The New Alice in Wonderland

I went to see this, expecting nothing groundbreaking or as dark as I would like because it was by Disney. They haven't done anything with teeth for quite some time (I'm not counting Bolt since that was effectively a Pixar film). Last I can remember is the fiery lust scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. That was old school kind of stuff where if you see it as a 5-year-old, you think nothing of it. Then when you see it when you're an adult, you say, "Wow! I hadn't noticed that..."

I at least hoped the visuals would be incredible. Some were; the Red Queen's Castle was pretty cool. But I found myself really bored with the film, and halfway through I figured out why.

It hit me when Alice was rewarded for returning a favor to someone that had hurt her in the past. Wonderland made sense. Gone were the insanity and chaos of the animated Disney film of 1951 (which I quite like). What I really had hoped for, dimly in the back of my mind, was to be transported to a world of beautifully-rendered utter nonsense.

Another thing that was missing was the trademark wit of the book. Some of this was present in the 1951 film, but it was entirely missing here.

That is not to say the film is without some merits. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter's performances were excellent as usual, as was much of the costume design.

All of this is a real shame, because I think Alice In Wonderland is a story that could really benefit from modern visual technologies.