entertainment
april 30, 2010
editor -in- chief
Edgy, entertainingly dark and slightly macabre are terms which one might associate with director Tim Burton. Pair that with expert casts, composers and directing and bingo; instant horror movie recipe. However, Tim Burton seems to enjoy proving that he doesn’t have to walk down that cookiecutter pathway. Defying all sense of logic, in recent years the majority of Tim Burton’s films have been children’s fantasy stories and musicals, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to Sweeney Todd and the animated Coraline and now Alice in Wonderland. Written by Lewis Carroll in 1865, re-imagined by Disney in 1951 and now re-invented by Disney and Tim Burton, Alice in Wonderland is a brightly colored and fantastical live-action film and quite different from its animated Disney counterpart. Making use of well known names such as Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway, Alice in Wonderland 2010 takes a refreshing turn from Alice in Wonderland 1951. Whilst the animated version seemed to only be a childish diversion with Alice simply walking throughout Wonderland and encountering strange and impossible creature after creature, Burton’s Alice follows an interesting and engaging plotline. Alice in Wonderland begins with a 19 year old Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) attending a horribly stiff, awkward and degrading party y which she soon discovers is actually
meant to be her own engagement party. Unable to answer the expectancy of marriage and troubled by thoughts of her own recurring dreams, Alice runs off to chase a very familiar white rabbit when she takes a tumble into a mysterious hole. From here the story continues much y as the 1951 animated the same way
version: Alice falls into Wonderland, drinks a potion which makes her small, eats a cake which makes her gigantic and meets all those strange and impossible creatures like the blue caterpillar Absolem, the Cheshire Cat, Tweedledee and Tweedledum and of course, the Mad Hatter (Depp). Here is where the new version
diverts from the old. There has been a prophecy in Underland (the actual and proper name for Wonderland, misheard by Alice) that at a certain time called the Frabjous Day, an Alice will come, defeat the Jabberwocky (essentially a big dragon) and destroy the cruel and selfish Red Queen (Bonham Carter), restoring the tranquil and benevolent White Queen (Hathaway) to the throne. So Alice is immediately involved from the start in a mad dash to steal the only sword that can do the job while trying to avoid the Red Queen and her minions. Throughout all the confusion and fantasy, Alice quickly realizes that her recurring dreams of Wonderland which she has had since she was small were actually memories of all the times she had travelled there. Filled with determination, Alice and the White Queen’s army battle the Red Queen. Long story short, Alice defeats the Jabberwocky, and empowered, she returns to her own world to give a true and honest answer to the degrading marriage proposal. Burton does a marvelous job as usual with his casting, and creates a unique insight into originally background characters like the Mad Hatter. Alice becomes a character that any person who loves to dream can relate to, and acts as a gloriously independent role model for all young girls. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland is an A+, with an entertaining, fantastical, amusingly nonsensical and insightful plot, taking a very different and refreshing path from its animated and,, at often time’s flat,, ppredecessor.
the
wilmington
Alice, Alice, Alice is marvelous
Madison Law
15