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RATING:   
SINGAPORE : Hollywood director Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" is loosely based on Lewis Carrol's 1856 children's classic "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", its sequel "Through the Looking Glass", sprinkled with bits of his poems like the Jabberwocky.
By 'loosely' I mean "Alice in Wonderland" has virtually nothing in common with the books except its characters.
Iconic characters like the titular Alice, played by newcomer Mia Wasikowska, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the ever-grinning Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and the tyrannical Red Queen aka The Queen of Hearts (Helena Bonham Carter) all appear in Burton's film.
However, right from the get go, the audience finds out they have fallen down a very different rabbit hole and that things are rather different from Carroll's books.
In "Alice in Wonderland", the protagonist is the 19-year-old Alice Kingsley who is urged by her mother to agree to an arranged marriage with a lord in Victorian England. When he publicly proposes to her, she bolts. She then follows a coat-wearing White Rabbit to a hole at the base of a dead tree, falls in and ends up in Underland, which turns out to be the actual name of Wonderland.
Apparently, she had visited Underland when she was nine but has no recollection of what happened or what she had done before. However, the inhabitants of Underland, the Mad Hatter et al, believe she is the chosen one who is prophesied to free Underland from the oppression of the Red Queen.
The tyrannical Red Queen had taken over control over Underland after taking the crown from her sister the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), with the help of her deadly, lightning breathing pet, the Jabberwocky. They expect Alice to lead their cause, slay the Jabberwocky and bring down the Red Queen.
From the earlier synopsis, it is clear Burton does not want to simply adapt Carrol's work or even re-imagine it.
Alice is no longer a young nine-year-old girl who wanders around meeting strange, fascinating characters like she was in the book. She is now a young woman who seeks the freedom to make her own decisions and even walks away from an arranged marriage.
Burton's Alice is also a reluctant heroine with a very clear quest, to lead a revolution against the Red Queen and essentially champion a regime change, unlike Carrol's younger, simpler Alice.
Even the Mad Hatter has been elevated from being an oddball, hilarious character in Carrol's book to become a freedom fighter revolting against the Red Queen, complete with back story, in Burton's film.
In a nutshell, Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" is about adventure, conflict and causation, like most modern hero-oriented fantasy films such as "Peter Jackson and the Lightning Thief" or "Harry Potter". Everything has a reason, a cause and an effect unlike Carrol's original work where Alice simply chances upon the strange characters in her travels and things just happen.
Purists and fans of the book will probably hate the film and deem it a travesty for not capturing the whimsical spirit of the original piece. However I suspect most people would not enjoy a direct film adaptation of the text: A young girl wandering around aimlessly and bouncing from one random event to another does not make a good film.
The story may be a little formulaic but it really isn't bad.
Besides, Burton's computer graphic crew really brought the story's characters to life. They seem to have jumped straight out of the pages of the book, but with added colour and fluidity made possible by today's computer technology. The film is quite a visual treat.
The cast also turn in a credible performance but Carter deserves special mention for her performance as the Red Queen. She managed to bring across all the nuances of the female tyrant without turning it into a caricature.
Depp did reasonably well too but he acted a tad too much like the eccentric Willy Wonka from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and brought nothing new to the table.
Whether you are a fan of the book or not, "Alice in Wonderland" is still worth watching for its excellent character designs and visual effects, even if Burton's new direction for the story does not agree with you.
- CNA
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