Saturday, March 13, 2010

Alice in Wonderland
Got to movie it up last night and saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I wasn't swept away by it. There were things I really enjoyed about the movie, but there was one important thing I did not.
The costumes, the characters, the effects...they were all awesome! All the actors did an excellent job.
Sadly, the story seemed a little choppy to me. There wasn't much flow. I always felt we were rushing from one place to another to give a snippet of the story, and then rush along to the next snippet. I really felt I was observing and didn't get drawn in like you do in a really well-told story.
Maybe it is just hard to identify with all the growing and shrinking. Plus, the turn at the end where Alice becomes a modern woman didn't seem believable. This group of people didn't seem to value a woman's ability to make her own decisions. Why the change of heart? I suspect the movie's Disney affliation is responsible for that little twist.
Also, I found myself hoping for more parallels between the real world and Wonderland. Think Wizard of Oz. There were a few. The nearly-future-maw-in-law had a gripe about her white roses and was obnoxious like the Red Queen. The twin girls/friends paralleled in the Tweedlers. But, that is far as it went. It would have been great if the crazy aunt's prince was waiting in Wonderland. Or, the Mad Hatter was the cabin boy in the closing scene.
*sigh* It wasn't to be.
On a more positive note, we watched the 3D version, and I never got motion sickness! Mr. Burton, thanks for that and for your many great movies and reconjurings of the past. Alice will no doubt be on our watch list at home, and maybe there I will grow to appreciate it.
Kay

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