Alice in Wonderland

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland manages to balance the dark side of the tale with the Disney-like fantastical elements very well.

The story opens with six-year-old Alice who wakes up from a bad dream involving a dodo bird, a rabbit in a suit and other assorted characters found in Alice in Wonderland, the book. Her father tucks her into bed and comforts her when she asks if she was mad - "All the best people are".

The film moves on to when Alice is nineteen-years-old. She is to attend a tea party, which is actually her surprise engagement party. She is set to be married to the son of the man who bought over her father's shipping company after his demise. Faced with the proposal from a man she does not love, and who has a sensitive stomach, she flees for some much-needed quiet time. Spotting the white rabbit in the coat, she follows it down a rabbit hole and finds herself in Underland (or wonderland, as she miscalled it when she was young).

She is told that she must face the Jabberwocky (The Red Queen's guardian) and defeat it - it has been prophesied. Finding it unbelievable and believing it all to be a dream, she and the rest of Underland are misled even more by Absolem the caterpillar into believing that she is the wrong Alice. After escaping from an attack by a Bandersnatch (which the Red Queen send to capture her), she meets the Cheshire Cat, Chessur, who leads her to the Hatter and their never-ending tea party. There she is told that the Red Queen snatched the thrown from the rightly-crowned White Queen and has been ruling Underland with a mixture of malice and disrespect for everyone, using animals as furniture and screaming her famous catchphrase, "Off with their heads!". The Red Queen, played by Helena Bonham Carter is like a Bobo doll, with her head digitally enhanced by 3. Everyone in Underland is waiting for the Frabjous Day, when Alice would slay the Jabberwocky and return the crown and reign of rule to the White Queen (played by Anne Hathaway), whose all drama and airy-fairy, but has made a personal vow not to harm any living thing.

Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland is delightful for its over-the-top personalities (Johnny Depp as the Hatter, the Red Queen, the White Queen and the ever adorable Tweedles), the combination of storylines (mixing Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and making sure that Alice's meeting of the characters are not separate events, which they were in the stories), the yummy quotes ("curiouser and curiouser", "six impossible things before breakfast") and the amazing graphics. I didn't see the movie in 3d though and yet, I'm blown away by the graphics and the sets, especially the battle on the chess board at the end.

Watch the film if only for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. They are worth it. Haha.