“:One pill makes you smaller, and one pill makes you big….go ask Alice….”  Thus went the song ‘White Rabbit’  on Jefferson Airplane’s breakout album Surrealistic Pillow.  Of course the album, among other things was celebrating psychotropic drugs, but we have no reason to assume that Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson ever did so or was under their influence when he wrote his classic stories about Alice. There were in fact two books written under the nom de plume  Lewis Carroll about the character Alice—- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,  and the sequel  Through the Looking Glass. These stories, written in the 1860s, were to become enormously popular in their own day, and ever since.  Indeed, George MacDonald, the famous Christian fabulist, and his family loved the first of these novellas and encouraged Dodgson to publish it, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Movie adaptations of famous children’s stories have a checkered track record to say the least, especially when they are not entirely animated features.  Disney of course has had great success with animated features of such stories, but sometimes such adaptations bomb– think of the recent attempt at adapting the Brother’s Grimm’s stories to the silver screen.  Thus when we were told that Tim Burton, famous for the macabre, was going to take on Alice in Wonderland,  I was not sure if this would work.  I am here to tell you now…. my apprehensions were unfounded.   This movie, especially in 3D is terrific and I am glad to have seen it.  A few items of background however are in order.

Alice, aka Alice Kingsley of noble birth, whose father is said to be the entrepreneur Charles Kingsley, has something of a pedigree.  The real Charles Kingsley was am amazing man.  An English clergyman, but also a novelist who was close friends with George MacDonald, Kingsley was an interesting chap.  He was, for instance, one of the first clergymen to praise the work of Charles Darwin.  Kingsley was perhaps most well known for writing beloved stories for children, including the famous Water Babies tale. His daughter Mary, as well, became a famous novelist in her own right, though under a male pseudonym.  All of this is of some relevance to the portrayal of Alice, for Carroll knew of the work of Kingsley, and it can be no accident that the Alice in Carroll’s story bears the Kingsley name and her father is called Charles Kingsley. To his credit, Tim Burton leaves hints at the beginning of this movie about such connections, but leaves us to follow the rabbit trails…. just like Alice herself.  But on to the movie.

This movie is really splendidly cast. Kentuckian Johnny Depp is spectacular as the Mad Hatter, complete with faux Scottish accent, Ann Hathaway plays a space cadet version of the white queen, and Helena Bonham-Carter almost steals the show as the bulbous headed Red Queen and Krispin Glover steals your heart as Alice. The movie is worth seeing just to watch the acting of these three stars, but when you throw in all the other characters and wonderful CG animals the movie then offers a cornucopia of earthly delights— in 3D (watch out for that tea cup heading for your noggin).

The opening in the real world of English aristocracy and a country estate and the closing in the same venue is effective and not over done.  Burton is wise enough to get us down the rabbit hole quickly, and on with the adventure in Wonderland.  In this regard it will remind one of the first of the Narnia tales, but then C.S. Lewis was surely influenced by the earlier Lewis (for example the Narnia character Reepicheep the heroic mouse is modeled on the mouse in this adventure to some extent).

In regard to the flow and plot of the movie, I disagree with the reviews which suggest that it was somewhat choppy, with individual scenes loosely stitched together. On the contrary, I felt Burton’s editing was near perfect and the story flowed quite naturally without diversions or side tracks from one scene to the next.  The movie is the perfect length for children to enjoy as well clocking in a one hour and 48 minutes.

In some ways this film’s alternative world can be compared to the world of Pandora in Avatar, as the colors are just as brilliant, and the cinematography just as phantasmagorical, only the acting and the plot and the dialogue are far better in Alice than in Avatar.  Avatar may be more breathtaking in its recreation of an Edenic world, but Alice’s CG and 3D are compelling in their own way.  I do not agree with those who say that Burton sacrificed the heart of Carroll’s book for the sake of special effects. To the contrary, both the Hatter and Hathaway win your hearts before long in this film.  I do however have one complaint—- the Cheshire cat in magneta blue is cast in the wrong hew altogether. And his smile is a bit too devilish as well.  On the other hand, the rabbit in his hearts outfit is very fetching indeed.

Here is a movie that the whole family can go to and enjoy. It has enough edge and humor in it to make anyone laugh, but at the same time it has that Perils of Pauline feel of old movies.  After a dreary and overlong winter with few movies in the theaters worth watching at all,  Alice in Wonderland can only be called the harbinger of spring.  The groundhog may have seen his shadow, but when Alice came out of the rabbit hole, she came trailing clouds of glory.    Spring is at hand, and this movie will leave you with a spring in your step.  Go ask Alice….