Tim Burton’s reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s much-loved tale is dark, lavish, and beguiling. A children’s story readapted for grown ups, Alice In Wonderland offers a good dose of madness that is comic and tragic in equal measures.

This isn’t Alice in Wonderland as we know it. Instead, it follows the story of Alice, played by the lovely and willowy Mia Wasikowska, returning to Wonderland at age 19, with no memory of having been there as a child except for a strange, recurring dream of falling down a rabbit hole.

Though she is repeatedly told that she is “the wrong Alice,” she soon discovers that she has been brought to this peculiar land to slay the Jaberwocky, thereby overthrowing the treacherous rule of
the Red Queen.

Burton has resisted the urge to create the technicolour carnival world we might expect. The palette is murky and muted, with only touches of intense colour, such as the luminous cobalt of the caterpillar, and the blood-red tones that dominate the décor of the Red Queen’s estate.

The gothic twist on Wonderland, known by its residents as Underland, is less dreamlike, more nightmare-eqsue, with rickety, creepily skewed sets that seem directly borrowed from Burton’s 1993 stop-motion classic The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This darker rendering might be disturbing for young children, but Burton’s adult interpretation is eerily beautiful, with all the bewildering touches, fantastically gothic costumes, and lyrical Danny Elfman soundscapes that his fans have learned to expect.

For all its visual delights, there is a sense of something missing. Perhaps it’s the lack of all the absurdist poems, riddles and word games that made Carroll’s story so well loved. Or maybe it’s the flatness
of the plot, which at times feels somewhat pointless and predictable.

Still, Helena Bonham Carter is wonderfully funny as the shrill, bulbous-headed Red Queen, and Johnny Depp steals the show with a surprisingly tender performance as the vaudevillian Mad Hatter. There is a tragic slant to his lunacy, adding new layers to Carroll’s original characterisation.

It’s not quite a masterpiece, but Alice in Wonderland is a vivid and absorbing film that puts a fresh spin on the fabled children’s tale.
Screening at IMAX
www.imax.com.au