BeThumbed

Alice in Underland

Alice in Underland sucks! The wonderland we’ve grown up with became Underland so it’s just justifiable that the highly anticipated Tim Burton – Walt Disney collaboration go under with it. I’ve waited for it since last year when I first saw the trailer, the fact that Johnny Depp (one of the few actors in my book) is enough to make up my mind to watch it in the big screen. The trailer itself is so good, I’ve watched it more times than I can remember.

So off we go on the first day of screening, with my kids excited to see Alice and the Mad Hatter – only to be disappointed. The movie itself is visually appealing although some parts of it look a bit cluttered – somewhat like donning the wrong pair of socks with the wrong pair of shoes. It lacks cohesion – I can see where Tim Burton ends and Disney begins and in my opinion the combination just doesn’t work. There are parts where things look pretty awesome, I especially love the part where the Cheshire cat pretended to be the Mad Hatter and took his place on the executioner’s stage – “Off with his head!”.

The movie engaged my 4 year old for almost the whole movie, but she’s not the typical 4 year old. My three year old watched the movie for about 5 minutes and nothing. He did watched the fighting scene with the dragon though, mostly because we all love dragons. But that fighting scene sucks bigtime. It kindda looks like a gay Harry Potter going Lord of the Rings and Alice played by Mia Wasikowska is completely forgettable. She just doesn’t have the aura that the Alice character demands. She reminds me of Kirsten Stewart for some reason – not just the acting but the overall effect she has on the character she plays – they both make their characters look drab compared to the colorful world of wonderland and vampires.

My dear Johnny acted his head off as the Mad Hatter and it looks like he lost more than his mind when he started futter-wacking but I could not imagine anybody else acting the part, the same goes for Helena as the Red Queen and her bobbing noggins. But as I’ve said before, the Tim Burton – Walt Disney collaboration just doesn’t work. I would have enjoyed it more if the movie actually went Burton-morbid, but Disney wanted to maybe make the movie a little bit child-friendly and it just became curiouser and curiouser in a really, really bad way.

Alice in Wonderland Trailer