Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Where's the wonder in "Wonderland?"


Summer is the time when a college student can take a step into the real world and catch up on what has been happening while he or she has been trapped in the library. I just watched Alice in Wonderland (the 2010 version) for the first time. It should have been titled as the other tale of Alice, Through the Looking Glass. Although I read ex-post-facto that Tim Burton combined ideas from the two. Nonetheless, I was lead to believe it was supposed to be a remake of the 1951 Disney animated film. I was wrong.
As much as will always deprecate Disney, they did a much better job of portraying this story. I had been expecting to see some of my favorite aspects of the original film but they were not present. There were no sing-along songs; no "I'm late", no un-birthday song, no talking flower scene. I remember really liking the scene where Alice paints the roses red and in this version, she does not; dislike. I am left extremely disappointed. As far as design, I expected more from Burton. The mad hatter could have been done a lot better-you could get so creative with his character! I also expected more color, better costume design, more special effects and a better overall design of "underland." Even if I was high, I don't think I would have liked it.
One thing I did like about the film that was never clear to me before is that the Queen of Hearts is really looking for love even though she appears to rather be feared than loved. Burton did a good job of portraying good vs. evil, but the film overall was boring and lacked the imagination of a child that the original film will always have.

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?

— Alice in Wonderland Tweet This

No comments:

Post a Comment