Alice in Wonderland

March 5 was the must-see release of Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland in stunning 3D. Tim Burton directed this film as a delicious combination of over-the-top acting with lively animation. This movie was well worth the wait, and excited fans all over the world christened their budding spring season with this little guilty pleasure of madness in March. Without a doubt, Tim Burton’s quirky take on Alice is one that is sure to please.

The movie was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s children’s stories Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). In the books, Alice is a child who wandered away from a history lesson and into Wonderland, a world all her own. Fans may be disappointed by this movie because it doesn’t follow the exact sequence of events in the books, and it also doesn’t follow the beloved Disney cartoon version of the stories. However, the movie does provide an interesting spin on a child’s everlasting quest to find out who we really are and fulfill our life’s destiny.

In this fantastical adventure, 19-year-old Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) arrives in the English countryside at her would-be secret engagement party only to find herself torn between the conflicting societal expectations of a young woman and her own childish desires to chase after a much more interesting white rabbit with a pocket-watch and a waistcoat. She begins living her wildest childhood dreams after she falls down the rabbit hole and into Underland, a magical place she remembers from the imaginative slumber of her 6-year-old self.

From the moment Alice steps into Underland, everyone has been out searching for her. She is reunited with her childhood friends Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Doormouse, and the March Hare. The actors play their characters as if they had just popped out of the storybook and onto the screen. Their flamboyant costumes fit perfectly in a setting that combines elements of an English chessboard and circus animals with just the perfect color of topsy-turvy madness. Wasikowska plays a curious, daydreaming Alice with a sense of recondite wonder that matches that of wide-eyed Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

As her journey progresses, she runs into a zany Mad Hatter, who is an endearingly peculiar character played by none other than the entertaining wild card, Johnny Depp. The story unfolds with Alice’s internal struggle between her aversion to harming living creatures and her predestined path to slay the monstrous dragon, the Jabberwocky, on Frabjous Day. Sooner or later, Alice meets up with the big-headed Red Queen, played by Helena Bonham Carter, who gives an incredible performance as the tartly, demanding, loud-mouthed villain.

As Alice’s adventures began in Underland, the plot unwinds all too quickly in a torrent of random animals and color, but the story becomes much more interesting and easy to follow once the action gets rolling. The special effects are brilliant, the colors vibrant, and the actors are talented and quick-witted. But even as Alice struggles with her fate, the predestined ending in Underland is certainly no surprise. It is “off with its head!” as Alice fulfills her destiny and beheads the monster, just like we all knew she will. The story may have been more impressive if Alice’s fate wasn’t revealed multiple times throughout the movie, but then again, who would be happy with a surprise ending if Alice failed? Still, the real story comes from Alice’s self-realization and discovery of the great, big world in which she finds herself. It’s the same story that all children (and those of us who are children-at-heart) must face sometime in their lives.

With new insight in the world and her great sense of self-knowledge, Alice decides it is now her time to return to the world she had left behind. She boldly refuses the proposal of marriage and takes her place on a trade ship headed to China. Alice discovers that she is no longer a misfit in her own life in Victorian England. With a guilty smile, she takes pride in being bonkers and reminds us that it’s okay since “all the best people are.”