"Alice in Wonderland"

Science Fiction/Fantasy and Adaptation. Rated PG. 1 hour, 49 minutes.

Synopsis: A young girl falls down a rabbit hole and enters a fantastic world in which she is to play a prominent role.

Review: It’s a Tim Burton movie, so there is the guarantee that the film will have a visual style that sets it apart from so many others. Alice in Wonderland didn’t disappoint.

Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is ambushed at an engagement party, which just so happens to be her engagement party. She flees her potential mate and falls down a rabbit hole.

In a new, strange world beneath the earth, she runs into a number of odd characters, many of whom believe that she has some destiny to fulfill in the ‘Underland’. Alice isn’t convinced – she’s never had much of a role to play thus far in her brief life.

She is escorted to a garden party presided over by the Mad Hatter (Depp) who explains to her that she must slay the wretched Jabberwocky in order to free the people of Underland from the tyrannical reign of the Red Queen (Carter). This would allow the White Queen (Anne Hathaway, channeling Glenda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz) to regain her rightful position.

As a bewildered Alice, Wasikowska is adequate, while Depp and Carter chew up the scenery nicely, as one might expect from the pair.

And what great scenery it is! Burton creates an amazing Underland, second only in recent films to the world of Avatar. The animation, costume design and scenery are all magnificent. For my money, the visual imagery of almost any Tim Burton movie is worth the price of admission.

But the 3D is unnecessary , adding very little to the film. If you can shave a buck or two off the price of admission and see it in 2D, go for it.

Note: This movie is rated PG, but I’m not certain that I would take a child under the age of 8 to see it.

Photo credit: Walt Disney Pictures

Alice in Wonderland movie poster