Disney Digital 3D Alice in Wonderland. A Film by Tim Burton.
Starring Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Michael Sheen, Stephen Fry, Alan Rickman.
A 2010 fantasy adventure continues the story of Alice, now a 19 year old, who returns to Wonderland (Underland) where she visited once before 13 years earlier.
Mourning the death of her father and plagued by recurring fantastic dreams, Alice (Mia Waskiowska) is forced to grow up with a marriage proposal by Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill), son of Lord Ascot. Advised by her sister she should accept because one's pretty face does not last forever, she is in a conundrum. She runs off to "think", all the while chasing her childhood friend, the white rabbit in a waistcoat, through the garden. Following to a rabbit hole, Alice falls down the hole, down, down, down to Underland where she is met by the white rabbit, a dormouse, a dodo and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) feels threatened by Alice for she knows the tale of destiny and orders her playing card knights to capture her. In her flee from the knights, Alice meets the Cheshire Cat who takes her to the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp). The Mad Hatter helps her escape but in turn is captured. Alice, now indebted to the Mad Hatter, must help. But what can a girl of nineteen do in this Underland? Is she "the" Alice who will slay Jabberwocky, the Red Queen's dragon like creature, thus restoring the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) to her rightful reign over Underland? No, she says, it is not her. But is it? Absolem, the caterpillar (Alan Rickman), says "not yet".
An impressive film of dream like quality, Alice In Wonderland, is the best Tim Burton movie this reviewer has seen. The less enchanting vision he presents as "Underland" portrays a world warped by the reign of the Red Queen. This world lacks the merriment and mystical aspect one pictures in Wonderland (Underland). Perhaps that is why it is called Underland to depict the difference between the land initially visited by Alice thirteen years before, a land Alice called Wonderland, and the current visage known as Underland. A land full of mystery, wonder and danger.
Rated 4/5 Now available on DVD and Blu-Ray