I really liked about 85% of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and I went into the theater waiting for Johnny Depp to run off the rails and he and Burton to perform their mad mutual career destruction act. I had quite forgotten all of that and was prepared to give it a good review when the FUTTERWACKING showed up and I don’t think I’ve seen something tank what could have been a good movie so badly at the end in my life. So naturally there’s a sequel next summer.
From the write up below from Coming Soon, it doesn’t appear that this will in any way be following the plot of Lewis Carroll’s book. Also Sascha Baron Cohen is involved. I want to be wrong, and there are some fantastic effects in the trailer, but I futterwackin’ won’t be. Just wait.
Following four teases this week, Walt Disney Pictures has now released the first Alice Through the Looking Glass trailer, which you can watch in the player below! If you missed them, you can still watch this week’s teases by clicking here. Previously, footage from Alice Through the Looking Glass was showcased for Disney fans during August’s D23 Expo.
In Disney’s Alice Through the Looking Glass, an all-new spectacular adventure featuring the unforgettable characters from Lewis Carroll’s beloved stories, Alice returns to the whimsical world of Underland and travels back in time to save the Mad Hatter. Directed by James Bobin, who brings his own unique vision to the spectacular world Tim Burton created on screen in 2010 withAlice in Wonderland, the film is written by Linda Woolverton based on characters created by Lewis Carroll and produced by Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd and Jennifer Todd and Tim Burton with John G. Scotti serving as executive producer. Alice Through the Looking Glass reunites the all-star cast from the worldwide blockbuster phenomenon, including: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter along with the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall. We are also introduced to several new characters: Zanik Hightopp (Rhys Ifans), the Mad Hatter’s father and Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen), a peculiar creature who is part human, part clock.
Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) has spent the past few years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland and her friends the White Rabbit (Sheen), Absolem (Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Fry) and the Mad Hatter (Depp), who is not himself. The Hatter has lost his Muchness, so Mirana (Hathaway) sends Alice on a quest
to borrow the Chronosphere, a metallic globe inside the chamber of the Grand Clock which powers all time. Returning to the past, she comes across friends – and enemies – at different points in their lives, and embarks on a perilous race to save the Hatter before time runs out.
Alice Through the Looking Glass opens in theaters on May 27, 2016
Other than Kafka, Lewis Carroll is probably my favorite author of all time, and the Alice books have meant a lot to me since I was a small child. You can’t go far wrong emulating little, logical Alice as you try to navigate life, with its myriad absurdities, illusions, insults, and confusions.
When I heard Tim Burton was directing Alice I got so excited, but in the end he didn’t even try to capture the book’s subversive darkness, or its depth. And while I understand making Alice an adult, and trying to impose a LIITLE structure on the book’s loose quest, Burton took it way too far. He turned Alice into C.S. Lewis or JRR Tolkien. He stripped away what made the book unique, and his amazing visuals don’t compensate.
That said, when I view this new trailer on its own merits, the movie looks much better than the first one. But it’s hard to ignore or forgive that it seems to have even less to do with the novels than the first film.
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