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“Goin* to
the Show...”
with...
Roland
Willis
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp,
Helena Bonham Carter, & Anne Hathaway
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by Linda Woolverton
Based on a book by Lewis Carroll
Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes
Rated PG - Mild violence
I believe that the imaginary world
of a fairy tale is written with a spe
cific child in mind; a child with a vivid
imagination.
And so it was with Mice’s Adven
tures in Wonderland which was writ
ten in 1865 by Charles Dodgson (Lewis
Carroll) for his friend’s ten-year-old
daughter, Alice Liddell.
Incredibly, the book has never been
out of print and has been adapted for
the stage and screen many times.
Renowned director Tim Burton
(Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd, Big Fish,
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Beetle
Juice) combines Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland with its sequel Through
the Looking-Glass to give us this new
version in both 2D and 3D.
Too bad there isn’t a ID version
available because this is a very disap
pointing rendition.
Mice in Wonderland opens with a
charming scene showing Alice being
tucked-in-bed by her father, Charles
Kingsley (Martin Csokas).
She tells her Dad that she is always
having theses crazy dreams.
“Am I mad? She asks.
“Yes, you are,” replies her Dad,
“Quite bonkers! But I’ll let you in on a
little secret... all the best people are!”
Alice is proud of her father’s imagi
nation and claims the he often thinks of
six impossible things before breakfast.
I can relate to that... sometimes I
have six senior moments before break
fast.
Fast forward and Alice is 19, blonde
and beautiful. I suppose the producers
thought that, what, in reality, is actu
ally an adult fairy tale, would do better
at the box office with a beautiful 19-
year-old than a precocious 10-year-old.
Alice is still as batty as ever and it
is surprising that she is being asked
to join the aristocratic Ascot family
by marrying Lord Hamish Ascot (Leo
Bill).
Actually, she is ambushed at a gar
den party by the conspirators, headed
by her mother, and finds herself in a
gazebo with Hamish on his knees, pop
ping the question, surrounded by all of
their friends.
She flees from the gazebo and falls
down a rabbit’s hole into Underland
and her adventures begin.
Underland is ruled by the Red
Queen. She has stolen the crown from
her sister, the White Queen, and is pro
tected by Jabberwocky the dragon.
Alice finds that it is her task to
slay the Jabberwocky with the magic
Vorpal Sword on Frabjous Day and
Or vie '..'rfcnm.-rt is Hie :-,t Sit.iis . jit - :.LS.-
Sunday, June 6 ■ 7-9 pm
Harry
O'Donoghue
Individual event tickets $10 per person at gate.
Children under 12 free. For more information, call 638-4666.
THE ISLANDER, MAY 31, 2010, PAGE 13
return the crown and the kingdom to
the White Queen.
In this endeavor, she is confused,
confounded and helped by the char
acters with whom you are already
familiar.
Playing versions of themselves are
the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Cart
er), the White Queen (Anne Hatha
way), the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp),
the Knave of Hearts (Crispen Glover),
Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Matt
Lucas), and the animated versions of
the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), Abso-
lem the caterpillar (Alan Rickman),
the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen),
the Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee),
Bayard (Timothy Spall) and the Dor
mouse (Barbara Windsor).
The Red Queen steals the show
with her encephalitic head, and a red
heart painted on her lips as a sign of
her affection for the Knave of Hearts.
Between massaging her feet on a fat,
squiggly pig or playing croquet with
a pink flamingo as the club and a
hedgehog as the ball, and screaming,
“Off with his head” at every offender,
Helena Bonham Carter is terrific, as
always.
Anne Hathaway makes the perfect
White Queen, floating majestically
across the screen.
Johnny Depp, as the Mad Hatter, is
disappointing. Perhaps held in check
by the director, he seems less than
enthusiastic about the whole enter
prise.
Mia Wasikowska’s Alice is too seri
ous for my taste. I bet the real Alice Lid
dell, who captured the author’s imagi
nation, was a light-hearted, whimsical,
cheerful girl.
The movie is a lot of fun until the
last act when Burton turns it into an
action adventure story that we have
seen too many times before.
As in Avatar, all of the creative
efforts in the first two-thirds are ruined
by the predictability of the last third.
Mice in Wonderland was the first
play to feature anthropomorphic crea
tures and led the way for such movies
as The Wizard ofOz, the Narnia series
and The Golden Compass, and deserves
a better tribute than this.
The DVD will be released on June 1.
My rating is a C. “I
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