| alice in wonderland (2010) |
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| Written by i j |
| Thursday, 01 April 2010 09:12 |
Today Marissa Macabre has sent as a really interesting movie review, don’t worry, I have read it and I don’t feel she wrote anything that could spoil the movie experience so… ¡¡read and enjoy!!
Upon throwing on 3-D glasses in the theater, one may be expecting to see a live action remake of the Disney cartoon released in 1951. But this movie is so much more than what I was projecting it to be.
Alice in Wonderland was literally a dazzling feast for the eyes, with strange creatures running amok and with the most exquisite details of Carroll’s books upheld for a CGI and star-studded update.
Without spoiling the plot-line, I will admit that the usual players in Tim Burton’s manifestations were marvelous. His real-life baby mama, Helena Bontham Carter, always embodies perfectly charming gothic characters. She does not disappoint in Alice in Wonderland, where she plays a combination of the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts. My favorite part of her acting in Alice in Wonderland was when she was sitting at her thrown in the palace with Alice, whom she mistakenly called “Um.” The (Red) Queen of Hearts had ordered her minstrels and subservients to surround her and Um. She had a pig offer his belly to prop her tired feet, and she delighted in the antics of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, addressing them as her “little fat boys.” I certainly loved it when she referred to her sister the White Queen as having a small “pimple of a head,” when she herself had a massive orb atop her body.
Crazier than she, perennial favorite Johnny Depp played The Mad Hatter, a flame-frizzed-haired Scotch. His eyes would magnificently change color and ignite when he was aroused with fury over said Queen. “Down with the Red Queen!” he would shout upon confrontation regarding her infamous politics. Depp is the most flavorful Tim Burton character-actor who can certainly take on any role. Edward Scissorhands. Sweeney Todd. Ed Wood. Willie Wonka. Ichabod Crane. The Mad Hatter was no different in this case. If anything, youngsters should be excited at seeing such a performance and would seem to garner a new interest in a classic book, due to Depp’s acting.
The best surprise was the newcomer who played Alice, Mia Wasikowska, a dismally blanche babe. Wasikowska embodied Alice with her waifish presence, and gorgeously Rapunzel-like hair. She was rough when she needed to be, and exudes elegance throughout. Burton did a great job at finding this previously unknown delight. She matched all of the other melanin-challenged film stars in Alice in Wonderland, which was the best darkly-humored fantasy film of the decade.
Finally, I would like to point out that as soon as Alice successfully opens the door to Underland (which it’s really called), the scenery she encounters has vegetation straight out of Edward Scissorhands. The tea party, although gothic in itself, would have aptly been placed in a cemetery and would have felt more comfortable. Both queens had their own delectably decadent gothic-style castles.
The (Red) Queen of Hearts even had severed heads in the bloody water surrounding her castle, which tiny Alice had to utilize as stepping stones to cross over. And we, the viewers, need’nt swallow any pills or drink from suspicious bottles to fall in love with the Wonderland Burton aptly presented before us.
Gothic Checklist 1) Cemeteries- no 2) Blood- a bloody pond of beheaded victims of The (Red) Queen of Hearts 3) Candlelight- yes 4) A Literary background- based on Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 5) A Sinister epic tale- no 6) Vampires- no 7) Ghosts- no but the White Queen played by Anne Hathaway could pass for one; she gives new meaning to the phrase “gothic white” 8) Evil children- Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are daunting, but not evil; young Alice could be The Omen’s Damian’s sister on the scale of creepy kids 9) Victorian clothing- yes! galore 10) High sexuality- love triangle between The (Red) Queen of Hearts, the Knave of Hearts Stayne, and Alice; Alice and the Mad Hatter have some odd sexual tension
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| Last Updated on Thursday, 01 April 2010 10:27 |
