Alice In Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is Disney's lates 3D reality-cum-animation offering. It is also the 7th collaboration between Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. With an all-star cast including Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathoway and (er) Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Burton adapts this classic tale of dream fantasy in what is Hollywood's latest effort to make well-known super hero and fairytale narratives. For what it'a worth the cinema-going public also seems to be eating them up like-well-a tea party.

So. We have a realiable story-and a reliable collaboration. But do we have a good story? Not really. For the amount of marketing and promotion done for this fim I expected a lot more. No doubt the packed cinema audience of young, pop corn filled faces expected more too. The animation, special effects and art direction are amazing, but the plot vanishes. Wasikowska also stays in the main as the main character. Depp does not outshine her as the mad hatter, as the visual communication in the film's advertising had suggested. Depp acts very well; but he is not nearly as eccentric, show-stealing or funny as I thougt he would be. For a film directed primarily at the under 12's I also rarely heard a young laugh. This is most strange for a Disney film, where at least on outrageous and funny character keeps the younger ones laughing all the while.

The Victorian costumes of the real world depicted at the beginning (and the end) were also a surprise as nothing of this style is communicated in the film's visual marketing either. The all too iron-pressed costumes were not convincing and the stereotype characters portrayed in Alice's real world were the same.

Alice in Wonderland isa disappointment. There are too few characters and the plot is too thin. Its saving grace is the excellent acting of Bonham-Carter, Hathoway and the less animated than he should be Depp. Don't believe the hype.