Movie: Alice In Wonderland

• Director: Tim Burton
• Release Date:
• Writers: Linda Woolverton
• Run Time: 108
• Genre: Adventure, Family, Fantasy

Tagline: You e invited to a very important date 3/5/10

Review: I can see why the theyve not really wanted to call the film a proper sequel. It is that, being the story of a nineteen year old Alice who returns to barely-remembered Wonderland, but it also lifts dialogue and scenes from the original books. The story is your standard journey, emotionally, but all set in a very Tim Burton Wonderland.

Which, of course, looks astounding. Wonderland is an amazing place, often colourful, but equally often ravaged and desolate. Its a treat for the eyes, with the imagination and design shining through the technology. (Its very, very good, but strange things happen if you look somewhere the 3D doesn want you to look and theres the odd moment of strangely stiff animation, especially when human(-like) characters are completely CGI-ed up.)

Unexpectedly, it sometimes feels like one of the Narnia films (though makes those movies look like accountant-led spreadsheets that have been printed out on toilet paper and left out in the rain), but mainly its exactly what youd expect from Tim Burtons Alice in Wonderland. Its a great big treat of a movie, to be sure. Given that its Tim Burton working with Disney, its often gruesome and scary, but not too much. It makes you laugh at times, it pins you to the back of your seat at others, it gets you leaning forward trying to drink in every detail of the place, but its not ever actually surprising. You know whats up, you know where things are going and you
e never shocked. (Maybe once, in a quiet, horrible scene that stands out, even amongst the rest.) Even if youve not seen a single still photo or second of footage, if you know Wonderland and you know Tim Burton, you can picture it yourself effortlessly.

So much of it is still in my head this morning, but its all visual. Theres no heartache or sense of triumph that lingers after a great story. Funny as it is, theres only one line Im ever likely to quote (a single word). I just have these amazing images left in my brain. In that sense, then, its appropriately dream-like.

I doubt Ill go back and watch it again at the cinema, but Im most definitely getting the Blu- Ray when it comes out next week, or whenever Disney decided they should bring it out.

If it feels like Ive damned it with faint praise, I don intend to. Its all pretty wonderful for the two hours it takes to speed past you, but I just want to make it clear – nothing that goes into your ears or your heart ever quite matches what goes into your eyes.