A lice in Wonderland is so cut out for Tim Burton, that it's a surprise the quirky director had not approached the material before. Here Lewis Carroll's weird and wonderful world comes alive in 3D. Alice is 19, and tired of the stuffy Victorian society she's part of. At Lord Ascot's tea party, when an impossibly boring Lord proposes marriage to Alice, she follows a scurrying rabbit down a rabbit hole to reach Underland.
There is much debate on whether she is the right Alice to slay the Jabberwocky on Frabjous Day and free Underland from the tyranny of the Red Queen. We meet all the characters from the book, including Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the hookah smoking blue Caterpillar, the grinning Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter.
The movie moves at a spanking pace, and is truly a family movie — there's enough colour and action to keep the young ones amused, explorations into the subconscious for the elders to ponder about, and technical and visual wizardry to keep the geeks supremely interested.
The cast is top notch, and leading the way is Johnny Depp with his red hair and lisp as the Hatter. Helena Bonham Carter is deliciously unpredictable as the Red Queen while Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover and Anne Hathaway as Alice, the Knave of Hearts, and the White Queen respectively are competent.
Alice in Wonderland is Burton's most accessible work, and it is no surprise that it did so well at the U.S. box-office.
Alice in Wonderland
Genre: Adventure / Fantasy
Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Mia Wasikowska
Voice cast: Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Timothy Spall
Director: Tim Burton
Storyline: A 19-year-old Alice revisits Wonderland to save it from the tyranny of the Red Queen
Bottomline: A brilliant re-imaging of a well-loved tale
