Alice In Wonderland
How many adaptations of Alice In Wonderland do we have to see before people realise the reason the book was so successful and enjoyed such longevity was because it conjured images in the mind that were different for everyone due to their own imagination. Does anybody understand that this vision is personal and therefore unique? Furthermore, can any film replace the ability of the human mind to wonder and marvel at what it only can produce for the benefit of itself?
Well this is clearly a question that Burton has asked himself, prompting this film into existence (you do have to wonder if Disney would have just made this using another Director instead, however) in the form you see before you now. This is an at times confusing amalgam of Disney Finance and Burton Imagination. Often the business demands and artistic vision do not sit to well as comfortable bedfellows, and such is the case here.
Whilst undeniably pretty to look at, there is a danger of Alice In Wonderland falling into the same 3D rabbit hole as Avatar with regard to its mental content.
Nigglingly lacking in heart and soul, Burton is treading on precarious ground here. He is walking a tightrope of credibility and having trouble with his balance. There is no doubt that this is indeed a Burton film, but apparently not without some compromises. Danny Elfman’s score is suitable if not entirely original and you can easily hear another dozen films going on as the deep strings urge the story forward, sometimes unnoticed and at other times forceful. Close your eyes and listen to the score and you could find yourself conjuring From Hell, The Nightmare Before Christmas or even Sleepy Hollow, so generically suitable are the overtones.
The acting by all is barely acceptable and this is gutting to admit from an ardent Depp fan that has only baulked (and then only briefly) at Jack Sparrow, in a career littered with astonishingly realised characters. Mia Wasikowska (Alice) is wooden enough to become part of the forest that surrounds her for most of the film and retains no apparent character arc, which doesn’t help her acting cause at all. This is not aided by a script that contains too few opportunities for her to enforce Alice’s character on the film and this may have been at least one of the reasons for the lack of a credible, experienced and time-served female lead. I can think of many suitable actresses for the part, who no doubt when reading the script, decided on reflection even given Depp and Burton’s involvement, to give this version of Wonderland a wider berth than would be normal career practice.
Let’s not forget of course that this film is directed at the children of the audience, who will no doubt take much more away from the film than any grown up with previous experience of either the story of any of its myriad versions on screen. To be fair to Burton, he has provided a nonetheless entertaining movie for those that are not able or inclined to look more deeply than the gloss, which is considerable. For die-hard Burton fans, however, this is an undeniable backward step.
Burton is now a major force to be reckoned with in Hollywood, given an illustrious career dedicated to imaginative and original tales, told with the eye of an artist, even a modern day Dali. Here he seems to have bent over a little too much to the frankly fanciful requirements of a studio that wrongly thinks it understands both what its audience want and what Burton and Depp are able to provide. Given the long arm of Disney, this effort would seem to confirm that the two are not mutually compatible, at least at the present time.
Best placed in the ‘what could have been’ drawer and quietly be allowed to fester.
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