Alice In Wonderland

I screened Alice In Wonderland on Tuesday this week, and let me tell you, the all day wait, was well worth it! I arrived at the theater at noon, even though the screening didn't start until 7. I am so glad I arrived super early because when we arrived, there was already a line, some people having been there since 5 AM. I have anxiously been awaiting this film for almost 7 years, my hopes for it were needless to say, extremely high. When the exhausting wait was finally over and the movie began, I was not disappointed. The only major problem I had, were the obsessed geeks that surrounded me in the theater. But as far as the film went, it was what I expected as far as a Burton remake is concerned. The one thing that surprised me, was Helena Bonham Carter. I am a fan of hers, but as we all know, Johnny Depp has been the talk of the town as the Mad Hatter. I adore him just as much as the next middle aged housewife, but for me, Carter was the stand out performance. Not to say that Depp didn't pull through, I loved him as Hatter, but everyone expected HIM to be the performance that took the reins. Carter was funny, absolutely cracked me up, and it wasn't just because of her "bulbous" head, which looked awesome and was visually brilliant. Plus her court of servants were hysterical! I won't say too much but I will say they all had "large"...personalities!



Carter completely devoured the role of the queen. Very quirky but not over the top, I could almost believe that she was a real person, regardless of her head size. She was my pleasant surprise of the film.

Anne Hathaway as the white queen was something I wasn't sure of when I first heard she was cast in the role. I love Annie but I didn't know about meshing her with Burton. Well, she was great as the white queen. She wasn't quite as extreme and quirky as the other characters, but she did have one quirk that I thought was just great, she kept her hands and arms in a certain position throughout the entire film, it really was the essence of her character. Loved it.



Johnny Depp...is there really anything to say about him? He is brilliant, he is in a league all on his own. Him and Burton have worked together for many moons now, so he just "gets" what Burton is aiming for and pulls it off in a way that nobody else could. From his strange accent, to the carrot top he sports, he IS the Mad Hatter and I enjoyed every second of it. I don't know how that man can play roles so incredibly strange yet still pull it off, anybody else would come off as a deranged lunatic!



The cast of supporting characters, which included the Chesire Cat, a bold but loveable door mouse, a drunken March hare, the blue caterpillar, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, the Knave of Hearts (Good ol' creepy thin man Crispin Glover), and of course the white rabbit, were all great to watch, some of them CG characters and others not.

I won't get too into the plot of the story and whatnot, we all know the story of Alice in Wonderland. I will say that there are classic Alice moments in the film which we all know and love, such as croquet with a flamingo and a hedgehog, and a court of angry playing cards, roses being painted red, a raven and a writing desk, things that make you grow and shrink at alarming rates, and of course...."Off with his head!". Without those elements I don't think folks would be accepting of the film. It's a wonderful remake, better than a lot of remakes. Visually the movie was wonderful. The environments and scapes were fantastic. I will say this though, AVATAR set such an impossible bar to reach as far as visual effects are concerned, so I wasn't expecting it to be the best film visually, even still Tim Burton's world comes to life yet again and I enjoyed being on the ride. Definitely see this movie in IMAX 3D if possible. It's the new wave, 3D is here to stay and pretty soon there's gonna be no other way to watch a film! Bravo to Burton and his wonderful wife and cast, this remake of Wonderland was "head and tails" above the rest!