'Twas brillig...

Okay, I’m on board. Tim Burton is a friggin’ cinematic genius. The latest page in this book is the current Alice in Wonderland, which is still playing at a movie theater near you. Of course Disney has jumped on board the current 3-D craze but, frankly (unlike Avatar) it is pointless in Alice. In fact it is kind of annoying to have to reflexedly duck something-or-other that comes whizzing past your ear.

Alice is a combination of artistry, cleverness (and campiness) and some jolly, crazy tongue-in-cheek good times. Oddly enough, amid the general mayhem, some real sweetness (honest) comes through that actually gives ones sentimental hard heart a tug. At one point I was reminded of the band of diverse stalwarts from The Lord of the Rings going on their long and dangerous quest, in that Alice surrounds herself (well, through no fault of her own really, it just happens) with all kinds of supporters and advisers, all eventually aligned to thwart the dastardly deeds of the cruel, evil and ultimately vanquished Red Queen. There’s even a bandersnatch with a figurative thorn in its paw (see Androcles) who later helps Alice overcome insurmountable obstacles, mostly for the sake of some fast transportation. Even the hedgehog who is saved (by Alice) from the flamingo wielding Queen in her whimsical game of croquet, lends a tiny hand. Once the Queen’s ultimate weapon, the Jabberwocky, is satisfactorily vanquished (was there any doubt?) everybody drops their weapons, including her pack-of-cards army. Another reference to that Ring movie.

It is all predictable but still very satisfying and I really liked the Victorian setting of everything but, after all, it comes from the fertile mind and imagination of Alice’s character, who is on the run from the staid and limited minds of England’s gentry of that stifling period. The only clinker in the movie, for me, was the ultimate ending (which comes after the ultimate ending in Underland) where Alice, reborn, seems to be single handedly embarked on an enterprise to open the trade routes to China and, therefore, become a captain of industry and commerce. Say, what? Hmm…maybe I need to look at that last chapter of Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Oh, yeah, one more word about that 3-D process. Personally I’m over it. What was good for Avatar is not necessarily so otherwise. The coming attractions shown before Alice, however, seemed to be full of it, deeper in it and, I think starting to exude a fishy smell of it. It just might be unnecessary exploitation, with the use of 3-D permitting the ching-a-ching of cash-register greed, since distributors are adding some major bucks for the privilege of having the audience wear those uncomfortable glasses. Even the Wednesday early-afternoon senior rates are getting slapped with it. And, no, fair it is not!