![]() “Alice” feels more like a disconnected set of vignettes, each conceived to highlight some gag or effect. Woolverton’s previous credits are Disney cartoons (“The Lion King,” “Beauty and the Beast”) and I think she displayed more storytelling skills in that 2D realm. – so that they feel a connection but then he and writer Linda Woolverton do little to add to these characters or to create any kind of clever narrative. In “Alice,” he banks on viewers being familiar with Carroll’s characters – Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen, etc. He balanced weirdness and good storytelling in films such as “Edward Scissorhands” and “Ed Wood,” but has been less successful since. His penchant for weirdness is clearly on display but weirdness without a good story or compelling characters can get wearisome. Yet Burton has lost the ability to tell a story. So the images are perversely sumptuous and make the film fun to watch. There are often things sprinkled throughout the frame to catch our eye. This filmmaking team creates a world for Alice that is visually dynamic. Burton and Wolski are both aided by production designer Robert Stromberg (whose credits include “Avatar” and “There Will Be Blood”). ![]() Wolski created something similar but grimmer in “Dark City,” and he has a flair for creating a world that can be both dark and seductive. Working again with cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (they teamed on “Sweeny Todd”), Burton creates a dark, ominous, and mesmerizingly surreal world. His use of CGI and 3D feels far fresher and more inventive than what James Cameron did with “Avatar.” Although the 3D in both films proves spotty in terms of how impressive it is to watch.īurton does have a truly clever visual sensibility. His film would make a lovely picture book. Once again, Burton creates a films that is visually engaging and sometimes even dazzling. But what this does translate into is that almost nothing of Carroll’s original stories or vision, save for the character names and a few lines, is evident in Burton’s film. ![]() ![]() ![]() We are told in the press materials, and to a lesser degree in the film, that this is a 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) who is returning to a “world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends.” But if she is returning we don’t get any sense of what happened before or that Alice is indeed reuniting with old friends or if anyone recalls that first encounter beyond Alice’s fuzzy dream memories. But I’m not sure what it is that Burton wants to serve up in its place. Tim Burton and all the studio publicity make it abundantly clear that this film version of “Alice” is not intended to be Carroll’s “Alice.” Fine. If you’ve never read Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” then you may enjoy Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” (opening March 6 throughout San Diego and at Edwards Mira Mesa in IMAX 3D).Īt the advance screening I went to, the radio station brought some people up for a contest and not a single one of the contestants could name the author of “Alice in Wonderland.” So if they represent the target audience, then the film is likely to do well. ![]()
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