Alice in Wonderland

The movie badgers rather than charms, but it's rescued by Helena Bonham Carter's brisk performance as the Red Queen.

Disney's is kind of a tepid liberal feminism, but that's far more badass and entertaining than no feminism at all.

It's horribly generic. This is a Disney film and it feels like a Disney film, whereas I'd hoped it would feel like a Tim Burton film.

Though visually stunning, Alice In Wonderland is more funny than anything else (thanks mostly to Depp's Mad Hatter).

Burton is in dispassionate, for-hire mode.

The imposition of a fairytale quest structure turns the surrealist wanderings (and wonderings) of a free-associating dreamer into a brusque crash-zoom, as Alice hurtles towards her appointment on the good-versus-evil battlefield.

Alice in Wonderland also portrays Alice’s transition into adulthood: the physical journey into Wonderland mirrors a psychological journey of personal growth in the main character. 


A shallow, stunted spectacle that does surprisingly little with its rich source. Instead, it is Tim Burton’s successful stab at inoffensive, unchallenging children’s entertainment.

The outcome is loud and excessive and just plain awful, reminding us that there’s more to filmmaking than art design alone.

It’s a whole lot of noise thrown together with loose hands into not much of anything.