I’m (quite obviously) a huge fan of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I love Lewis Carroll and I love John Tenniel. I love beautiful soup. I love the Lobster Quadrille. I love the flamingos, the Hatter, the Hare, the White Rabbit…and of course, the Cheshire Cat. The book, in Alice’s words, “…seems to fill my head with ideas–only I don’t know exactly what they are.”

I also love Tim Burton, I love Johnny Depp, Crispen Glover, Helena Bonham Carter, Christopher Lee…but when I first saw the preview for Tim Burton’s Alice, I really didn’t know what to think. No adaption of this book, my all-time favorite book, has ever lived up to the real thing for me. It seemed the role of the Cheshire Cat was being downplayed in favor of the Depp Hatter. For a few days I even raged about Depp not being cast as the cat. There was also a wronged Charlie Bucket gnawing at the back of my brain. An experience I’m still trying to forget.

But then again, as time passed, I got more and more excited about seeing it. I never arrive early and wait in line on opening night. But last night, I did, and it was so worth it. This movie is beautiful. The makeup is beautiful and the costumes are beautiful. I don’t know if the technology used for Alice was the same as the technology used for Avatar, but the 3D effects where just as wonderful. And I have to admit, the animated movement in Alice was much more fluid than in Avatar. The Cheshire Cat’s twists and turns were fascinating and lovely. The live action melded with the animation so well, I forgot to remember that two different worlds had been merged.

The story is an adaptation, but I think that’s what made it work for me. Alice at nineteen, not quite as proper as her mother thinks she should be, bolts from her surprise engagement party (Many pardons to Leo Bill as Hamish for his terribly unfortunate face, but what a proposal!) and down the rabbit hole after the White Rabbit to rediscover her “muchness”. No one, not even Alice, is very sure she really is because she’s not very much like the Alice who visited years before.

Mia Wasikowska is a completely worthy Alice. Depp wears the Hatter nicely, Crispin is his old creepy self and Carter….um, way to get a head!? (Sorry for that one, Dear Readers.) Anne Hathaway is a lovely and bizarre White Queen and Alan Rickman’s two-tone voice is perfect for the Blue Caterpillar. Inspiration was drawn from the Tenniel illustrations, but nothing about the look felt stolen or forced. I’m a little sad to say that thinking back, I did miss the Mock Turtle and the Sleeping Gryphon.

Overall, I think Charles Lutwidge Dodgson would have been as charmed by this Alice in Wonderland as I have always been by his. Dew claws up Mr. Burton! Nicely done.

And just in case you were wondering… A raven is like a writing desk because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front.