Tim Burton definitely pushed even his own imagination to a new level and a new dimension. But did any of Lewis Carroll’s legendary work of fiction make it to the silver screen intact? Characters seem to come across true to form, albeit a bit more Scottish, but Tim Burton is true to his word when he claimed this would be an entirely new story for Alice… far from an adaptation in plot and in spirit.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND REVIEW: Burton 1, Carroll 0
Tim Burton definitely pushed even his own imagination to a new level and a new dimension. But did any of Lewis Carroll’s legendary work of fiction make it to the silver screen intact? Characters seem to come across true to form, albeit a bit more Scottish, but Tim Burton is true to his word when he claimed this would be an entirely new story for Alice… far from an adaptation in plot and in spirit.
What did you guys think of that weird and totally out of place dance sequence at the end of the film? That part nearly killed it for me.
sounds great! so going to watch it in the premiere next weekend.
Actually, Heath, I kinda felt like it was the dance Burton wanted to have Alec and Winona do at the end of Beetlejuice, but he just didn’t have the ability to do it. Having said that, I wasn’t a big fan of it, or the unnecessarily CG body for Crispin Glover’s Knave.
~Matt
Yeah, I forgot about George McFly’s avatar body…
Or what about the fact that the whole movie revolved around Alice saying, “I’ve seen some crazy sh** these past few hours so, let’s invade China.” WTF
Overall, good movie but 3D needed a lot of work on.
That weird whirring sound you hear is Lewis Carroll spinning in his grave…
What a fiasco. Burton has become a ridiculous caricature of himself, and I’m seriously tired of him trotting out Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Danny Elfman in everything he does. Bonham Carter has become Lisa Marie, the chick that Burton sticks in every one of is movies because he’s boffing her. What a legacy THAT is, Helena – you should be proud. And what’s the deal, Johnny? Does Burton have your soul in a box somewhere and is threatening to destroy it unless you bring your box-office clout to his celluloid crapfests? C’mon, fess up – you were actually in “Planet Of The Apes”, right? I thought I recognized you as one of the ape cops at the end, because he was definitely wearing eyeliner.
This film was a disjointed mess – and because of bad writing and nonsensical plotting, not because it’s cool to be tangential and surreal, like Burton thinks and tries to be. I usually don’t quote statistics, but there’s a reason why the movie is only at 52% at Rotten Tomatoes, with even the most positive reviews sounding quite marginal and almost apologetic. Ugh.
As a CGI worker I’m not a fan of 3D at all. The amount of work that goes into creating every single little piece of detail can be insane. But then to have all that detail blurred in the movie to make the 3D effect work is head banging annoying.
As for the butter fingers mention. I assumed that was just an abstract joke on the butterfingers biscuit. Commonly called butterfingers or butterscotch fingers. Have been well known thoughout Australia and Britain for over 70 years, usually eaten with a drink of tea. Not sure about that being known in America though.
As you’ve mentioned accents again. I can’t help but think that Lewis Carroll was British so I can’t see why the Mad Hatter shouldn’t have a British accent. Be it English, Scottish or even Welsh. Actually shouldn’t all of the characters have had British accents, if we really want to go down this road? Mat mentioned the slip of the Australian accent in Avatar by the main character as well even though their is no mention in the movie of him being American in the first place. You guys don’t have some kind of ism against dialects that are not American do you?
I wouldn’t exactly call this an entirley new story for alice as it reminded me greatly of the tv adaptions of the jabberwocky storyline from the 1980′s. I think their were at least 2 in the 80′s and maybe another two in the 90′s covering the jabberwocky storyline. I’d be surprised if Mr Burton didn’t borrow some material from them.
Overall I thought the movie was ok but nothing out of the ordinary.
Good point about the accent, Ttandc. There does seem to be an assumption that everyone has to have an American accent, unless it’s particularly British like Alice was. Hatter felt a bit more manic and multiple personality thanks to the addition of the Scottish accent. Even if it was incredibly Captain Jack.
But in Avatar, Worthington’s occaisional accent slip can definitely be explained away by it taking place a hundred years from now, and who knows what country he’s from. Even though that’s just me coming up with a geeky explanation for letting a lazy acting mistake slip through on a $230M movie…
G’day Shoddy McGoddy
Thanks
I looked over the avatar movie twice and found no indication that he was meant to be American in any way so when Mat made that statement saying a slip of an Australian accent, it kind of stuck as I thought he was speaking normal Australian speech all the way through the movie. As I’m sure everybody else did in this country. Perhaps Mat has been watching too many Steve Irwin shows. Haha
I’ve just watched the movie yesterday and I loved every moment of it! I liked it and I think it’s another great Tim Burton movie
Are you guys going to review Hot Tub Time Machine or How to Train Your Dragon?