Fantasy Film Reviews: Alice In Wonderland

The remake of Alice in Wonderland was a low key affair, when I saw it advertised, I just dismissed it as another Tim Burton Gothic freak fest, but I was wrong damn it, just very wrong, it took all the things about the original story from the books and the cartoon and really gave it a solid update and the Jabberwocky was superbly realised as was the world of Wonderland too.

I rented this movie for the kids to watch and got caught up watching it myself, form the Mad Hatter played by Johnny Depp to The Queen of Hearts played by Helena Bonham Carter, this movie was very entertaining from start to finish as Alice right at the start of the movie is a little girl who has what she thinks is bad dreams and dreams of the same world of Wonderland and even when we see her 13 years later she still has been having the same dreams, which obviously are a sign of an impending visit to Wonderland for real.

Then when she is about to be married to an up his own botty ginger toff, she runs off and falls down a rabbit hole into Wonderland where she is quickly told about her destiny to face up to the dreaded Jabberwocky an almost dragon like creature that was ace to look at at the end of the movie. The movie itself deals with real life issues like finding your confidence and your place in the world which do transcend quite well off the screen and don't comes across as sugar coated messages like some soapy 80's movie.

As usual Johnny Depps Mad Hatter is just weird but a lot funnier than his turn as Willy Wonka (that was just plain freaky!) and the other supporting characters like Mat Lucas as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and even Barbara Windsor as a mouse that I forget the name, but you can easily tell her voice and you'll cry it's Peggy Mitchell!

This for kids movie wasn't like other Tim Burton directed films, it has more shades of something else and that's what really came through and made me like it, because although I love Tim Burtons movies (except The Planet Of The Apes!) if he did this in totally his own style where everything was black and morbid I don't think it would have worked as well.

But I would certainly recommend it as it was funny too. Go and watch it!