We saw Alice in Wonderland Burtonland today. After hearing all the negative comments on the 3D aspect, we decided to go for 2D. Alice was originally shot in 2D and the 3D was added afterwards. When this isn’t done properly your eyes and your brain don’t communicate and you can get headaches and/or nausea — which is what a number of people were complaining about. I get headaches at most 3D movies anyway, so this decision didn’t bother me.
The film is directed by Tim Burton so if you’re expecting normal, you’ve gone to the wrong cinema. This film is odd, unusual, strange, bizarre, weird, atypical, freaky, nutty, yet still pretty damn visually fantastic. And, indeed, that’s what it is. The movie starts off in Victorian England as Alice is being betrothed unwillingly to a suitor. She espies the white rabbit and the film is afoot.
Many odd things happen once Alice drinks that first potion and you will be captivated by all of it. Whether you like it, I’m not sure. I mostly enjoyed the film, but I had some quibbles with some of the odd story tangents. Loved the Hatter, Cheshire, and the Red Queen and we could have used more of them and less of the White Queen for sure. The bandersnatch was an awesome creature indeed besides giving me the excuse to say bandersnatch. The jabberwocky wasn’t nearly as impressive.
The one brief dance scene near the end was terribly contrived and I’m not sure why it was even part of the film. Probably just an excuse to use the word “futter” in the movie.
There were two kids in our group (5 and 7) and they were fine with it, so I give this a green light to most audiences. I was secretly hoping my favourite Jefferson Airplane song would make a cameo, but it didn’t. It would have been most appropriate.
Sorry this review is shorter than what I originally wrote but Blogger farted and ate it all.
As much as it pains be to thank David Streeter in public, this video link he sent me demands it. It was an amazing bit of nostalgia. The clothing, the vehicles, the traffic chaos, the atmosphere. The film is from a cable car travelling East, down Market Street in San Francisco, just a few days before the infamous Great Earthquake of 1906. You can clearly see the clock tower at the end of the street at the Embarcadero Wharf on the Ferry Building that is still there today. Authentic, live-action hundred year-old film is a rarity so treat yourself to this seven minutes of history.
Lastly is this great article on cover songs. Many songs you know and love are actually covers. Aretha Franklin’s legendary Respect, Tina Turner’s Proud Mary, and even Elvis Presley’s Hound Dog to name a few. Most covers of legendary songs are big blunders. Sometimes a cover becomes the canonical version. Next time you’re trashing Marilyn Manson for ruining a song (as he richly deserves) don’t forget that not all covers suck.
Special thanks to Jose as we continue to work to figure out the final details to move this blog to its new home. I will remind me readers to look out for the notification that we’ve moved. The new URL will be http://www.darsys.net/ if you want to bookmark it now. That URL will always point to this blog no matter where it moves. For those of you reading via RSS you will need to update your feed when the announcement is made and not before.