Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland
29 May 2010
Sadly, this could have been something really cool and iconic rather than a Disneyfied version of Carroll's classic. It had potential.
But it needed to be darker, more menacing and less trite and deal with the darker side of Carroll's mind. I would have killed for something with the bite and borderline psychosis of American McGee's Alice. In fact, someone needs to make that Alice. It won't ever be Disney. Kinda sad that Tim Burton didn't take it that one step further actually. I was expecting big things.
Supposedly taking place years after the original Alice has visited Wonderland in Caroll's book, she returns as a just-proposed-to young woman who is back to fulfill the prophesy of the Frubjous Day (a la the poem Jabberwocky if you're missing the reference).
While I fully give credit for managing to work in a Jub-jub bird, Bandersnatch and the Jabberwocky (and yet not a Snipe?), they all could have been way more frightening and less, well... mundane. Bandersnatches should always be more frumious, for example. Johnny Depp was fantastic and slightly creepy with the occasional foray into Scottish accented poetry in the flic (seriously, is there any film Depp hasn't been in in the past decade where he hasn't been amazing?). Oh, and kinda loved the vaporating Cheshire Cat. It played well.
You know, probably need to download the original Disney cartoon since I'm not sure I've ever actually seen it.
Oh, and just for note, American McGee is apparently working on a sequel to Alice in his Spicy Horse studios in Shanghai.