Why I Love #8: Alice in Wonderland

So I recently saw the new Alice in Wonderland by Disney that was directed by Tim Burton. I'm not really a Tim Burton fan.. I think I've only seen "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "9" before this. No, I have not seen The Nightmare Before Christmas, but based on the hype, I was expecting something more out of Alice in Wonderland. I mean, even though I haven't seen Nightmare, I've seen all sorts of merchandise and heard good reviews of his films.

Before I write about the film, I just want to say that I am huge fan of books like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wizard of Oz (especially this), the Chronicles of Narnia, and others. I like the idea of children journeying into magical fairylands and the power of imagination. I read a lot of these before I entered high school, and the land of Oz was definitely my favorite. I had read Alice in Wonderland before, but I never really liked it. I think that the various adaptations in comic books, other movies, and various merchandise are much better than the original book. Of course, without the original novel by Lewis Carroll, none of the current adaptators would have been able to "put a spin" on it.

(Spoilers after.) So the new movie was disappointing. With the grown-up Alice twist and the star cast (including Anne Hathaway), I expected more of a spin on the original tale. I'm not sure, but I think this was supposed to be a remake instead of a sequel. (Or vice versa?) But the entire film was just like the Disney cartoon one EXCEPT for the fight scene at the end between Alice and Jabberwocky. Everything else had already been done before in the cartoon or was completely uninteresting. And the revelation at the end where Alice goes "Oh! Those weren't dreams (where I was in Wonderland before)... those were actual memories!" was so completely obvious that I wanted to say "No duh!" I mean, even a child could have understood that from just watching the movie without her saying it. Seriously, they just copied everything from the cartoon and then added a mediocre fight scene.

Thus, I was really disappointed by this movie. I did not like it at all, and I think the Alice mini-series on Syfy was much better. In fact that cannot even be compared to this remake. So don't watch this movie. Not recommended. 3 out of 5 stars. Just because it had nice special effects and for the awesome new Alice merchandise. Watch the Alice mini-series on Syfy instead. Seriously =D

Photo credit: Disney's Alice in Wonderland poster (2010)
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