Disney screenwriter Linda Woolverton is the main driving force behind the reason for this film's existence. Yes, Burton added his impressive visual flair and his favorite cast of actors to bring the script to life, but the story was all Woolverton. She was the name behinds such Disney classics as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King as well as the hit broadway musicals Aida and the Beauty and the Beast theatrical adaptation. She played a role in other big Disney projects as well, so after building this clout, she submitted a personal project that she had been developing for years. In 2007, she produced a script that focused on an older Alice's return to Wonderland. The story would borrow elements from the original books and not so much the original Disney film to craft an epic film akin to Lord of the Rings. Known for her strong female protagonists, she wanted Alice to become the hero that children looked up to, especially young girls.
Burton was attached to the script at Disney's request and he stated in interviews that he never had a personal connection to the original story. He appreciated the more conventional narrative of Woolverton's script, rather than the randomness of the Carroll books. The result is a Wonderland that had never been seen before and, for better or worse, it's popularity at the box office has made it the current reference point for new fans of Alice.
(Because this is a complete new story, I'll just cite the major references I found to the originals.)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter I: Down the Rabbit Hole - MAJOR REFERENCES
Alice starts the story with a public marriage proposal at a garden party event hosted by the fiance-to-be. Her discomfort with the Victorian lifestyle causes her to run from the proposal and instead follow the White Rabbit whom she had been seeing around the party. She falls down the Rabbit Hole and ends up in the Hall of Doors where she undergoes the same actions as she did during her original trip (keys, bottles, cakes, growing and shrinking). This time, she acknowledges that she is having a dream.
Chapter II: The Pool of Tears - MINOR REFERENCES
Alice does not cry this time and manages to get through the door successfully. Mallymkun the Dormouse is one of the first characters she meets as she passes through the door and her personality seems to be based on the Mouse from this chapter instead of the actual Dormouse, as she is more prone to action and adventure and disagreement.
Chapter III: The Caucus-Race and a Long Tale - MINOR REFERENCES
Uilleam the Dodo appears as one of the other characters that Alice first encounters. He is helpful to Alice but quickly captured by the Red Queen's soldiers.
Chapter IV: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill - MINOR REFERENCES
The character of Bayard the Bloohound, who Alice first encounters when she is tiny, seems intended to be a grown up version of the Puppy from this chapter, as he is aware of who Alice is.
Chapter V: Advice from a Caterpillar - MAJOR REFERENCES
Absolem the Caterpillar takes on the role of Alice's mentor and the central wise figure of Wonderland (excuse me, Underland), appearing to Alice at key moments of the story to dispense advice, often asking if Alice has figured out who she is yet.
Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper - MAJOR REFERENCES
The Cheshire Cat appears to aid Alice as well, directing Alice to the Hatter and Hare's tea party. Also, the Red Queen's appearance draws inspiration from the Duchess's design with an overly large head and small body, as well as her mood swings towards others. Her court is also staffed with Frog and Fish Footman and she has at least one Pig in her possession who acts as her footstool. Finally, the March Hare appears to have adopted the Cook's affinity for throwing dishes as he does so during the tea party and then later own when he seeks refuge in the White Queen's kitchen.
Chapter VII: A Mad Tea Party - MAJOR REFERENCES
Alice meets with Tarrant Hightopp (the Hatter) and Thackery Earwicket (the March Hare) at their perpetual tea party where they have been waiting for Alice to help lead the resistance against the Red Queen. The Dormouse is also present, but again, she acts nothing like the Dormouse of the story. The Hatter becomes a leading character in this film helping Alice every step of the way, and much of his story is based on being a performer (he leads the trio in "Twinkle, Twinkle" when the Queen's soldiers arrive). He also asks the famous "raven/writing desk" question several times during the film and also borrows the original Dormouse's focus on "muchness" to become his own personal philosophy about the strength of one's character (that is passed on to Alice).
Chapter VIII: The Queen's Croquet-Ground - MAJOR REFERENCES
After the Hatter is captured, Alice infiltrates the Red Queen's castle where she and her guests are having a croquet-game like the one found in the book. Alice also recalls painting her roses red from her first visit (and even mentions this in the real world garden party). The Red Queen is mostly based on the Queen of Hearts with her heart-themed decor as well as her penchance for cutting off people's heads. The Card Soldiers appear as the Queen's army and the Knave of Hearts serves as her right hand man (and he is much more intelligent in this version, but every bit as deceitful and unloyal as he was in the book). The King is implied to have been beheaded by the Queen's orders. Also, when the Hatter is to be executed, the Cheshire Cat takes his place, putting to rest the Executioner's query about whether you can behead something that has no body.
Chapter IX: The Mock Turtle's Story - REMOVED
The original script shows that the Mock Turtle and Gryphon were slated to appear in a brief opening montage/flashback to Alice's original visit.
Chapter X: The Lobster-Quadrille - MINOR REFERENCE
At the garden party, Alice dances in a quadrille with her fiance-to-be, Hamish. She's not fond of it.
Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts? - MINOR REFERENCE
The Red Queen is introduced looking for the culprit of her missing tarts. One of the Frogs ate them.
Chapter XII: Alice's Evidence - REMOVED
The trial plays out as it should (with some additional dialogue) with Alice using this as her opportunity to get over her stage fright. The creatures of Wonderland feel that it is time for her to wake up and she returns to her family's party. She gets up to sing for her guests and instead chooses to sing the Lobster-Quadrille, much to the audience's enjoyment.
Through the Looking-Glass
Chapter I: Looking-Glass House - MAJOR REFERENCES
The Jabberwock (here called the Jabberwocky) is a major plot point in this story as Alice is the hero destined to slay him on the "Frabjous Day." The prophecy scrolls as based on John Tenniel's original illustration of the Jabberwock. Here, it appears as one of the monstrous creatures under the Red Queen's control, along with the Bandersnatch and the Jubjub Bird. Other references to the poem include a Mome Rath that runs past Alice when she enters Underland (the original script also called for Slithy Toves and Borogoves to also appear), and the Hatter recites a few of the poems verses to Alice, and he later shouts "Callooh, Callay" when she is victorious.
Chapter II: The Garden of Live Flowers - MINOR REFERENCES
The Talking Flowers appear when Alice first enters Underland. The Red Queen borrows her name from the Red Queen, but very little of her personality. The final battle takes place on a giant chessboard, much like the one that is established in this chapter.
Chapter III: Looking-Glass Insects - MINOR REFERENCES
A Rocking-Horse Fly and a Snap-Dragon Fly battle it out as Alice enters Underland. The Gnat was also supposed to make an appearance in the original script.
Chapter IV: Tweedledum and Tweedledee - MAJOR REFERENCES
Dee and Dum appear in supporting roles and they speak in a manor very similar to their speech patterns in the books. Also, Alice's awareness of being in a dream and the destruction of Underland once she wakes up is very similar to the thoughts on the sleeping Red King from this chapter.
A Rocking-Horse Fly and a Snap-Dragon Fly battle it out as Alice enters Underland. The Gnat was also supposed to make an appearance in the original script.
Chapter IV: Tweedledum and Tweedledee - MAJOR REFERENCES
Dee and Dum appear in supporting roles and they speak in a manor very similar to their speech patterns in the books. Also, Alice's awareness of being in a dream and the destruction of Underland once she wakes up is very similar to the thoughts on the sleeping Red King from this chapter.
Chapter V: Wool and Water - MINOR REFERENCES
The White Queen appears as the opposing good force against the Red Queen (and as her sister). The White Queen is very unlike the version in the book, although the fact that she is portrayed as being much younger may be a reference to the fact that the White Queen supposedly "lives backwards." Alice also references her father's habit of believing "six impossible things before breakfast" and she uses this to strengthen her resolve during the final fight against the Jabberwock(y). In the book, this was one of the White Queen's quotes.
Chapter VIII: "It's My Own Invention" - MINOR REFERENCE
Chapter IX: Queen Alice - MINOR REFERENCE
Alice "captures" the Red Queen at the end of the battle and the Red Queen's crown goes to...the White Queen.
Review:
I had extremely high hopes when I first heard that this movie was coming out. Just the phrase "Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland" felt like a dream come true! When I heard it would be live-action and not stop-motion, I was a little disappointed, but then the first images of Alice, the Hatter, and the Red Queen came out, and I was intrigued. Alice (Mia Wasikowska) was pictured as a deliberately older version of the character, holding a white rabbit, the Hatter (Johnny Depp) was pictured as a colorful clown holding a brown hare, the Red Queen (Helena Bonham-Carter) was pictured as a normal-headed regal villain holding a pig, and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) was a sensitive goddess admiring a mouse. I liked the fact that this was going to be going in a different direction with these characters as the main focus. These promo images stood out to me and I was growing more and more curious as to what the film would be like.
But as the film drew nearer, I would discover more and more reasons to lower my hope. The trailers while visually interesting were a huge departure from Burton's usual style. And when an early version of the script leaked on line, I was disappointed to learn that it wouldn't be following the story's plot at all and was even adding a romantic subplot with the Hatter (which was mostly removed in the final version). Still, I didn't want to judge it before I saw it.
I knew that the film would be a darker reimagining which had seen some success with the book series The Looking-Glass Wars and the American McGee's Alice video game. It may not have been the Burton Wonderland I had been hoping for, but it could be its own cool thing.
I think it was about the time that Alice left the Hall of Doors that I realized that the film had lost me. Now, I know I shouldn't let my expectations spoil the story that the filmmakers were trying to tell, but the first 10 minutes led me to believe that we'd be following a retread of the original story with major alterations. But then we get the Dodo, the White Rabbit, the Dormouse, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and the Talking Flowers all showing up at once to take Alice to the Caterpillar. That was a lot to dump on us at this point of the film.
See, the first issue that I had with this "reimagining" was that it felt like a sequel to a story we hadn't seen. All the characters had different names (and some had different personalities) that we were just supposed to accept as if it had always been the norm. It was hard to tell what Alice was supposed to be familiar with and what was supposed to be new to her because all of this was new to us. It sort of felt as if this movie was made for people who had never seen or read any version of the story before and were only familiar with the general attributes.
Now, Disney has done this ever since they've begun making films. All of their fairy tale adaptations take great strides in distancing themselves from the originals outside of the bare essentials. But Wonderland doesn't quite fit with those changes. It is cool to see a Wicked-style take on the darker side of this familiar world, but there needs to be a learning curve for the audience to get used to this new world. Even something as simple as having Alice share in our confusion would have helped matters. The reason Alice works as a hero is that the audience can instantly sympathize with her and see themselves in her shoes. This Alice was a bit too accepting of this brand new world.
Watching it again this time, I knew to expect all of the changes, so I figured that I should just accept the story for what it is and focus on the new one that is trying to be told. And that would be fine if the new story wasn't so cliched and boring, especially towards the end. Many reviewers have pointed out that this is your standard mythic hero's journey that has been popularized through films during the 2000s such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Narnia. And it's fine if that's the Wonderland story you want to tell. But nothing new is brought to the table. There are no surprises. Every character now slides into a stock role. There is no tension during the final act because we know, of course, that Alice will defeat the Jabberwock. If they want to go for a grim, epic, fantasy, actually give us characters and stakes to care about.
When Alice returns home from her adventure, she goes on this strange rant where she deals with each of her issues with every family member, supposedly based on what she learned while in Underland. But none of these revelations feel as if they were earned in the story and some of them seem to go against the point of the film (like when she calls out her "crazy" aunt for not seeking help for her delusions). Despite being such a cookie cutter storyline, the motivations of characters a truly all over the place.
My final verdict is that this is not Alice in Wonderland in any sense of the word. I appreciate what Woolverton was going for with making Alice our next big fantasy heroine, but her script could have used a bit more fine tuning to make for a more cohesive story. And I appreciate Burton trying to craft a quirky absurd world around a more streamlined plot, but his lack of passion in the source material comes through very strongly. It looks amazing, but lacks any real substance and internal logic.
The sequel comes out tomorrow, and I'm already hearing news that I should be expecting more of the same. (Woolverton also wrote this script, but James Bobbin has taken over as the director, and I'm a fan of his.) I'm hoping that maybe they listened to their critics to at least make a more satisfying journey for this Alice to go on. I want to like this film series, I truly do. So much of it I adore in theory. But references alone aren't going to cut it. It needs more muchness.
2.5 out of 5 Mad Hatter Dance Sequences
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