Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)USA 2010 English (Colour); Family/Fantasy/Adventure/Animation (Walt Disney/Roth/Team Todd/Zanuck); 109 minutes (PG certificate)Crew includes: Tim Burton (Director); Linda Woolverton (Screenwriter, adapting Novels ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, AND WHAT ALICE FOUND THERE by Lewis Carroll *** [6/10]); Richard D. Zanuck, Suzanne Todd, Jennifer Todd, Joe Roth (Producers); Peter Tobyansen, Chris Lebenzon (Executive Producers); Dariusz Wolski (Cinematographer); Robert Stromberg (Production Designer); Chris Lebenzon (Editor); Danny Elfman (Composer)Cast includes: Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), Mia Wasikowska (Alice Kingsleigh), Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen), Anne Hathaway (White Queen), Crispin Glover (Stayne, Knave of Hearts), Matt Lucas (Tweedledee/Tweedledum), Marton Csokas (Charles Kingsleigh), Tim Pigott-Smith (Lord Ascot), Lindsay Duncan (Helen Kingsleigh), Geraldine James (Lady Ascot), Frances de la Tour (Aunt Imogene); Voices include: Michael Sheen (White Rabbit), Stephen Fry (Cheshire Cat), Alan Rickman (Blue Caterpillar), Barbara Windsor (Dormouse), Paul Whitehouse (March Hare), Timothy Spall (Bayard), Michael Gough (Dodo Bird), Imelda Staunton (Tall Flower Faces), Christopher Lee (Jabberwocky), Jim Carter (Executioner)Academy Awards (2): Art Direction-Set Decoration, Costume Design (Colleen Atwood); Academy Award nomination: Visual Effects; BAFTA Awards (2): Costume Design (Atwood), Makeup/Hair; BAFTA nominations (3): Production Design, Film Music, Visual Effects; Golden Globe nominations (3): Picture - Musical/Comedy, Actor - Musical/Comedy (Depp), Original Score"You're invited to a very important date March 2010."A 19-year-old dreamer (Wasikowska), about to get engaged, catches sight of a white rabbit in a waistcoat (Sheen), follows it down a rabbit hole, and (re-)encounters strange creatures from the fantasy world of Underland, where she ventures on a hazardous journey to slay a savage beast, rediscover her "muchness," and find her lot in life.Truly a distinctive Burton endeavour (far more so than a fused reworking of Carroll's Wonderland books), with a more cohesive narrative, eye-popping visuals, and exceedingly weird characterisations.Wasikowska is an extremely likeable heroine, big-headed Bonham Carter is clearly having a ball, and then there is the inevitable presence of an absurdly made-up (and voiced) Depp.Blu-ray Extras: Featurettes. **½ (5/10)

Return of Alice to Wonderland directed by Tim Burton. Visually stunning but little more than that, with a misleading title because this film is a sequel to the original story; I admit that I was 'half lost' until I realized that when the movie was already halfway through. The story is basically Alice revisiting, step by step, what she had already done, only the end differs and not for the better. The actress Mia Wasikowska is a very insipid Alice and the rest of the performances are only generic. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter try, but they cannot raise the movie above average. A failed opportunity of what could and should have been a masterpiece.

This movie is so bad it shouldn't motivate anyone to take time and write something about it. But, I see it scores above 6 in IMDb and I ain't doing anything important so.. OK, why not? First, what led me to watch this just now. I knew this wasn't a very good movie because, similar to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this had "Tim Burton butchered a classic" all over it. Interesting enough, while in Charlie and... he was making something bad over a great classic motion picture that had nothing to do with the project, this time around he is doing it for the same company (Walt Disney). Second, what led me to watch the movie. I purchased a 10 "reais" (about 3 bucks) edition of the original story by Lewis Carroll, which also included the Looking Glass bit and an Intro where some kind of book scholar meddles for several pages about how good and interesting these two tales are for children and also adults. The children part I am not so sure because the Alice story doesn't make any sense and in many parts its hard to understand (Carroll frequently changes words so they don't really exist in any dictionary and makes up poems which aren't suppose to say or mean anything). Anyway, the story is pleasant enough even though I am reading it around 150 years after it was first published. Its worth something because of Carroll's creativity in stirring illogical puzzles in a children's make believe fantastic world. In other words, it kind of make you feel like you are inside an awesome dream.Disney's animation on the book is good, despite changing a few details and including characters and stories from "the other side of the looking glass". It is good, mainly because it preserves the essence of what one kind find when reading the book, like I have.Finally, the Tim Burton movie. It is simply appalling. They (Tim Burton and his team or whoever made this happen the way it did) tore the story from the book to pieces and made some kind of Hollywood formula that always works. That worst of it all is that it seems to work, because it made money and now they have concluded a Looking Glass version (second movie on Alice) which makes no sense, because in the first one they have already included characters from both stories (and more that wasn't three of course). The plot is lame to say the least: Alice doesn't want to marry some rich kid that looks awful so she runs away after a rabbit and falls in a hole. After falling violently, she finds herself in a strange world where there are fantastical creatures. Soon she learns that everyone knows her in this world, and most don't believe she is the same Alice. Up to this part it is all interesting enough and things could maybe be mended into an OK flick but check what ends up happening. Alice teams up with a beast that almost ripped her arm apart and that serves no purpose to the story except that he's the guardian of a mystical sword. So, like in Matrix, Alice is the chosen one and she supposedly will save everyone by killing a hideous monster (dragon looking beast) by use of the special sword. Meanwhile, the queen of hearts hates everyone but specially her sister, which is the white queen, and also a "I love all living things" hypocrite douche-bag. Crispin Glover plays some sort of dark knight that is queen of heart's favorite handy man to do all her dirty work. So, with these information one might foresee everything that will happen. To populate this misery of a plot, there are about three characters that at least have something to do with the book: the Cheshire cat, which is magical and can do anything to steer the story to any direction he likes, no questions asked; the Hatter, that is this movie's Captain Jack Sparrow or Willy Wonka or a blend of both (maybe not as important to the story but with the same entertaining purpose); and the blue caterpillar, which, I think, its in the movie so that the audience might think that there are more bits from the original story. The whole think is just too formulaic, the acting is bland, Depp almost achieved making whoever is watching vomit with his bizarre moves (including his happy happy joy joy dance) and facial expressions. Lead actress is mildly charming, but her performance overall very subtle and uninteresting. Helena Carter made something interesting with her queen, and Glover likewise with his knight. And except for some very descent voice acting, everyone else is forgettable just like this movie. Or not.. But I'll probably only remember this movie because it was so painful to watch (and because I reviewed it here), like that moment when you realize you tore your ACL and from now on you'll just have to deal with it.

The setup of this movie sounds like the beginning of a good joke: "Tim Burton and Walt Disney walk into a bar..." You wouldn't think it possible, but it happened. Tim Burton, the master of dark, twisted fantasies where every story involves at least 1 corpse, teamed up with the studio known for bright pink bunnies and such.The temptation is for Burton fans to expect a Burtonesque flick while Disney fans expect an accurate retelling of the 1951 Disney cartoon classic. Neither happened, not by a longshot.What happened instead is something you just have to experience. Someone once told me that the root of beauty lies in contrast. A yellow flower in a field of yellow flowers isn't as beautiful as a yellow flower growing on a desolate battlefield of some war-torn desert. So with that in mind, this is a movie for people who can appreciate the contrast between Burton's sarcasm and Disney's innocence. I'll give you an example...In the Disney cartoon, as well as Lewis Carroll's original story, the Red Queen runs around commanding "Off with his head!" at anyone who irritates her, but of course the Red King quietly follows behind whispering "You're pardoned" each time, thus saving the executioner a ton of gory axe blades. But in this version, in a brief but stark moment, we learn that the beheadings are quite real. And then bam, we quickly return to Disney territory where we are entertained by the banter of cute talking mice.Literally, I rubbed my eyes, turned to the person sitting next to me and asked, "Wait... did we just see a bunch of decapitated heads??" Confusing at first, this volley between macabre & merry becomes the charm of this film. I should add that I counted at least 3 characters who got an eyeball disgorged. And yet, in Disneyesque fashion you never really feel a sense of menace; it's mostly in good fun.I purposely didn't mention the plot until now because, to me, the story was secondary to the overall vibe of the film. But in case you're wondering, this is *not* a retelling of Disney's, Carroll's or anyone else's "Alice in Wonderland". This is sort of a sequel to the original where Alice, now 19 years old and about to get married, gets reconnected with her long forgotten adventure of youth. In that respect, it reminded me of how the movie "Hook" was sort of a sequel to "Peter Pan".To me, that's the only department where this film lost a few points, because it felt like they were weaving too much of a story into a tale that was inherently a stream-of-consciousness that mimicked the randomness of a dream (Lewis Carroll himself invented the story on the spot while rowing Alice Pleasance Liddell and her sisters on a pond). This version follows more of a straighforward plot to defeat the bad guys, and in so doing, it got away from the dreamlike feeling of all other versions I've seen.Johnny Depp... of course JD steals the show with his alternately endearing and terrifying Mad Hatter. He plays the role as someone suffering from severe PTSD which manifests itself in multiple personalities. There's his normal, gentle, lisping Hatter. And then there's his cruel, dark Scottish Highlander Hatter who sounds like Sean Connery just lost his place in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.Honorable mention goes to Crispin Glover (Marty McFly's nerdy father in "Back to the Future") who plays a very chilling Jack of Hearts. And another honorable mention goes to Anne Hathaway who plays the angelic but somewhat ditzy White Queen.Special effects are good for 2010 but a bit dated for today. The best effects are the subtle ones such as the way the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) was depicted as having an enormous, bulbous head. I also thought the "Drink Me, Eat Me" scene where Alice shrinks & grows was done very well.In the end, although I had been expecting something of a trainwreck, I think the odd pairing of Burton & Disney was a success. So what's next? Maybe horror master John Carpenter ("Halloween") does a teencom with Lindsay Lohan & Jamie Lee Curtis called "Freaky Friday the 13th"?