Before my screening of Captain America: Civil War, I was treated to an IMAX 3D rendering of Tim Burton talking for a good minute about the above trailer. This means for an entire minute I was looking at Tim Burton in the highest possible resolution, jutting from my screen like an electrified madman. I, being the considerate soul that I am, found a cut of the trailer that excised the Burton and just gave you a look at Disney’s NEXT release (they’re printing them like commemorative coins this year) Alice Through the Looking Glass.
I’ve gone on ad nauseum about my feelings regarding the first film, and Tim Burton is not directing this outing, James Bobit (The Muppets) is. They’re not following the plot of the second Carroll novel, since they sort of smushed the two books together in the first film. So, while I admit this does look fantastic, I’m not sure that it can overcome the fact that Johnny Depp is in it and is beginning to look increasingly self-aware of his alien nature. Regardless, it opens opposite X-Men: Apocalypse and the sure-to-be still potent juggernaut of Civil War. This may be one Disney film that doesn’t make a billion dollars. That’s ok. Finding Dory comes out three weeks later. DISNEYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!
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.
Carroll’s book might have been discarded, but this trailer makes this movie look a lot closer to the definitive version that exists inside my head. Of course it will not be that definitive version, except (perhaps) on a purely visual level. It amazes me that a book can be told and retold so many times, without a single film approaching fidelity.
Alice is supposed to be a little logical person, doing her best to navigate a big illogical world. The books contain no moralistic message for children, but as adults we can all learn so much from her. The books are about the quest we all have to undergo from the moment we are born into this world, with all of its wonders, moral and philosophical dilemmas, confusing questions, seemingly arbitrary customs, ect. The fact that Burton had Alice fulfilling a prophecy by slaying a monster (I don’t care if they called it Jabberwock) was all wrong. For one thing it doesn’t make sense that Alice grew as a human being by departing the real world, where she was forced to fit into a predetermined box, only to enter a fantasy world, where she was forced to fit into a predetermined box.
But also, in the Jabberwocky poem Carroll made it 100% clear that he was making fun of the exact type of story that Tolkien and Lewis would go on to perfect. I love those types of stories as you well know, but they have nothing to do with Alice, and I don’t like the fact that Burton and Co took everything unique about Lewis Carroll and pushed it into the background in favor of a highly conventional “chosen one” narrative.
That said, if I try to pretend I never read the books, I am able to get a lot of entertainment out of Burton’s film, which really is incredible visually, and is just as imaginative as anything he’s done. And that dance (like Lord Voldemort, I try not to mention it by name) comes so close to the ending that it’s bearable. I don’t think this new film is destined to rake in what its predecessor did (the first one rode the still-new 3D bandwagon), I’m guessing that 650-750 million worldwide is an attainable goal.
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