alice in wonderland

An evening visit to the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill for a spot of madness. As it said on the curtain before the film, "We're all mad here'.

Curiouser and curiouser, we thought as we clipped on the high tech 3D glasses to watch Alice and her friends in the Tim Burton sequel to the well-known Lewis Carroll stories.

As the opening titles rolled I was already thinking 'ooh I want to see this again' and sure enough after a slightly cumbersome alternative beginning, the White Rabbit pulled us all down the rabbit hole and eventually through the little door.

There was enough plotline similarity to keep a general sense of the original stories, although the chess boards and card games became somewhat blended.

The 3D was surprisingly good after a few minutes in the 'real world' scenes to become adjusted. Not quite the MuppetVision of Disneyworld but a produced in way that was generally additive to the experience.

There were various Tim Burton trademark moments in the script and staging, including a funny little moment where the Mad Hatter (Depp) snipped a very Edward Scissorhandian little dress for Alice.

I enjoyed the experience of the film. There were a few Disney overloads in it like the strange dance that the Hatter performed close to the end of the film and which I think could have been safely edited out. I hear that Burton only finished it a couple of weeks before the premiere and as we sat in a cab after the film, there were a few comments about 'the director's cut' implying there might be some unfinished business in the final edit.

I've always enjoyed the Alice stories and thought this movie played a warm and affectionate update.