Alice: Through The Looking Glass

Alice: Through The Looking Glass might just be Tim Burton's craziest film yet; and that's quite a claim. Producing, not directing, this follow-on from the surprisingly massively successful, but not universally loved, first adaptation this continues Alice's adventures in Wonderland (Underland? I'm confused.) This is like a little vignette compared to the first and actually works very well as a completely standalone film with a succinct and wrapped-up story.

Burton's trademark eccentricity and imagination is to the fore and, once again, dazzling here with special mention going to his personification of Time and his castle which forms a giant clock (the hanging pocket watches signifying life and death are genius.) Sacha Baron Cohen (playing Time) is the major addition to the cast and, besides Alice, is the most integral aspect to this story. This is a blessing as Cohen is classically hilarious (fun fact: James Bobin, the Director here, assisted Cohen in the creation of Ali G and Borat.)

Alice is tasked with travelling back to save the family of the Hatter to rescue him from apparent death with Time pursuing her across this journey (across the, literal, ocean of time, nice touch) to stop the end of the world. Johnny Depp returns as the Mad one and is as animated and outré as ever but the reduced screen-time he gets here is actually a blessing; I'm surely not the only one to find his portrayal a tad annoying?

The supporting cast get their parts to play as well and, once again, the shining light is Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen and her anatomically unfortunate head. Here, we get the origins of that story and more opportunity for Carter to act bratty and villainous (which she does better than anyone else.) Sometimes Burton's ideas get a little too OTT (the vegetable guards who patrol the Red Queen's new castle are just silly and unnecessary) but the good outweighs the bad here.

I'm still not convinced by the real-life story framing the adventure, though. Although it successfully follows Disney's new protocol of promoting strong female role models to a young audience (which Mia Wasikowska is ideally cast for) it is lacking in detail.

I also believe that, although the plot is solid, it's almost too-nicely wrapped up and doesn't do enough as a sequel to drive the franchise forward. It smacks of Disney, surprised by the success of the first, rushing to get a sequel released.

Having said that, we're big fans of the Alice In Wonderland story and characters, and of Burton as well, and this is a brilliantly watchable, thrilling family adventure with Disney production values.

It's not as good as the 1951 original (which is our personal favourite, pre-Pixar, Disney) but is a great watch.

4 stars ****