What I loved about Alice in Wonderland

I saw the new Alice in Wonderland movie last night, and loved it. I have been obsessed with the Alice books for some time, but always disappointed by every film adaptation ever attempted. (In fact the closest anyone has come to capturing the magic of Alice on film may be that episode of The Muppet Show with Brooke Shields as Alice.)

Like that episode of The Muppet Show, but in a completely different way, this new version of Alice deviates quite a bit from the original stories, but does so in a novel way, imagining an older Alice who is on the verge of an unwanted marriage and escapes into the magical Wonderland/Underland.

I love the new premise. In typical Wizard of Oz fashion, the characters in Underland mirror the people she knows in her real life, but what I really liked is that these characters are played by completely different actors and actresses. It made Underland that much more magical of a place.

Of course, the movie was as beautiful and haunting as only a Tim Burton film can be. Costumes were fantastic. The merging of real actors and animation seemed seemless. The set brought to life the magic and wonder of the fantasy world. That combined with a decent plot, made for a very enjoyable film.

Though I could do without the 3-D stuff (much of it just appears sort of blurry to my messed up eyes) I don’t think it really detracted from what is an excellent movie that managed to capture all the things I love about the Alice books in brilliant cinematic way.