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| Subject: ALICE IN WONDERLAND Sat Mar 27, 2010 6:42 pm | |
| Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and starring Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen and Stephen Fry. It is an extension of Lewis Carroll's novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The film uses a technique of combining live action and animation. In the film, Alice is now nineteen years old and accidentally returns to Underland (misheard by Alice and believed to be called Wonderland), a place she visited thirteen years previously. She is told that she is the only one who can slay the Jabberwocky, a dragon-like creature controlled by the Red Queen who terrorizes Underland's inhabitants. Burton said the original Wonderland story was always about a girl wandering around from one weird character to another and he never felt a connection emotionally, so he wanted to make it feel more like a story than a series of events. He does not see this as a sequel to previous films or a re-imagining. It premiered in London at the Odeon Leicester Square on February 25, 2010 and was released in Australia on March 4, 2010 and the United States and the United Kingdom on March 5, 2010 through IMAX 3-D and Disney Digital 3-D, as well as in traditional theaters. Opening to box office records, including biggest March opening and biggest 3-D opening, it became a box office success, becoming Tim Burton's biggest hit to date.
Troubled by a strange recurring dream, nineteen-year-old Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) attends a party that she learns is an engagement party to wed her into the Ascot family, who now own her deceased father's trading firm. Unsure of how to reply to Hamish Ascot's (Leo Bill) proposal, Alice runs away and begins chasing after a rabbit, which leads to her falling into a rabbit hole. The hole transports her to a world called Underland, more specifically a small room with many doors. The only unlocked exit is a small doorway, causing Alice to use a series of potions to shrink, become large, and shrink once again in order to escape. Upon exiting she is welcomed by Nivens McTwisp the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), Mallymkun the Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), Uilleam the Dodo (Michael Gough), and Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Matt Lucas). The group questions her identity as "the right Alice" and take her to Absolem the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), who consults the Oraculum (a calendar-like scroll which details every day in Underland) and eventually decides that she is "not hardly Alice." The Oraculum reveals that on the Frabjous Day, a hero named Alice will slay the Jabberwocky. The group is then ambushed by the Bandersnatch and a group of playing card soldiers led by Ilosovic Stayne, the Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover), who captures the White Rabbit and the Dodo, and the Tweedles are later carried away by the Jubjub bird. Alice is pursued by the Bandersnatch, but before it can attack, the Dormouse stops it by stabbing out its eye. However, the creature then wildly swipes a paw and slashes Alice's arm, leaving a wound. Meanwhile, Iracebeth, the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), who has conquered Underland by stealing the crown from her sister, Mirana the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), is informed by the Knave of Hearts that Alice has returned to Underland, causing her to send Bayard, a bloodhound (Timothy Spall) to find her. The wandering Alice encounters the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), who takes her to a tea party, where she meets the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the March Hare (Paul Whitehouse), and the Dormouse (who has the Bandersnatch's eye attached to her belt). The Hatter welcomes her and decides that she is indeed "absolutely Alice." When Bayard and the Queen's troops arrive, the Hatter hides Alice inside a teapot and manages to persuade Bayard not to reveal her. The Hatter agrees to take Alice to the Red Queen's castle to rescue her captured friends, and helps Alice avoid capture by the Queen's forces by placing her onto his hat and flinging it across a lake just before he himself is seized. The next day, Alice is found by Bayard, who aids her in secretly infiltrating the Queen's castle to rescue the Hatter. The White Rabbit, now a page for the Red Queen, finds the tiny Alice in the garden, and gives her a cake that causes her to greatly increase her height and size. The Red Queen, noticing the commotion, is unaware of Alice's presence, as she fools the Queen into welcoming her into the castle by assuming the name "Um from Umbridge." Meanwhile, the Hatter persuades the Queen to let him serve as her personal milliner in an attempt to delay his execution. Alice learns that the Vorpal Sword is locked away in a case inside the Bandersnatch's den, so she takes back its eye from the Dormouse and returns it to the creature. In turn, it allows her to retrieve the key, unlock the case and retrieve the sword, while becoming her ally. The Knave, having unsuccessfully tried to seduce "Um" earlier, sees Alice has the Vorpal Sword and attempts to stop her; during the ensuing fracas, the Dormouse inadvertently reveals Alice's true identity. The Bandersnatch fights off the Red Knights and escapes with Alice, who then delivers the Vorpal Sword to the White Queen, and is returned back to her normal size. The Cat saves the Hatter and the Dormouse from execution, and they lead all of the enslaved Underland creatures to the White Queen's castle. Alice meets once more with Absolem, who is entering his pupa stage, and is reminded of her past visit to Underland, which she mistakenly called Wonderland. He also helps give her the courage to fight the Jabberwocky. When Frabjous Day arrives, both the White and Red Queens, who have gathered on a chessboard-like battlefield with their armies, choose their champions, Alice and the Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee) respectively, to decide the fate of Underland. The White Queen offers her sister a chance for peace but is refused. Alice strikes first with the sword, slicing off the Jabberwocky's tongue, but the beast soon regains the upper hand, at which point the Hatter interferes, starting an all-out brawl between the two sides. The Hatter fights and overcomes Stayne, while Alice manages to climb onto the Jabberwocky's neck, enabling her to cut off its head. The White Queen banishes the Red Queen and Stayne to the Outlands, and collects the blood of the Jabberwocky. Alice drinks it and returns home, where she outright refuses Hamish's proposal and becomes an apprentice for Lord Ascot, with the idea of beginning trade routes with China. The film ends with Alice sailing away on a ship (named "Wonder") with Absolem, now as a butterfly, briefly landing on her shoulder and then fluttering away.
Joe Roth was developing Alice in Wonderland in April 2007 at Walt Disney Pictures with Linda Woolverton as screenwriter. That November, Burton signed with Disney to direct two films in Disney Digital 3-D, which included Alice in Wonderland and his remake of Frankenweenie. He explained "the goal is to try to make it an engaging movie where you get some of the psychology and kind of bring a freshness but also keep the classic nature of Alice." On prior versions, Burton said "It was always a girl wandering around from one crazy character to another, and I never really felt any real emotional connection." His goal with the new movie is to give the story "some framework of emotional grounding" and "to try and make Alice feel more like a story as opposed to a series of events." Burton focused on the Jabberwocky poem as part of his structure. Burton also stated that he doesn't see his version as either a sequel to any existing Alice movie or as a "re-imagining".
This film was originally set to be released in 2009, but was pushed back to March 5, 2010. Principal photography was scheduled for May 2008, but did not begin until September and concluded in three months.[35][40] Scenes set in the Victorian era were shot at Torpoint and Plymouth from September 1 to October 14. Two hundred and fifty local extras were chosen in early August. Locations included Antony House in Torpoint, Charlestown, Cornwall and the Barbican, however, no footage from the Barbican was used. Motion capture filming began in early October at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, though the footage was later discarded. Filming also took place at Culver Studios. Burton said that he used a combination of live action and animation, without motion capture. He also noted that this was the first time he had filmed on a green screen. Filming of the green screen portions, comprising 90% of the film, was completed after only 40 days. Many of the cast and crew felt nauseated as a result of the long hours surrounded by green, with Burton having lavender lenses fitted into his glasses to counteract the effect. Sony Pictures Imageworks designed the visual effects sequences. Burton felt 3D was appropriate to the story's environment. Burton and Zanuck chose to film with conventional cameras, and convert the footage into 3-D during post-production; Zanuck explained 3-D cameras were too expensive and "clumsy" to use, and they felt that there was no difference between converted footage and those shot in the format.[49] James Cameron, who released his 3-D film Avatar in December 2009, criticized the choice, stating, "It doesn't make any sense to shoot in 2-D and convert to 3-D".
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 52% of critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 5.7 out of 10 based on 224 reviews. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 61%, based on a sample of 33 reviews. The site's general consensus is that "Tim Burton's Alice sacrifices the book's minimal narrative coherence – and much of its heart – but it's an undeniable visual treat". Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 53 based on 38 reviews. Todd McCarthy of Variety praised it for its "moments of delight, humor and bedazzlement", but went on to say, "But it also becomes more ordinary as it goes along, building to a generic battle climax similar to any number of others in CGI-heavy movies of the past few years". Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said "Burton has delivered a subversively witty, brilliantly cast, whimsically appointed dazzler that also manages to hit all the emotionally satisfying marks." while also praising its CGI, "Ultimately, it's the visual landscape that makes Alice's newest adventure so wondrous, as technology has finally been able to catch up with Burton's endlessly fertile imagination." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said, "But Burton's Disneyfied 3-D Alice in Wonderland, written by the girl-power specialist Linda Woolverton, is a strange brew indeed: murky, diffuse, and meandering, set not in a Wonderland that pops with demented life but in a world called Underland that's like a joyless, bombed-out version of Wonderland. It looks like a CGI head trip gone postapocalyptic. In the film's rather humdrum 3-D, the place doesn't dazzle — it droops." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said in his review that, "Alice plays better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it until a pointless third act flies off the rails". The market research firm CinemaScore found that audiences gave the film an average rating of A-minus. | |
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