"Alice in Wonderland" is a part-time brilliant piece of film-making and a visual stunner. Mia Wasikowska plays the 19-year-old Alice who chases the rabbit back down the hole and revisits Wonderland. It's a funny, trippy, odd place where Johnny Depp plays the gap-toothed Mad Hatter with a sense of compassion.
The Red Queen with a big head is played with delicious evil by Helena Bonham Carter. She's terrific, and the film is more fun that it ever is dark and serious. Visionary director Tim Burton takes great liberties with Carroll's classic and that's fine with me. I never understood the book as a child, and the film made me smile a lot.
Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" is rated an edgy PG, and is too intense for preschoolers. It also features a profound message to older children about self-image, and is a better film than Burton's "Willy Wonka." There is a sense of generosity and wonder at work in "Alice," a film much better than I ever imagined.
E-mail gcogill@wfaa.com
