DVDizzy Forum

I'd actually compare this movie to Steven Spielberg's Hook. Both movies are done by famous directors, are unofficial sequels that take liberties with the original source material, and feature the main protagonist (Alice here, Peter Pan there) from the previous works (having aged) returning to a fantasy world in which they have no memory of and have to rediscover themselves, grow up, and finally defeat their adversary. Pretty similar concept.

jpanimation wrote:I'd actually compare this movie to Steven Spielberg's Hook. Both movies are done by famous directors, are unofficial sequels that take liberties with the original source material, and feature the main protagonist (Alice here, Peter Pan there) from the previous works (having aged) returning to a fantasy world in which they have no memory of and have to rediscover themselves, grow up, and finally defeat their adversary. Pretty similar concept.

The Animated Views review also makes that comparison.

the blu-ray.com review I think also did that comparison.

So did another certain someone's...

Disneykid wrote:So did another certain someone's...

...UD's review of the movie?



Just messing with ya . Funny how everyone came to the same agreement regardless of what they actually thought of the movie.

I just watched this movie, and was pleasantly surprised. There was lots of good stuff, but some bad stuff too, as Kelvin pointed out in his review. The story was a bit cliched, you know with the whole hero-within-you thingy, but still enjoyable to watch unfold, even if it was predictable. A nitpick I had is that I just wish it could be longer. As with the Golden Compass, I felt like the movie was madly rushed, not really giving you a chance to stop and feel for these characters. I did anyway, since they're so darn awesome. But I never really got a sense that I know these characters too well. Only Alice is really given any in-depth development, and everyone else is quietly ignored. As with others, I wish I had seen more of characters' (such as the Mad Hatter) flashbacks of the time of Alice's absence, or some other important date. Some characters are only largely present in a particular scene, and are then pushed out of the way to make room for the main ones. These include Thackery, the Jabberwocky, the talking flowers, the poor Dodo, and to some extent, Absolem. Even poor McTwisp is somewhat ignored, despite his role as Alice's bait into Underland. Some of the White and Red Queens' time as siblings together may have strengthened the hatred they bear each other, and made the moment Iracebeth rejects Mirana's peace offering more meaningful. This could all be potentially resolved in a Director's Cut someday, though I doubt it will surface.


The characters are wonderful, and each one has a distinct personality that makes them rather unique. Mia Wasikowska is decent as Alice, showing a rather believable insecure yet fiery personality (though I did note, she ended up not "making her path" after all). Tarrant is...well....weird. He's not really how I expected Johnny Depp to portray him. The whole switching voices thing was rather odd, too. I noticed that he uses his Scottish tone more when he's angry.I liked his little monologues, but it appears as if only Alice and Mallymkun can snap him out of it. Thackery is criminally underused, and he has one of the best lines in the whole movie: "You're all late for tea!" HBC as the Red Queen was the best human performance, really exhibiting her temper and resentment. I almost feel sorry for her, seeing as how her older (or younger) sister gets everything cause she's pretty. Did the Red King try to leave her and go to Mirana? That's what I thought when she said, "I had to do it. He'd have left me." I'm guessing she cut off the heads of him and his soldiers and threw them in her moat to prevent from doing that. But why would the heads be stone? Mirana is great too, and as others have pointed out, not as nice as she seems. I like Kelvin's description of when she has that panicked look on her face and is shaking her finger to make Alice feel guilty and obliged to do it (sorry for the run-on's). It shows that she is probably just as bloodthirsty and cruel as her sister, it's just that she's exceptionally good at hiding it. Her expression when sniffing the buttered fingers is to die for. I think the only thing I don't really like about her is that she refuses to kill the Jabberwocky and take charge. She's pretty much letting Tarrant and Alice do everything; Tarrant to lead the resistance, and Alice to be her champion. "It's against my vows" isn't good enough for me. Alas, Mirana too is not present to often, and not given enough personality to truly be understandable.


Stayne is, as pap64 described him, creepy. I also don't think his digital body suits him that well. Tweedledum and Tweedledee are funny, but rather unnecessary. McTwisp, as I stated before, is underused compared to others despite his prominent role. I love his little action of tapping his watch. Absolem is just...there, and his smoking act listed on the MPAA rating box is hilarious. Chessur is the best character of them all, and his voice is so rich and deep, you can't help but like him. I like how he also has a somewhat sinister side to him as well, when he says, "What happened that day was not my fault." I guess he didn't feel like helping either side. Other smaller characters such as the Jabberwocky, the Bandersnatch, the Jubjub bird, or Uileam are sadly barely present. The last character to mention is that of Mallymkun, and she has the honor of being the one character I cannot stand in the entire film. Her voice doesn't sound right to me, and her constant change of I like, I don't like Alice is abrupt. I still don't know if she wants to save Alice or not. As others have stated, she is pretty much a knock-off a female Reepicheep, and I would much rather have her always falling asleep than running around with a little sword and stabbing people (though her removal of the Bandersnatch's eye was cool).


Much has been noted of the spectacular visual scenery of Alice in Wonderland, and rightfully so. The visuals are fantastic, and pretty much up there with Avatar (though not to that extent). The green screen sets look so real, I can't believed they're CGI. Solozem Grom (SP?)'s throne room is so real, I don't know how they managed to pull it off. Iracebeth's enlarged head is great, and all of Underland is just beautiful. My favorite scenery is either Solozem Grom or the forest Alice enters when she first arrives. I too love the rabbit hole sequence, and thought it astounding. If there's one thing that's perfect in Alice in Wonderland, it's the visual scenery and effects. I bet this one is a shoe-in for Visual Effects when the Oscars come.


Overall, Alice in Wonderland is a delightful experience. I originally thought this the stupidest idea of them all, but I feel as if it almost improves on the original (though many would disagree with me). It gives Wonder/Underland some sentiment to it. Sadly, rushed pacing and some annoying characters stop it from being absolutely perfect. But in the end, it is a rather enjoyable experience, and I'll make sure to watch it from time to time. One sad thing is that Alice only says good-bye to Tarrant. But that doesn't matter too much. Alice's potentially final trip to Wonder/Underland was a great one, and it'd be interesting to see what would happen if they did a sequel. Tarrant says Alice will not remember him. But I think she will, since McTwisp spent some time up in the human world looking for the right Alice, and Absolem appears to accompany Alice on her voyage, so I'm betting she'll remember, since the trip is the reason she has chosen her path. I really liked this movie, and I think it deserves an 8/10.


Note: I'm sorry about the spacing of the words. I'll try to fix that later.

I honestly thought it was a boring, painting by numbers big budget 'epic' that could've been so much more. It seemed like it was made by someone who wanted to copy Burton's style, then only used some design elements, and then decided to make a Beowulf-like action flick instead. It wasn't coherent, it was predictable, and the actors seemed to be bored all the way. If Crispin Glover acts as a normal guy in your movie, then something is wrong. Even Danny Elfman, who I really think delivers a lot of great scores most of the time, seemed to repeat himself. And this made over 100 million dollars? I'm beginning to feel that the movie business is a sad state of affairs these days.

Disneykid, I'm waiting the perfect time to watch the animted version. I always try to make a good time to watch such good movies, but I may have to "just do it!" soon. Thanks for the info and suggestions! Do I have to join IMDB though to possibly find such a script?

SmartAleck, I don't think it was because Marina was pretty, but nice (even if only pretending to be that nice). Also, the heads either weren't stone but just very cold and hardened heads, they couldn't show a rotting head quiet the way the real world would render it, or they are stone because, well, it's Wonderland and things like that can happen!

You know, Animated Views made a very insightful comment on the Mad Hatter's changing voice:

Indeed, even back in the theatrical release, I was surprised when many critics totally missed the point of his performance choice to switch into a wild Scottish brogue (not very dissimilar to that of a hyperactive Captain Jack Sparrow) whenever he spoke of bringing down the Red Queen and restoring the Wonder to Underland.

Surely this is a not-so subtle nuance that plays up the difference between the rather meek and weary Hatter, damaged after years of oppressiveness, and his inner flashes of bravado, where he thinks he can take anyone on? “I don’t like it in here, it’s terribly crowded”, he tells Alice poignantly at one point, further confounding me as to how anyone could have missed this clear signposting to the fact that this poor individual has quite literally driven himself “mad” to the point of schizophrenia? It’s a quite wonderful thing to find in a mainstream commercial movie, and one ostensibly portraying itself as fun for all the family, but thus is the genius that sparks when Burton and Depp find themselves firing on all creative cylinders.

However, I told the reviewer in the forum that despite this, I think reviewers at least vaguely got what it was supposed to be, but whatever the reason for it, it just didn't work in the film, that it wasn't good, not a good choice.

The changing voice was not such a bad decision, IMHO. I understood it for what it was from the very first time watching the film. It seemed fairly obvious, and I thought, rahter intriguing.

I got the Blu-ray release now and love the movie, the picture and the sound, but I am really dissapointed with the bonus features. It's only 3 lousy features; The Mad Hatter, Finding Alice and something about special effects in Wonderland.

I fear that this is a new trend with Disney, to give us non-American customers only a tease of bonus features compared to the American releases. The British releases are (however not always as good as the American releases) generally better than the releases here in Norway when it comes to bonus features, but in the bonus features departement are both the British and the Norwegian Alice Blu-ray-editions as lousy as one another.

Edit: Wow, that was a bit stupid of me. Accidentally deleted my post.

Alice in Wonderland among top 10 in sales and rentals for week ending June 27
http://www.laughingplace.com/Latest-ID-74661.asp


I'd still like to see this. It was sold-out of the Blockbuster Express machine at the grocery store when I checked the other day...

blackcauldron85 wrote:Alice in Wonderland among top 10 in sales and rentals for week ending June 27
http://www.laughingplace.com/Latest-ID-74661.asp


I'd still like to see this. It was sold-out of the Blockbuster Express machine at the grocery store when I checked the other day...

Well, at least I liked it. I thought it was better than the reviewers gave credit for. Check it out. I'll hope you'll enjoy the movie.

I'm always back and forth on this one. Sometimes I really like it and other times I'm disappointed in the changes they made to the story.

But I love the rabbit hole scene so much, that sometimes I watch the movie purely to watch that scene. When she's up there in front of the crowd, all confused and uncertain, nervous and reluctant to deal with the problems in her life at that moment, and then she sees the white rabbit tapping on his watch and runs away from it all to chase a fantastical way to escape those problems, it just sends chills down my spine. Alice's Theme is just the icing on the cake for me. Escapism really plays on my harp strings.

Everything after the rabbit hole, was enjoyable, but I guess it doesn't do it for me as much as the actual concept of entering a mysterious, new world where anything can happen.

I love the England scenes-including the rabbit hole.

VagueSimplicity wrote:I'm always back and forth on this one. Sometimes I really like it and other times I'm disappointed in the changes they made to the story.

But I love the rabbit hole scene so much, that sometimes I watch the movie purely to watch that scene. When she's up there in front of the crowd, all confused and uncertain, nervous and reluctant to deal with the problems in her life at that moment, and then she sees the white rabbit tapping on his watch and runs away from it all to chase a fantastical way to escape those problems, it just sends chills down my spine. Alice's Theme is just the icing on the cake for me. Escapism really plays on my harp strings.

Everything after the rabbit hole, was enjoyable, but I guess it doesn't do it for me as much as the actual concept of entering a mysterious, new world where anything can happen.

I agree with you. The rabbit hole scene was a excellent scene.

Watched the movie on Blu-ray for the first time today (after having watched it 4 times in cinema), and it's a wonderful and magical film. And the quality of picture and sound on the Blu-ray is excellent.

What I hate with the release though is that Disney has scrapped almost all the bonus material on the European Blu-ray release. What's the point with not giving us all the bonus content the Americans got, especially after all the advertising saying a Blu-ray equals 5 DVD's? I just can't understand it.

Disney DVD department is divided among regions. TBH, you're not missing out on a whole lot, except a bit about the cakes and stunts.

Prince Edward wrote:Watched the movie on Blu-ray for the first time today (after having watched it 4 times in cinema), and it's a wonderful and magical film. And the quality of picture and sound on the Blu-ray is excellent.

What I hate with the release though is that Disney has scrapped almost all the bonus material on the European Blu-ray release. What's the point with not giving us all the bonus content the Americans got, especially after all the advertising saying a Blu-ray equals 5 DVD's? I just can't understand it.

I'm glad you liked the movie. I don't understand why it was so heavily bashed by critics. Its not the best movie that I've ever seen, but much better than the critics gave credit for.

Its really annoying that the Disney scraps all the bonus material of the European blu ray release. They used to do so 10 years ago and I've thought they've learned by now. That's why I bought the American version from Amazon.com.

I see that you and I are from the same country - Norway. Heia Norge!

The movie was .99 cents on Dish Network today, so I burned it to a DVD-R disc (Since I really do not like the movie enough to pay $20+ for it).