Product Description

Tumble down the rabbit hole with Alice for a fantastical new adventure from Walt Disney Pictures and Tim Burton. Inviting and magical, Alice In Wonderland is an imaginative new twist on one of the most beloved stories of all time. Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny. This Wonderland is a world beyond your imagination and unlike anything you ve seen before. The extraordinary characters you ve loved come to life richer and more colorful than ever. There s the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) and more. A triumphant cinematic experience Alice In Wonderland is an incredible feast for your eyes, ears and heart that will captivate audiences of all sizes.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1753 in DVD
• Brand: Walt Disney Pictures
• Published on: 2010-06-01
• Released on: 2010-06-01
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .18 pounds
• Running time: 108 minutes

Features

• Size approx 14" from head to feet
• officially licensed Disney plush doll

Amazon.com
Tim Burton was born to bring Alice in Wonderland to the big screen. Ironically, his version of the Victorian text plays more like The Wizard of Oz than a Lewis Carroll adaptation. On the day of her engagement party, the 19-year-old Alice (a nicely understated Mia Wasikowska) is lead by a white-gloved rabbit to an alternate reality that looks strangely familiar--she's been dreaming about it since she was 6 years old. Stranded in a hall of doors, she sips from a potion that makes her shrink and nibbles on a cake that makes her grow. Once she gets the balance right, she walks through the door that leads her to Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Matt Lucas), the Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), the Blue Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), and the Cheshire Cat (a delightful Stephen Fry), who inform her that only she can free them from the wrath of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter channeling Bette Davis) by slaying the Jabberwocky. To pull off the feat, she teams up with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp in glam-rock garb), rebel bloodhound Bayard (Timothy Spall), and Red's sweet sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway in goth-rock makeup). While Red welcomes Alice with open arms, she plans an execution for the hat-maker when he displeases her ("Off with his head!"). Drawing from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Burton creates a candy-colored action-adventure tale with a feminist twist. If it drags towards the end, his 3-D extravaganza still offers a trippy good time with a poignant aftertaste. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Alice in Wonderland

Video Description
From KIDS FIRST!: The new Tim Burton/Disney version of Alice is entirely off the wall, as one might expect, but not nearly as dark as I thought it would be. This is a film that will absolutely be enjoyed by filmophiles, particularly Burton fans. But, you might want to take your child’s temperament into consideration before hauling them over to your local Cineplex. The visual element of this film is stunning. Burton’s characters are awesome, he takes off in an entirely new direction with our favorites. Mad Hatter, played by Johnny Depp is as charming as ever. Mia Wasikowska deftly plays an older Alice who is returning for a 2nd visit to Underland. She is beautiful, pale skinned and brave in a cautious kind of way. How she manages to deal with all the size changes she undergoes is another question altogether. I particularly loved the evil Red Queen played by Helena Bonham Carter whose chilly demeanor would stop most of us in our tracks. Her oversized head leaves room for comment but it is her mouth, with its pursed lips and heart shaped lipstick that is reallyl cool. And then, there’s the way she solves every disappointment by shouting, “Off with their head!” My my. Anne Hathaway’s White Queen isn’t quite as charming as I would have liked but the Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit were right on par. Tweedledee and Tweedledum as as cute as twin Pillsbury Doughboys and goofy in the same way they speak in rhyme and finish one another’s sentences. Of course, Depp steals the day with his Mad Hatter portrayal. He somehow makes us delight in the zany antics of the MH including the famous Tea Party which borders on absolute lunacy. The storyline blends two of Lewis Carrol’s books, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass,” both of which captured my imagination when I was young, and rediscovered again as a young adult when we went back to examine the strangeness of the hookah smoking caterpillar and the size-changing mysteries of Alice. When Alice is faced with a surprise engagement announcement to the perfectly boring Lord Hamish Ascot, it seems only natural for those of us from a non-Victorian culture that instead, she dashes, follows a waist-coated rabbit and drops down the rabbit hole to revisit “Underland.” She has been there before but only remembers it in her dreams. Upon arriving, everyone greets her cordially, as a returning guest and point out to her the premonition that Alice will save Wonderland by slaying the Jaberwocky. There is only one question, no one is certain that she is the right “Alice.” Alice claims this is her dream and she can make of it as she wishes. This film shows off Burton’s mastery as a visual artist. It’s a treat to look at. You surely won’t be disappointed in that. Ages 5-12.

Review
Alice in Wonderland Trivia

Depp s Designs:Actor Johnny Depp goes through ample preparation for each of his roles and preparing to play the Mad Hatter was no different. Long before production began, the actor began doing watercolor paintings of what the Mad Hatter might look like, discovering later that his vision was quite similar to direct Tim Burton s.

Mad Hatter Mood Ring:The Mad Hatter suffers from mercury poisoning, a common and unfortunate condition of many hatters of the time who use the chemical regularly for their craft. Depp and Burton elevated this Hatter s madness by literally showcasing the character s man mad mood swings in his makeup and wardrobe, creating a virtual human mood ring.

Changes: Mia Wasikowska who plays Alice is five feet four inches in real life but Alice changes size throughout the course of her adventures in Wonderland, ranging from six inches to two feet to eight-and-a-half feet, to a maximum of 20 feet tall. The production worked hard to use practical methods rather than special effects and often it was a case of putting Alice on an apple box to make her taller than everyone else.

Drink Me:The potion Alice drinks to shrink is called Pishsolver. The cake she eats to grow is called Upelkuchen.

Sweet and Sour:Actress Anne Hathaway, who portrays the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland, decided that her representation of the character wouldn t be completely vanilla. The White Queen comes from the same gene pool as the evil Red Queen, after all, so Hathaway envisioned a punk rock vegan pacifist and was inspired by Blondie, Greta Garbo, Dan Flavin and Norma Desmond.

Futter What?: Futterwacken is the term used to describe the Underlanders dance of unbridled joy. Composer Danny Elfman was stumped when it came to creating the music for the dance. He wrote four different pieces for the director, each fun, unique and, as Elfman says, pushing the bounds of what could be acceptable.

Two Tweedles:Actor Matt Lucas was tapped to play both Tweedles, rotund twin brothers who constantly disagree with each other and whose confusing chatter makes little sense to anyone but themselves. Lucas, however, was unable to play Tweedledee and Tweedledum at the same time (for some reason). Actor Ethan Cohen was called on to portray Dum to Lucas Dee (or vice versa) during filming, but will never actually appear on screen.

Bandersnatch?This disgusting, drooling, foul-smelling creature has a big filthy body and the squashed, teeth-baring face of a rabid bulldog. The creature leaves Alice with a rather painful reminder of the Red Queen s horrible reign. --Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

174 of 203 people found the following review helpful.
Much better than it has been given credit for
By Dan-Fabian Parra
In spite of having to read many negative reviews, I was still curious to see this movie. I not a huge Burton fan neither, although I've enjoyed some of his previous work. But it was something about «Alice in Wonderland» which seemed appealing; its visual look and its quirky characters. Still I had in mind the several hostile reviews, which accused this movie to be a flat, soulless and muddled attempt of a classic, which I also feared it would. But after finally seeing the movie, I can claim my disagreement with the reviewers. In fact, I'm not sure if we even saw the same movie. What exactly was so terrible about it?

Overall, I found «Alice in Wonderland» to be very entertaining. I feared that the movie would lose some of it's magic as the main character entered to Wonderland, but fortunately it never did. I enjoyed the movie from the very start to its very end. It's a cute fantasy/adventure movie, equal to the «Harry Potter» and the «Narnia» flicks (although I personally felt «Prince Caspain» had some slight weaknesses). But beware; there are some frightening creatures that may scare the youngest in the audience, so the PG rating is suitable.

One of the films biggest advantages is it visuals. With it lush and dark landscapes, cute animals and colorful costumes, the flick is beautifully to look at and I can't wait to enjoy the sharpness of the picture on Blu Ray. The score of Danny Elfman is effective and gives the movie a dreamy, atmospheric tone. The characters are mostly passable. They don't steal the show entirely, but neither do they appear as distractive or annoying.

Although I've always liked the original novel of Lewis Carroll, I must say that I found this new twist of the story fresh and creative, depicting the «wrong» Alice's adventures in Wonderland as a young adult. Linda Woolverton, who's behind the excellent screenplays for «Beauty and the Beast», «The Lion King» and «Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey», has written a solid and decent script to «Wonderland». Many have claimed this screenplay to be muddled and confusing, but I didn't felt it that way at all. Once again, did we even saw the same movie?

Mia Wasikowska is quite decent as Alice. Although she doesn't have a distinctive emanation/charisma who characterizes other young actresses at her age, she's still delivers a nice and acceptable performance. Personally I felt her screen presence expanded during the movie. Johnny Depp is indeed a good actor. To claim anything else, would be a like claiming that the climate isn't humid in the rain forest. Although I've never been crazy over Depp's work, he's goofy and great as The Mad Hatter, which is indeed the best character in the movie. Helena Bonham Carter is also believable and funny as the Red Queen (just prepare yourself to hear «Off with his head» at least a hundred times during the movie, ha ha). While Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, is warm and passable as the White Queen (although I must confess it was a little distracting to see her with a blonde wig and with a British accent).

In fact, I can't see anything wrong with this new Burton version of «Wonderland». I truly enjoyed it and recommend it to everyone as possible. It didn't deserve the negative criticism at all, in my opinion. With quality films like this, perhaps I could finally forgive Disney for its recent mistakes? (*Cough, leaving hand drawn animation behind and promoting teen stars as crazy, cough*)

So follow every white rabbit you see and follow him to the hole... Wonderland is waiting...

BONUS FEATURES
Unsurprisingly, most of the bonus features lies on the Blu ray disc. However, the amount of the bonus features are disappointingly skimpy. The featurettes are divided in two sections. First are the Wonderland Characters and Making of Wonderland.

First up in the Wonderland Characters-section is "Finding Alice", which is about the casting of main lead. During a short brief or times, there are interviews with Mia Wazikovska, Tim Burton, Helena Bonham-Carter and Anne Hathaway. They bring up Burton's vision that differs from the Novel, the character arc of the protagonist and some of the clothing designs. Wazikovska herself comes off as a humble, mature and reflective young woman.

Next on the list is "The Mad Hatter", which is about Depp's insights on his character. Depp manages to give a brief, but interesting research about real hatters, while he talks about his own sketches and visions for the Mad Hatter, comparing to Burton's sketches for the character. And of course the costume and stylizing of the character.

"The Futterwacken Dance" explains the origins of the fictional Futterwacken dance which Depp's character dances in the movie. The dance was based on an internal joke between the director and Depp. Without spoiling too much, there are interviews with several guys who were in charge of the "Futterwacken".

Next is "The Red Queen", which centers about the origins of the Red Queen. Interviews with Bonham-Carter and technical members of the crew, they discuss the design and the costuming of the character, as well as Helena's own thoughts of her own performance.

"Time-Lapse: Sculpting The Red Queen" is a short video demonstrating the transformation and sculpting of Helena as the Red Queen, while Helena and other make-up artists narrates during the video.

Next is "The White Queen", which is about the creation of The White Queen. Hathaway explains her own, early visions for the character, as well the costuming and the other crew members' thoughts of the character.

The first featurette in the Making Wonderland section is Scoring Wonderland. An interesting featurette about the scoring of the film. During an interview with composer Danny Elfman, we'll receive his thoughts about his collaboration with Burton, as well as his process about the film scoring and especially making the "Alice" anthem. Quite interesting and informative.

Effecting Wonderland is an interesting featurette about the CGI aspect of the film, the creation of the fully CGI characters in the film and how to exaggerate the looks of the human characters with CGI.

Stunts in Wonderland is a brief featurette about the stunt process of Mia Wazikowska.

Making the Proper Size is about the process of giving the character of Alice the proper size. Interviews with Waizkowska and other crew members reveals the process of making Wazikowska look to small or too big in the various scenes in the film.

Cakes of Wonderland interviews a baker which made all the cakes in the final film, especially the Eat Me cakes. She talks about the ingredients which she used in the film to make the cakes.

Tea Party Props centers about the making of the Iconic Tea Party table and all of its props.

So there you have it; Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland. While it's not one of the most memorable movies of its genre, it is still a solid and good movie that has gotten way more underrated than it deserves. The quality of the picture is superb and so is the sound. While most of the featurettes are interesting and enjoyable, there could still have been of more of them. However, this edition is still recommendable for every fan of this movie.

70 of 82 people found the following review helpful.
A trippy trip down the rabbit hole
By Monkdude
For starters, it seems that everyone I know is shocked when I tell them that this Alice in Wonderland is a sequel of sorts. At the age of 19 and about to be forced into marriage, this is Alice's second trip to Wonderland. I'm glad Tim Burton and his team came up with a new story that still featured all the great characters from the original source material. That's also where the weakest part of the movie lies. The dialogue given to the characters is great, but the script is razor thin. I think if more effort went into this particular aspect, I might have given it five stars.

I saw it in IMAX 3-D and the visuals are as grand and beautiful as you would expect from Burton. It's not quite as eye-popping as Avatar, which was shot completely in IMAX 3-D, whereas, Alice in Wonderland was upconverted (Clash of the Titans did the same thing to bad effect). The music by Danny Elfman is some of his best stuff in recent years and the costumes/makeup are top notch.

Aside from the look of film, the acting also makes it very memorable. There are so many well animated and voice acted characters running around I don't know where to begin. I guess I'll start with those made of flesh and blood. I didn't like Depp's take on Willy Wonka that much, and I'm a big fan of his, but his Mad Hatter is just the right amount of crazy. His voice goes back and forth from having a lisp to sounding like William Wallace from Braveheart. His look is so jarring, you probably wouldn't even know it was him if you somehow dodged all the advertisements before entering the theater. Helena Bonham Carter played the Red Queen brilliantly. I couldn't take my eyes off her giant head. Anne Hathaway really surprised me here (in a good way) with her take on the White Queen and it was nice to see Crispin Glover back on the big screen in a role that suited him. Last, but certainly not least, Mia Wasikowska was absolutely captivating as Alice. The way she talked and her reactions were just what the film needed in it's central role. All the digital animal characters were great, but my favorites were the Cheshire Cat, voice by Stephen Fry, and the March Hare voiced by Paul Whitehouse.

I'm somewhat surprised that the combination of violence and meanness, along with the smoking Blue Caterpillar didn't get this a PG-13 rating. It's not too harsh, but young kids might get a little freaked out.

Overall, Alice in Wonderland looks like a polished jewel, has great acting/voice acting, wonderful music and even manages to get quite a few laughs in the process. If only the simple story didn't let me down in the end, this could have been a classic in the making. Even still, I wouldn't mind Tim Burton taking us on another trip down the rabbit hole in a few years.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful.
Great 3D movie
By L. N. Wells
We recently purchased a 3D TV and have started buying movies for it. This is the best I have found so far with great 3D effects and a good story line and good acting.