Alice in Wonderland DVD with Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska (PG) +Movie Reviews +Used DVD available for Swap

Much better than it has been given credit for

Dan-Fabian Parra | Norway | 04/17/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"In spite of having to read many negative reviews, I was still curious to see this movie. I not a huge Burton fan neither, although I've enjoyed some of his previous work. But it was something about «Alice in Wonderland» which seemed appealing; its visual look and its quirky characters. Still I had in mind the several hostile reviews, which accused this movie to be a flat, soulless and muddled attempt of a classic, which I also feared it would. But after finally seeing the movie, I can claim my disagreement with the reviewers. In fact, I'm not sure if we even saw the same movie. What exactly was so terrible about it?

Overall, I found «Alice in Wonderland» to be very entertaining. I feared that the movie would lose some of it's magic as the main character entered to Wonderland, but fortunately it never did. I enjoyed the movie from the very start to its very end. It's a cute fantasy/adventure movie, equal to the «Harry Potter» and the «Narnia» flicks (although I personally felt «Prince Caspain» had some slight weaknesses). But beware; there are some frightening creatures that may scare the youngest in the audience, so the PG rating is suitable.

One of the films biggest advantages is it visuals. With it lush and dark landscapes, cute animals and colorful costumes, the flick is beautifully to look at and I can't wait to enjoy the sharpness of the picture on Blu Ray. The score of Danny Elfman is effective and gives the movie a dreamy, atmospheric tone. The characters are mostly passable. They don't steal the show entirely, but neither do they appear as distractive or annoying.

Although I've always liked the original novel of Lewis Carroll, I must say that I found this new twist of the story fresh and creative, depicting the «wrong» Alice's adventures in Wonderland as a young adult. Linda Woolverton, who's behind the excellent screenplays for «Beauty and the Beast», «The Lion King» and «Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey», has written a solid and decent script to «Wonderland». Many have claimed this screenplay to be muddled and confusing, but I didn't felt it that way at all. Once again, did we even saw the same movie?

Mia Wasikowska is quite decent as Alice. Although she doesn't have a distinctive emanation/charisma who characterizes other young actresses at her age, she's still delivers a nice and acceptable performance. Personally I felt her screen presence expanded during the movie. Johnny Depp is indeed a good actor. To claim anything else, would be a like claiming that the climate isn't humid in the rain forest. Although I've never been crazy over Depp's work, he's goofy and great as The Mad Hatter, which is indeed the best character in the movie. Helena Bonham Carter is also believable and funny as the Red Queen (just prepare yourself to hear «Off with his head» at least a hundred times during the movie, ha ha). While Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, is warm and passable as the White Queen (although I must confess it was a little distracting to see her with a blonde wig and with a British accent).

In fact, I can't see anything wrong with this new Burton version of «Wonderland». I truly enjoyed it and recommend it to everyone as possible. It didn't deserve the negative criticism at all, in my opinion. With quality films like this, perhaps I could finally forgive Disney for its recent mistakes? (*Cough, leaving hand drawn animation behind and promoting teen stars as crazy, cough*)

So follow every white rabbit you see and follow him to the hole... Wonderland is waiting..."

More like Return To Wonderland...

Simon Gifford | St. Albans, UK | 03/13/2010

(3 out of 5 stars)

"19 year old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to the magical Wonderland from when she was young and meets some old friends, and learns of her destiny.. to overthrow the evil Red Queen, sister to the good White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

I rather enjoyed it. Dark and weird, but it's really a sequel in feel, so why call it Alice in Wonderland? Return to Wonderland would have been an more apt title. Although that is probably too similar to Return to Oz...

Whereas the Disney Wonderland felt bright, surreal and colourful, this film had a very muted colour pallette even in the "real" world and Tim Burton's Wonderland had a kind of run-down, almost post apocolyptic feel. I pictured Alice being about 10 years old in the novel and 1951 Disney adaptation.

In that sense, by making this film a kind of sequel with Alice now in her late teens, maybe the broken, dark Wonderland becomes a metaphor for lost innocence and childhood itself, and how one's perception of childhood changes as you get older, which I think is actually quite clever.

I felt the 2 bookending parts of the film were boring (in the opening, we learn Alice is getting married to a slimy suitor) and I didnt feel for those characters.

Mia Wasikowska gave a good performance playing Alice as she was more independent and resourceful than I remember, surely ahead of her time!

I did like Helena Bonham Carter's turn as the Red Queen a lot - even though, talking with a high pitched, childish lisp, she reminded me of Miranda Richardson's Queenie in Blackadder II! In fact, she ripped off that interpretation wholesale. But still very funny.

Stephen Fry was excellent and probably gave the best "performance" of the cast as the Cheshire Cat but he was criminally underused I felt. Alan Rickman had just the right kind of stately voice of the Cattepillar.

In order to bring peace to Wonderland, Alice must slay the monster known as the Jabberwocky (I don't remember this Harry Potter type battle from the novel), which seemed shoehorned in to give the film some more structure and narrative and give the older, supposedly more resourceful Alice a mission, which The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) helps her with. His performance is a strange one - wearing lots of make up and adopting an occasional Scottish accent, there may be some sadness as well as madness in his air because he and the other characters have been waiting up to 13 years for Alice to come back.

However, in one scene the Hatter does a Michael Jackson inspired dance for no apparent reason, which I found cringeworthy.

The suggestion through the film that Wonderland may actually be real (with Alice often questioning her surroundings) reminded me of themes explored in Pan's Labyrinth and The Chronicles of Narnia. In my opinion this gave the film a darker edge and made it more appealing to adults and older children.

"

A trippy trip down the rabbit hole

Monkdude | Hampton, Virginia | 04/17/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"For starters, it seems that everyone I know is shocked when I tell them that this Alice in Wonderland is a sequel of sorts. At the age of 19 and about to be forced into marriage, this is Alice's second trip to Wonderland. I'm glad Tim Burton and his team came up with a new story that still featured all the great characters from the original source material. That's also where the weakest part of the movie lies. The dialogue given to the characters is great, but the script is razor thin. I think if more effort went into this particular aspect, I might have given it five stars.

I saw it in IMAX 3-D and the visuals are as grand and beautiful as you would expect from Burton. It's not quite as eye-popping as Avatar, which was shot completely in IMAX 3-D, whereas, Alice in Wonderland was upconverted (Clash of the Titans did the same thing to bad effect). The music by Danny Elfman is some of his best stuff in recent years and the costumes/makeup are top notch.

Aside from the look of film, the acting also makes it very memorable. There are so many well animated and voice acted characters running around I don't know where to begin. I guess I'll start with those made of flesh and blood. I didn't like Depp's take on Willy Wonka that much, and I'm a big fan of his, but his Mad Hatter is just the right amount of crazy. His voice goes back and forth from having a lisp to sounding like William Wallace from Braveheart. His look is so jarring, you probably wouldn't even know it was him if you somehow dodged all the advertisements before entering the theater. Helena Bonham Carter played the Red Queen brilliantly. I couldn't take my eyes off her giant head. Anne Hathaway really surprised me here (in a good way) with her take on the White Queen and it was nice to see Crispin Glover back on the big screen in a role that suited him. Last, but certainly not least, Mia Wasikowska was absolutely captivating as Alice. The way she talked and her reactions were just what the film needed in it's central role. All the digital animal characters were great, but my favorites were the Cheshire Cat, voice by Stephen Fry, and the March Hare voiced by Paul Whitehouse.

I'm somewhat surprised that the combination of violence and meanness, along with the smoking Blue Caterpillar didn't get this a PG-13 rating. It's not too harsh, but young kids might get a little freaked out.

Overall, Alice in Wonderland looks like a polished jewel, has great acting/voice acting, wonderful music and even manages to get quite a few laughs in the process. If only the simple story didn't let me down in the end, this could have been a classic in the making. Even still, I wouldn't mind Tim Burton taking us on another trip down the rabbit hole in a few years."

A Journey Through A World

Christopher Price | 04/24/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This movie was excellent. I saw it in theaters the second week it came out. It surprised me, I did not knmow that the movie was going to be this good. Tim Burton made a movie that remade the way wonderland looked. The scenery was strange and the characters were well acted and well scripted. The Mad Hatter bacame more of a main character in this film and Alice's character is developed throughout the movie. Johnny Depp did a wonderful job of making the Mad Hatter a strange, somewhat crazy character. This film was a wonderful story with mystery and eeriness that makes wonderland a seperate world from our own, but still with small similarities. I loved this movie, and thought that the acting was great, the scenery was wonderful, and the characters were all well developed and enjoyable. This movie was a wonderful film for all age groups. The fact that it is coming out on blu-ray with the dvd and digital copy just makes the release even better. This movie is definitely worth buying. If you were looking for an all-around good movie, this is by far the film that you have been looking for."

This Wonderland is a fascinating and fun place to visit

Gregory Ehrbar | Orlando, FL | 06/04/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For this journey down the rabbit hole, Tim Burton is the driver and Johnny Depp the tour guide. Several film versions of Lewis Carroll's two "Alice" books have been released almost since the beginning of the 20th century. By and large, they have not been box office successes, though Walt Disney's 1951 animated feature has become perhaps the most iconic (I also like the 1933 Paramount film, the 1972 British musical film, the 1966 TV special of Through the Looking Glass, all on DVD, and the Hanna-Barbera 1966 special, which I wish was on DVD.)

Disney's new big screen version of Tim Burton's vision of Alice in Wonderland, or "Underland," gives us Johnny Depp once again creating an original persona to our sheer amazement, This film is the first mega-hit movie version of Alice ever, hitting the 1 billion dollar mark worldwide. It's a testament to Johnny Depp's astronomical star power within the right vehicle. It has also been accomplished not only through Burton's artistry, but Linda Woolverton's screenwriting (she penned Disney's Beauty and the Beast, after all).

But they also had to change the story to make it work as a movie. Every filmmaker has struggled with the Carroll texts because, like dreams, they are random experiences with no arc. Walt Disney was the most successful, in my view, at staying faithful to the story without adding an arc (and Walt's artists' vision of the rabbit hole is still the best of all time).

What was done with the 2010 Alice in Wonderland was to make it a revisit, of sorts, with Alice at marrying age and at a crossroads in life. This is her second Wonderland visit, to bring her confidence and direction. It's probably the most re-defined and altered story arc of any Alice adaptation to date (in the excellent Hallmark TV miniseries, Alice is afraid to recite a poem and the Wonderland characters give her moral support).

Alice, in this version, is a bit like the Pevensie children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -- sent by a prophetic destiny to rid the kingdom of an oppressive, deadly leader. The characters are given names (which my son loves: "It's not the White Rabbit, Daddy, he's McTwisp!"). Elements of the Carroll narrative (the rabbit hole, "drink me," etc.) are still here, but eventually the new adventure takes hold and the film becomes an action fantasy.

By the time Alice, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse reach the Queen's castle, they've become a team more in the style of L. Frank Baum than Carroll -- in fact, I expected Alice to tell the Hatter "I'm going to miss you most of all." She even says a line similar to "and you were there, and you and you!" But I digress and perhaps spoil.

But you know what? It works. And it's more akin to Disney tradition that it may seem at first, since Walt himself considered changing the Carroll story as well, and also almost made a live-action/animated version with Ginger Rogers. This film, with its blend of live actors, CG animation and motion capture, was virtually all performed in front of a green screen, a descendant of the live action/animated sequences in Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

The cast is marvelous, on screen and off. Mia Wasikowska suggests Hayley Mills, with a physical resemblance as well as a similar spunky yet sober attitude. Helena Bonham Carter is having a ball with a juicy, outrageous villain to chew on Red Queen. Anne Hathaway channels Snow White (watch those bent elbows) and Billie Burke as the White Queen. The voices of Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, Michael Sheen as the White Ra-- oops, I mean McTwisp are among the letter-perfect voice casting. And of course, there's to Johnny Depp's masterful, mercurial "Bozo-Blows-His-Big-Top," yet somehow heartbreakingly sympathetic, Hatter.

One note to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fans: the legendary Barbara Windsor, who voices the swashbuckling Dormouse, was the blonde girl friend of Arthur Millard, the big goofball who got the ugly haircut from Dick Van Dyke's machine in the Sherman Brothers 1968 musical classic. And that's just a small part of a very big stage and screen career. It's nice to hear her in this film.

The film is visually amazing and as good a reason as any to plunk down the cash for a Blu-Ray player. The DVD has a handful of the bonus features included on the Blu-Ray disc, but I sure would have loved to hear an audio commentary from someone about such an interesting film.

Can't wait for the sequel -- how can there NOT be? I've always loved Alice in Wonderland and am glad to see it possibly become a franchise, as well as "cool" again. This is one instance where today's filmmakers have realized that total fantasy and escapism is what audiences want during depressed times.

And it still compliments the Walt Disney version without replacing it. There's always room for another Wonderland, and the Walt Disney version will always be landmark, especially because of its Mary Blair look, classic voice cast and unforgettable songs.

"

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