Movie Review: Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' a somewhat-tired spectacle

Disney Enterprises

"Alice in Wonderland": The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp, from left), Alice (Mia Wasikowska) and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, "Alice in Wonderland," the new 3D film for Disney from one-time Mouse House exile Tim Burton, has been rated PG for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, "and for a smoking caterpillar."

The Jefferson Airplane would be proud. Lewis Carroll devotees, however, may be less enthusiastic about this somewhat tiresome catalog of amazements, which at this point in Burton's career seems — like the director's recent "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" — more a marriage made in branding heaven than an artistic necessity.

Disney Enterprises

"Alice in Wonderland": The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp, from left), Alice (Mia Wasikowska) and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

Burton's ready for the naysayers. As Alice herself says in the film, speaking for the auteur: "This is my dream. I'll decide where it goes from here." Another line is an encouragement from Burton to himself, and to his fans: "You're mad, bonkers, off your head — but I'll tell you a secret: All the best people are."

Australian actress Mia Wasikowska — impressive as an East Tennessee nymphette in "That Evening Sun," the movie that opened last year's Indie Memphis Film Festival — is Alice, a pretty and privileged 19-year-old. She is introduced at an English manor lawn party that seems to be taking place in the late 19th century, at about the time Carroll wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass."

Like such previous Burton heroes as Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, Alice is a lonely and misunderstood individualist. ("Who's to say what's proper?" she asks.) She is haunted by childhood dreams of a white rabbit in a waistcoat and other oddities that prove to be "real" when she falls down a rabbit hole and emerges in Wonderland, here called "Underland," a place of talking animals and walking playing cards, where her body undergoes constant changes in proportion and even her identity seems to be in flux. Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton emphasize the character's coming-of-age confusion; her frequent need for improvised clothing, to protect her modesty, won't be lost on young viewers.

Burton began his career as an animator at Disney, at a time when the studio didn't know what to do with his wry ghoulishness and Charles Addams/Edward Gorey design sense. Now a brand name himself, Burton has delivered an "Alice" that isn't really an adaptation of the Carroll stories but a sort of sequel or reimagining, as the "Underland" retitling suggests. It's like a Marvel Comics-inspired Carroll take-off that manipulates the source material to get Alice into battle armor and transform her into the prophesied wielder of the "Vorpal sword," destined to slay the dragon-like Jabberwocky (which here resembles John Tenniell's famous 1872 illustration), the fire-breathing champion of the Red Queen, who has wrested control of Underland from her benevolent sister, the White Queen. (If nothing else, this civil war makes one wonder if there's trouble in the Burton household: The beautiful and virtuous White Queen is played by Anne Hathaway, made up to suggest Burton's Goth-y ex-girlfriend, the actress Lisa Marie, while the bossy and bulbous-headed White Queen is made up to resemble the scary Bette Davis in "The Virgin Queen," and played by Burton's wife, Helena Bonham Carter.

Combining actors and computer-generated characters (voiced by a Who's Who of Britain's acting elite, including Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry and Burton's beloved Hammer horror veterans, Christopher Lee and Michael Gough) in what appear to be mostly CG environments, the film is so relentlessly unreal and "imaginative" that the flesh-and-blood characters are a relief, even when they are as garishly disguised as Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter, a lisping Scot whose calm recitation of Carroll nonsense verse ("Mimsy were the borogroves ...") is as soothing as a warm drink. Also welcome is Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts, a long-maned rogue with a heart-shaped eyepatch. (Eye violence is a recurring theme — a comment on the mandate for eye-popping 3D effects?) "Off with their heads!" screams the Red Queen, with frequency; however, her far-out film may remind you of what Grace Slick said: "Feed your head." Will this "Alice in Wonderland," like Disney's 1951 cartoon feature film, become a favorite of those who appreciate the combination of altered states and trippy visuals?

Perhaps not. Unlike the immersive "Avatar," "Alice in Wonderland" was shot "flat," then retrofitted for 3D during postproduction. Despite the March Hare's many flung tea cups and a fall down the rabbit hole that becomes a marathon, the dimensional effects here are generally unimpressive, which — unless the technology improves — doesn't bode well for "Clash of the Titans," the final two "Harry Potter" films and other would-be blockbusters being converted to 3D by movie executives with eyes still bugging from the grosses of the James Cameron film.

Curiouser and curiouser: Perhaps the oddest thing about the film is that Alice's self-emancipation leads her back in the real world, not only to reject a conceited rich suitor but also to inspire her dad's old business partner to extend his trade into China. Alice, the eccentric proto-feminist, as capitalist visionary? This somehow is supposed to be inspiring, but it put me in mind of yet another song lyric, this time from the Mekons: "The East India Company scum, flooding China with opium ... ."

— John Beifuss, 529-2394

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