My Visit to Underland

It's official. I love Alice in Wonderland. I love how the original animated feature and this feature commingle Carroll's two tales* beautifully. I love that in the 2010 continuation, the bizarre and the normal are woven together so fantastically that it was easy for me to suspend my disbelief. I hope that I am not building up anyone's expectations, but I really liked the Disney classic and simply adore this continued telling.

Disney presents "Alice in Wonderland" a film by Tim Burton

Surprisingly, Helena Bonham Carter's (or Bellatrix Lestrange for you Potter fanatics) performance as the Red Queen was my least favorite. However, she was still superb and brought plenty of lunacy but also vulnerability to the part which made her fit perfectly in Underland (the actual name of the world Alice visits) as the incredulous tyrant. And Anne Hathaway (the White Queen)... I've never been too terribly impressed with her. Sure, she's a nice actress and she's not completely unfortunate looking, but my admiration for her as an actress just went up heaps because of her work in this. I now officially like you, Miss Anne. Mia Wasikowska was, well, perfect. She WAS Alice. And the Mad Hatter? He's Scotch. Yeah. Don't get me started on Mr. Depp. I have one of the biggest talent-crushes ever on that man and clearly I'm not ashamed to admit it.

What can I say, I was thoroughly impressed. Of course it didn't hurt that Mr. Burton also used the voices of some of my favorites. Alan Rickman as Absolem (the Blue Caterpillar), Matt Lucas as the Tweedles, and Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat. Oh yeah. And we can't forget creepy Crispin Glover as Stayne (the Knave of Hearts). So in fine, I highly approve of Disney's/Burton's film, and my love and admiration of Johnny Depp's talent is justifiably still in tact.

The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?

Alice: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

*Lewis Carroll did not write these stories whilst on acid as some have been led to believe. In fact, Carroll is actually the pen name of Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was originally a story Carroll made up to entertain the three young Liddell sisters while they were rowing up the River Thames in 1865, one of which was a 10 year old named Alice. His other tale, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found there came about 6 years later after a conversation with another Alice about her reflection in the mirror. Curiouser and curiouser, no?