Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Director: Tim Burton
Writer: Books: Lewis Carroll Screenplay: Linda Woolverton
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas
Voice-Cast: Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Barbara Windsor
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Family

Alice in Wonderland invites to a fantastic tale in a fantastic world, but falls short of delivering. While the beginning makes promises of a fun and highly entertaining tale, it quite early gets stuck in a direction where the magic doesn't manage to surpass Depp's portrayal of the 'Mad Hatter'. Mia Wasikowska is quite easily forgettable as 'Alice', the timing in the delivery from the magic creatures is not precise enough and the rest of the cast have got too little to work with.

I haven't seen any of the earlier versions of this tale, as it's no secret this have been told quite often. I haven't read it either, so my view and knowledge is solely based on what the movie had to offer. I was disappointed they never managed to create any particular interest for the characters like the Queens, 'Stayne', 'Tweedledee', 'Tweedledum', 'Cheshire Cat', 'White Rabbit' and the rest of the creatures 'Alice' met along her journey in the land she referred to as Wonderland. Any fantasy movie not able to spur more than one interesting fantasy character, like Depp's 'Mad Hatter' in this case, isn't a movie well worth exploring. It could have been, and I think it should have been, but at the end of the day this was quite forgettable. Unlike a movie like Labyrinth, which I recently reviewed here and which was made 24 years ago with a lot less CGI and other movie tricks up their sleeve. They had heart, characters we responded to and used its imagination to create a wonderful world. Alice in Wonderland is a student production in comparison, even with the advantages of recent development in cinematic abilities.