Alice... Alice in wonderland

First, I feel I must act as a tour guide so please take a look at Jared's review.
http://jaredsloger.com/blog/
Jared's review comes from the perspective of an artist deeply interested in the characters and story elements. Therefore, I think he has done an excellent job of critiquing the movie, especially with regard to Tim Burton's quirks.

Now, you must allow me to geek out with my perspective mostly steeped in the linguistic.

First of all, I had forgotten entirely that the story of the Jabberwocky was a Lewis Carroll poem, but I rather enjoyed how they focused on it in the story.
If you don't know the poem, it can be found here:
http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html

Nearly all reconizable things and characters from this poem were somehow represented in the movie. A short list:
Jabberwock - The big black dragon-like thing.
JubJub bird - The wacky bird that picks up tweedledee and tweedledum
Bandersnatch - The big white furry thing
Vorpal sword - Vorpal just means "really sharp"
Frabjous day - The day the Jabberwock died

I must point out that while the poem was projected on Alice for the movie, a young boy was actually the subject of the poem originally. They carefully though quoted all but the last sections of the poem. I liked getting to hear it.

Secondly, I now know that I need to re-read both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. I find it quite difficult to recall subtleties such, though I know the Disney movie, which sticks far more vividly in my mind, was rather a mash-up of the two.

Thirdly, I have an observation about the way Tim Burton tells a tale. When a writer goes to tell a tale, they must relate only the most significant details and rely on the imagination of their readers. With movies, however, the visuals are most key for focusing the readers, and the sounds help control this mystique. Tim Burton does something slightly different though. His visuals are for the purpose of connecting with something he purports is already in our minds. He takes a children's fairytale that we all know, and expects us to read it into the characters and the scenes that have every so slightly been burtonized.

Instead of communicating with images that mirror reality (such as in Avatar), he artfully adds a twist to each character. This results in each character not only being unique in his or her own right, but allows their world to exist on the fringe of fairyland, halloween town, and reality. This combination places his characters in a unique situation altogther because they are not sinister enough, fancy enough, nor real enough to fit in either.

Fourth, the only reason I find that I cannot rate this excellent is a two-fold issue with its plot and characters.

In the plot, the viewer simply could read what the next step was like an open book. There was no mystery, no suspense, just scenes, which though quite exquisite, theydon't make the plot. The insertion of a prophecy like-factor in the calendar compendium was the drawback for this movie. The most momentous mile-markers were laid out for us. I think Alice would have simply been better off remembering her dream and coming across as in control, if even a little bit.

It's the difference for the viewers of being made to feel like the main character is being pulled along by some fate or charging forward making their own. Though, fundamentally, as Alice's decision to be the champion points out; Being free and fated are two sides of the same coin.

The character issue that I had with the movie was ironically Johnny Depp. First of all, he did an excellent job as the Mad Hatter. Secondly, he successfully avoided coming across as Captain Jack Sparrow or anything like that. He simply did quite well. However, in the stories of Alice by Lewis Carroll, the Mad Hatter doesn't have much of a role. Tim was therefore left to "channel" Carroll and interpret how the Hatter would act.

The dilemma this presents was that the majority of the story relied on our knowledge of the Lewis Carroll stories. The Mad Hatter was therefore forced into a role requiring heroism when as a character in the books, he was just plain mad. In a sense, the movie version left us with the impression of not a Mad Hatter but of a Genius Hatter.

Although, admittedly, there is a fine line between Genius and Insanity.