that she left gastro-dude at the gazebo (not yet altar.. it was only an engagement people ..sheesh), followed the rabbit and ended up falling into the infamous rabbit hole that started her adventures in Wonderland (or Underland as it was supposedly known, dang.. we were mistaken for over 100 years!). Ok..this is it as far as spoilers go for me. You can go watch the rest yourself.

 

The Plot

Contrary to popular opinion, I actually like the plot. In a world of nonsensical madness, I thought the plot really worked in tying all of the elements together and giving it a seamless storyline, by providing Alice a purpose to her adventures. Even as a kid I found this to be terribly lacking in the original as she seemed to jump from one scene to the next without any reason or continuity.. (again.. I know all those Lewis Carroll's fans would so love to have my head for dinner). But then again, I for one don't fancy making a deep analytical study and comparison between the movie and original books (it's a frigging movie, not your PhD thesis :P). Neither will I go into great depths to deconstruct the significance and feasibility of Tim Burton's interpretation of the story. What Burton has done was simply to make Alice a fun, commercial movie where you pretty much leave your IQ at the door and enjoy it for what it is; clean, simple, pure entertainment. Of course, with that come predictable climatic endings, the ultimate battle of good versus evil, rescue and escape, quirky yet kind-hearted supporting characters delivering offbeat quotes, touching scenes of friendship and self discovery and most importantly an awkward-youngster-turned-ultimate-hero lead. Like Avatar, there is no reinvention of the wheel here but rather a development of the metaphorical wheel from a different perspective (i.e giving it sports rims, multi layered rubber tyres and some mean tyre threads for speed and efficiency). Alice offers all of this and more. I particularly like the scene where the Mad Hatter asked, "Have I lost my mind?" to which Alice replied "I'm afraid you have. You have gone completely bonkers, but then again..all the best people usually are." And another scene where Alice said, "I must be half mad to dream up something like this" to which the Mad Hatter replied "You must be half mad to dream up someone like me." You couldn't help but get a warm fuzzy feeling inside upon seeing this beautiful friendship develop between the two most unlikely of characters. Either that or it's just my personal bias in favour of the "destigmatisation" of insanity. Hehehe.

The Acting

As much as the hype has all been about Johnny Depp's portrayal of the Mad Hatter, I thought Helena Bonham Carter stole the show with her portrayal of The Red Queen. It's not easy to make a character nasty and domineering, yet humorous and almost endearingly insecure at the same time. Carter managed to walk the thin line between all of the opposite ends of the spectrum to come up with an entertaining character. Depp was still in top form as Mad Hatter. Although I did find it hard to catch some of his lines due to his incessant changes between being borderline lucid to being completely nuts. There was also a hint of a Scottish accent somewhere which kinda makes you go "Huh?" (but I suppose in a fantasy movie, nothing is supposed to make any sense and that includes the character's accent!). I love how he would utter some rhymes out of the blue from time to time, which if you listen carefully and if you had read the book, you would recognise them as verses of the poems from the original Lewis Carroll's novel. All-in-all Depp did a fantastic job in making Hatter the endearing ultimate anti-hero. Other worthy mentions are Alan Rickman as the wise, hookah-addict Caterpillar (I love hookah!) and Stephen Fry as the ultra suave Cheshire Cat. But the constant wide toothy grin bothered me a little as you couldn't trust whether he was one of the good guys or bad guys. Newcomer Mia Wasikowska held her own as Alice, despite being amongst strong A-list character actors. I like how she added some spunk and attitude to the otherwise boring and feeble Alice. Nevertheless, the character did not really demand much from her. Anne Hathaway's depiction of the White Queen was perhaps the most disappointing as she looked like a bleached-out goth doll and behaved like a drugged-out ballerina (perhaps she had been smoking some from the caterpillar's hookah pipes..hmm!) But underneath that intoxicated look I still see much of Anne Hathaway the person. I can't really say much about Crispin Glover as Stayne the Knave of Hearts except that if you've seen him in one movie you've seen him in all. I'm just surprised that he hasn't aged that much over the years. (He was the dude who played Michael J Fox's high-strung father, George McFly, in Back to the Future for god sakes!)

 
The Effects

Now I can't really say much about the 3D as this is the first time that I've managed to watch a movie in 3D. But I did quite enjoy the experience. The scene where Alice was falling down the hole with her arms flailing was probably one of the best. So was the final scene where she chopped off the Jabberwocky's head. The effects, colours and cinematography were simply breathtaking in 3D. Having said that, I thought that the few scenes using 3D involving humans (like the one where Hamish was getting ready to propose to Alice at the Gazebo) just made them look like cut-out dolls in a pop-out book. 2D in those particular instances would've been much better. But overall, I love how the CGI and real-life scenes seemed to merge smoothly to a point where you couldn't tell the difference from one to the other.

All in all, I think this is a fantastic and entertaining movie. Not your thought-provoking, world-changing, ground-breaking, genre-moulding kind of movie, but great clean fun that deserves your RM17 (for the 3D glasses). Hey, it even made me forget the annoying dude with the stinking stale-cigarette breath next to me..and I absolutely loathe cigarettes! That has got to count for something! :P

Conclusion

Go watch it. But if you are a four-eyed freak like me, it's better to put on your contact lenses before leaving the house. Wearing two pairs of glasses is extremely annoying! Particularly when both kept on falling off from the bridge of your nose and you had to push them back from time to time.