Alice Through the Looking Glass

Tim Burton, who directed the 2010 original, returns as producer with Flight of the Conchords and Muppets Most Wanted helmer James Bobin taking the reins as director for a new adventure inspired by Lewis Carroll’s enduring books.

Wasikowska who reprises her role as Alice in the film explained that: “Tim articulates things very visually and then James likes talking about things more”.

Alice Through the Looking Glass is one of those films that encourage everyone from makeup artists and costume designers to prop makers and visual effects experts to push the boundaries of their craft – albeit within Burton and Bobin’s vision.

Curiously lacking a sense of the “uncommon nonsense” and freakish fun of the source novel, Alice Through The Looking Glass falls short of its potential. The Hatter (Johnny Depp) turns out to have gone mad because he couldn’t please his daddy, and the Red Queen would stop trying to kill everyone if her sister (sleepwalking Anne Hathaway) would just apologize for a childhood lie. Alice returns to a magical but utterly confusing land and is promised to be made a queen if she can successfully advance, as a pawn, to the hallowed eighth rank across the countryside of a board. When Alice storms off after a fight with her mom, she sees Absolem (Alan Rickman), who has turned into a butterfly, and chases him into a study where she follows him through a mirror back to Underland.

Things are all but well in Wonderland upon Alice’s arrival, with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) stymied by thoughts of his lost family – which, of course, can only be saved by our heroine. Alice sets off on a freaky escapade, going back in time to find out what happened to the Hatter’s family at the hands of the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) with the enormous head.

In addition, Hathaway is largely wasted this time round, and gets so little screen time and dialogue (despite her apparent importance to the plot) that you start to wonder if they CGI-d her in after shooting wrapped. Once there, in a giant, gleaming clock cathedral, Alice confronts Time (Sacha Baron Cohen), a mechanized German prig, steals his time-generating chronosphere and uses it to travel back in order to save Hatter’s parents. A whimsical story through a colorful world, we get a glimpse into the past while learning a lesson about moving forward. Sacha Baron Cohen is committed, but unfortunately his accent, as well as some of the other actors’ thick caricature like accents, make them hard to understand.

Alice’s adventure takes her all throughout Underland’s history and back to the real world once or twice to deal with her own issues. Rhys Ifans as the Mad Hatter’s father is new this time.

“The only way to achieve the impossible is to believe it is possible”, Alice says, but some impossible missions are best left untried.

Wasikowska and Depp anchor the film with lovely performances.