Movie of the Day-Alice in Oz....aka Alice in Wonderland

I had the pleasure of sitting down this afternoon and viewing Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland with my awesome friend and fellow movie lover Lindsey Christensen. Like Burton’s other films this movie was definitely unique, visually stunning, and superb music. “Tim Burton movies have great soundtracks,” stated Lindsey. This loosely based sequel to the first Alice in Wonderland felt like more of a redux of The Wizard of OZ. In fact the more I think about it, the more I think Tim Burton copied this classic!!

The story follows Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska. The story starts with Alice at a party being proposed to by a dorky Lord with hundreds of onlookers watching her. Society was telling Alice she should say yes, while deep down you could see she wanted to say no. As this was all happening, Alice saw the white rabbit and ran after him, and then falls down a hole…again. And oh wow…she’s back in the magical world of Wonderland. Alice’s journey leads her to meet up with many interesting characters that questioned if she was the real Alice. These characters included Absolute (the caterpillar voiced by Alan Rickman), the Mad Hatter (played by Johnny Depp), The Red Queen (played by Helena Bonham Carter), and The White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway). I almost expected to see the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow at times. The Red Queen and the White Queen, being sisters and one good and one bad, were essentially the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch. As always, Johnny Depp was amazing. “His versatility is off the charts,” stated Christensen.

Although Lindsey and I liked the film overall, we did have some complaints. First, the thick and over-exaggerated accents were annoying. We found ourselves not understanding much of the dialogue throughout the film. Two, the violence may have been inappropriate for a younger audience. In one scene we found a mouse stabbing out an eyeball of a dog-like creature. “The speared eye reminded me of a speared olive in a martini glass,” stated Lindsey.

The end of the film finds Alice returning home, following her heart, and denies the Lord her hand in marriage. The message of the story was plain and simple-be yourself-be the real Alice and don’t conform and the underlying message was, “There’s no place like home.”