Alice in Wonderland

A Spoonful of Sugar - Anne Hathaway in Alice in Wonderland
 
Time Investment: 108 min.
Return on Investment: 65 min.
 
The idea of Tim Burton adapting Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney Studios) makes a kind of sense but still raises mixed expectations. Will the visionary add anything new to the tale?
 
On the surface Burton’s certainly giving it his all: eye-filling production design and costumes, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen of Hearts. But the episodic nature of the story and its outlandish characters make it hard to get invested at times. Mia Wasikowska’s outstanding performance as Alice helps immeasurably—too often the leads in fantasy films are blank slates reacting to the wildness around them, but Wasikowska creates an intriguing and likable character. Carter’s villain is also wonderfully funny and surprisingly human, and Alice’s deepening relationship with the Hatter and his cohorts provides some much-needed emotional heft.
 
That said, Depp’s shtick is getting a little old; many of his choices here, like an inexplicably recurring Scottish accent, seem weird for weirdness’ sake. The 3-D aspect of the movie also seems needless. Do all big-event movies really have to include things coming right at us?
 
In the end, Alice is flashy and spectacular but never pulls the audience in quite like it should. The framing story,  with a defiant Alice in “the real world,”  is in many ways superior to the fantasy. Sometimes a real-life multi-faceted character is more compelling than all the IMAX 3-D Cheshire Cats and Jabberwocks in the world.