Alice in Wonderland – Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter
I never realised before how important heads are to Alice in Wonderland. One of the characters is a Mad Hatter, and of course hatters make hats for heads. Then there’s the Red Queen, who has a big head – both metaphorically and, in this latest version, literally – and is forever threatening to cut people’s heads off. Alice thinks the whole thing is a dream, i.e. taking place inside her head. Above all, Lewis Carroll’s classic (and its companion-tome, Through the Looking Glass) is a major head trip, not just a missive from the mind of an eccentric genius with a zany sense of humour but a very cerebral book of puns, paradoxes and mind-games in general.
That last part isn’t true of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which has been spiffed up for the Hollywood-blockbuster crowd. There are battles, explosions and monsters with big teeth. The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) has been turned into an action hero, which is tedious, the Queen’s playing-cards are more like storm-troopers and the climax is a duel between Alice and the Jabberwock, with the fate of Underland hanging in the balance. Oh yes, I forgot: the place is now Underland, not Wonderland, and the plot is a blend of Carroll’s two books – especially his nonsense poem ‘Jabberwocky’ – rather than Alice in Wonderland per se. Purists will find both tone and narrative greatly changed.
Yet the film is faithful to the book’s eccentric spirit, and also finds a perfect Alice in 20-year-old actress Mia Wasikowska, sensible and wide-eyed in just-right proportions. Alice is older now, though she’s been plagued by the same recurring dream since childhood (an early scene shows our 6-year-old heroine solemnly telling her daddy of blue caterpillars and rabbits in waist-coats). She’s about to be married off to a rancid flame-haired aristo who finds quadrilles “invigorating” – and his mother throws an engagement party for the not-so-happy couple, only for rebellious Alice to flee in pursuit of rabbits before she can accept the man’s proposal. “You know what I’ve always dreaded?” asks the horrid old hag, in between warning Alice of her son’s poor digestion. “The decline of the aristocracy?” replies our girl politely.
In fact, the set-up is identical to Burton’s Corpse Bride from about five years ago: pale young misfit flees rigid, high-pressure world and finds his/her destiny in scary-but-imaginative underworld. As in Corpse Bride, it’s the detail that makes it. Our first glimpse of Underland, after Alice falls down the rabbit-hole – accompanied by the ethereal-chorus effect that’s become a Burton trademark – reveals talking flowers, giant mushrooms and what look like flying sea-horses. The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) is a giant head on a small body, living in a red world – she goes red in the face when she’s angry – with frog retainers, pigs for footstools and a scarred enforcer played by Crispin Glover. Not only does she shout “Off with his head!” at frequent intervals but the lopped-off heads end up in the castle moat, making handy stepping-stones. The film – like Corpse Bride, and Burton’s work in general – has a tang of the macabre, and parents of squeamish tots should note the scene where the Doormouse (a fiery type voiced by Barbara Windsor) pokes out the eyeball of the frumious Bandersnatch with a sharp needle.
It’s a shame Burton and Co. felt the need to impose a narrative arc on Alice. We could’ve done without the Narnia-like (or Wizard of Oz-like) story of Alice helping to replace the nasty Red Queen with her nice White sister, nor did we really need the quasi-feminist subtext where Alice learns to be mistress of her own destiny, taking the lessons back to the repressive world above. (Though in fact she follows a “foretold” prophecy in slaying the monster so she’s not really mistress of her own destiny, but whatever.) The action stuff is disposable, though the Red and White armies meeting on a giant chessboard make a fine image. The best parts are visual felicities and (of course) comedy, whether it’s the March Hare’s impulsive cries of “Cup!” and “Spoon!” – recalling Dug the dog’s hilarious “Squirrel!” in Up – the Red Queen going down a line of flunkies asking “Did you steal my tarts?” or the joke of a talking dog being immediately followed by a talking horse (“Dogs will believe anything!”), a gag that goes all the way back to Hellzapoppin’ in 1941 and probably earlier.
Burton fans will find something else as well – a belief in the magical power of the imagination vis-à-vis the real world, a belief that’s infused most of his work (especially Big Fish, his most personal movie). It’s a notion Lewis Carroll might’ve seconded – and indeed, if he were alive in 2010, Carroll (an accomplished photographer as well as writer) might well be making films just like this one. Despite all the changes, there’s a recognisable faith in absurdity and play-for-the-sake-of-it in Alice in Wonderland. Heads or no heads, it’s one from the heart.
Alice in Wonderland – Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter 