I was a bit disappointed when I watched the movie Alice in Wonderland. This is despite my colleague’s warning that the film is not good. When I heard my colleague’s negative remark on the film, I was not surprised. The original story (and the reader’s imagination) will always be the benchmark. The ability of the filmmaker to interpret the book’s essence with precision and creativity would greatly determine the opinion of those who read the book. It is an example of the classic equation: expectation(s) – outcome (or reality) = disappointment.
I expected Alice in Wonderland movie to follow Lewis Carroll’s plot of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. As it turned out, the movie has a different plot. The scenes (most of which are not found in the book) were so skillfully corroborated to create a logical and coherent flow of events that is far from what the two-part series is all about.
Alice’s adventures in Wonderland as based on the original story are a series of random and mostly independent/ stand-alone scenes, which is part of the book’s appeal. Alice’s encounters with the different personalities in Wonderland make a unified theme of a strange new world--the feeling of inadequacy, unfamiliarity, confusion, anticipation, and disappointment that children and young adults face in their course of making themselves known to the world. Although the movie was able to capture the strange new world theme, it was on a superficial level due to film’s overemphasis on believing the impossible and its simplistic representation of Wonderland. The plot of the movie also centered on the-good-triumphs-over-evil theme, which is not found in the original story.
I expected the characters to resemble Lewis Carroll’s representation. I expected Alice to be an adorable, headstrong, inquisitive, and carefree seven/eight-year-old kid. Instead, the Alice that I saw in the movie was a conscientious and apprehensive teenage girl. The Mad Hatter in the movie adaptation was kind, helpful, and hospitable that is far from the aloof and inhospitable Hatter in the original story. I imaged the White Queen to be old and stern, which is in stark contrast with the movie’s depiction of a young and extremely pleasant queen with a personal vow of avoiding violence at all cost.
It is also noticeable in the movie that some memorable characters in the two-part series such as the as Humpty Dumpty, the Red Knight, and the Duchess were dropped, while some characters were made into major characters such as the Mad Hatter, the Caterpillar, the Knave, Tweedledum, and Tweedledee.
I would have enjoyed the movie had it not been for the glaring contrasts between the movie and the original story. I watched the movie with the expectation to see the filmmaker’s depiction of my favorite scenes, characters, and dialogues. What I saw that night was a plot different from the original story, so much so that a different title --Alice’s Return to Wonderland (as it is a sequel of the two books)--would be more fitting. A new title would significantly lower the expectations of the people and would consequently draw the viewer’s attention to the film’s merits.
As for the film’s merits, the filmmaker's casting and animation are noteworthy. The cast in general is good. My favorite is Helena Bonham Carter who portrayed the Red Queen. Johnny Depp also did well in the film; he definitely put the mad in the Mad Hatter’s character. The animation is a treat for those who love visual effects.
