Alice in Wonderland DVD Blu-ray Review
Alice in Wonderland DVD Blu-ray Review
Six Possible Things
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1. The Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast — This theme is important throughout the film, and it really hits home at the end when Alice faces the Jabberwocky dragon and beheads him. In fact, speaking as a horror fan, there's a fair amount of slaying and scaring (for a kid's film). The macabre moments are balanced by positivity in the "muchness" theme; as Alice floats through the insane and often violent Underland, she grows internally strong, becoming much-more herself at the conclusion (thereby turning Underland into Wonderland).
2. The Characters — I loved how director Tim Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton teamed up to honor yet modernize the beloved characters from not only the novel, but the innumerable screen adaptations. The Cheshire Cat is beautifully blue-hued, the Red Queen's heart-shaped head is freakishly cool, Alice is empowered with a few extra years (I believe she's about 19 in the film), and The Mad Hatter is, well, Depp-demented as only he can do. What's more, the peripheral characters have so much punch they're rendered unforgettable (I especially liked The March Hare, and The Red Queen's frog flunkies).
3. The Surprising Actors — Of course, we already know Burton staples Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are going to be well-cast. But I wasn't entirely sure I'd like Alice… while Wasikowska did blow me away as suicidal Sophie on HBO's In Treatment, but I don't remember seeing her in anything else. She really held her own with all the showy performances, nicely grounding the fanciful fable with a sense of realism. I'm very familiar with the work of Anne Hathaway (she played The White Queen) and Crispin Glover (he played Stayne, The Red Queen's right hand knight), and I know they are good actors, but they impressed me anew.
4. No 3D, no IMAX! — Whew! I am so glad I didn't have to review this film wearing funny cardboard glasses. One of the reasons I never got around to any press screenings or theatrical showings of this movie was its 3D retrofit legacy. I'm headachey, and although I know I could have seen it in 2D on the big screen, I was just a little turned off by the whole idea of the in-your-face visuals. The Blu-ray 3-disk set doesn't offer the choice (there's a Blu-ray, regular, and digital copy; no spectacles) so the pressure was off to "see it all!" I think it looks beautiful, just as it is. (The costumes by Oscar winner Colleen Atwood are specially layered and lavish.)
5. The Extras — There are nearly two hours of bonus features which are organized into two sections: Wonderland Characters, and Making Wonderland. I watched much of the first section (Finding Alice, The Mad Hatter, The Futterwacken Dance, The Red Queen, Time-Lapse: Sculpting the Red Queen, and The White Queen). My favorite parts were about Depp's process (he drew upon the fact that hatters back in the day really were "mad" thanks to having to work around high levels of mercury, and he also talks about being doubled for the famous Futterwacken Dance, and why he chose to mix accents and dialects).
6. It's Fun and Entertaining — While the movie isn't deeply affecting, I have to say it served its purpose… And how can you possibly not like that?
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson