The pairing of Tim Burton and Lewis Carrol's Alice In
Wonderland seems a match made in heaven. Burton has,
and I believe always will, dedicated his career to injecting
the idea of the children's story with his trademark sense of
gothic nightmare. The worlds he creates toe the line of
terror, but manage to do so with an underlying sense of
quirky playfulness, inviting the viewer to enjoy, even
embrace the terrifying. Alice In Wonderland, is, at
heart, a kid's book about a psychedelic dream, a brightly
colored nightmare of sorts, and Tim Burton crafts a
brilliant, visually stunning world that brings the
hallucinogenic aspects to the forefront.
Review - Alice In
Wonderland
Tim Burton's bad-acid-eaten Wonderland (or Underland) is set
some 13 years after Alice's (Mia Wasikowska) inaugural
tumble down the rabbit hole, and this sort-of-sequel finds a
Wonderland near destroyed. The Red Queen (a brilliant
Helena Bonham Carter) has, with enchanting malice, ravaged
and razed old Wonderland, leaving its beloved and familiar
denizens in a state of abject disregard. Alice,
unknowingly, has returned to become a champion and free
Wonderland from the Red Queen's maniacal grasp.
Painting with a palette of blacks, and browns and grays,
Burton creates a Wonderland that borders on grotesque
nightmare. A Wonderland gone to seed, the familiar haunts
of prior adaptations now husk-like remains of the past.
Skeletal trees snake across the horizon and poison-toothed
bandersnatches roam the wilderness. Amongst all this
though, Burton manages to insert the bizarre sense of humor
we've grown accustomed to. Eyes are poked out (and
replaced), fake noses (and breasts and guts) are ridiculed,
the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) dances across the air. The
time-honored characters of Carrol's original world still
exist, but they've been broken, frightened, and abused,
their beloved characteristics turned on their head. The Mad
Hatter (Johnny Depp) is actually quite insane, but not in
the tee-hee funny way of past Alice adaptations,
rather in a shocking, almost sad way. Depp brings a sense
of gallows humor to the role, but this is a Mad Hatter
ravaged by terrible things seen and done, a man shattered by
the past.
Sadly, the story behind this new Alice and Wonderland
fails to live up to the world Burton creates around it.
Alice must fulfill her destiny and kill the Jabbowocky -
that's it, that's all. Less an engaging plot, and more a
catalyst for Mia Wasikowska's bland portrayal of Alice to
tromp about in the fantastical world at hand, engaging with
the extravagant, and oft times hilarious characters that
populate this blend of Burton and Carrol's world.
Amazingly, this was nearly enough for me. I found myself
completely engaged, perhaps not in Alice's quest, but
instead in emerging myself in this truly Tim Burton
creation. I wanted to see the world that existed off the
edges of the page. Slim story aside, I shockingly found
myself in wont of a sequel or two sequels, anything to allow
me another trip down that wild rabbit hole.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light In The
Attic and a contributor at Sound On The Sound and
the KEXP blog. He also has his own
Criterion-based film site, Criterion Quest.
If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to his
writings here at Side One: Track One then please do
so
here.
- Noah Sanders
-
-
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
