Now I'm not a huge Tim Burton stan, but I thought that Alice In Wonderland was pretty good! The strengths were exactly what you would probably think them to be: visually it was very nice to look at-the landscape design was done by Robert Stromberg, the same guy who did Avatar's. The characters were all very charming and amiable with all of their British accents (and what not!), especially the lead girl Mia Wasikowska who was very crushable by the end. And while the plot/story seemed simple, I was okay with that because it's supposed to be palatable for children, but also because it was really positive and uplifting and supportive of young girls being confident in themselves and believing that they can do things that they set their minds to-which seems like a good thing to convey to today's youth. Considering these takeaways I had from the movie, you can imagine my surprise when I went on Rotten Tomatoes and saw that the movie had a composite review of 67% (coincidentally the same as Shutter Island, which I also thought was a really enjoyable movie-less of an emphasis on girl power, sure, but still fun to watch nonetheless) which seemed a little unfair.
Upon further review, after I went a little deeper down the rabbit hole (LOL, do you see what I did there?*) to find out what people's complaints were, I learned that for the most part the reviews were all pretty positive! It seemed like most people were alright with the movie as a whole, their disappointment stemming more from the film's performance against their expectations. Unhappiness based on what their preconceptions of what Tim Burton matched with the material of Lewis Carroll should be (which seems unfair to do, but whatever) rather than judging the film just against itself. And really, those opinions all make sense and, especially within the framework of what movie criticism is, an opinion, all fair enough. Eventually though, I came across this gem of a review by Time Out: New York's Keith Uhlich:
Burton's Alice is just another anachronistic feminist tearing down Victorian patriarchal norms. Even her-[shudder]-Avril Lavigne-blared theme song is a skin-deep grrrl-power accessory.
OH WORD? Now, I'm willing to accept that I might not have the highest standards for liking movies (although, to be fair, I didn't love Avatar, so who knows!), but I'm not sure I quite agree with Mr. Keith Uhlich here (full name included again just in case his Google Alert didn't catch it the first time) and his full review.
I mean fine, when I first saw the trailer for Alice In Wonderland I obviously thought to myself: "Oh shit! This better not be ANOTHER movie about an anachronistic feminist tearing down Victorian patriarchal norms!" Oh wait! No, I didn't think that, because that would be an f-ing ridiculous and haughty thing to think! Has anyone ever thought that sentence before? What does it even mean?!?
What is another instance of this sort of character existing in film? That Jessica Biel movie where she's some sort of unruly American woman who lives as she pleases is then subsequently shunned by Colin Firth and his British family? Well you know what? That's probably not what you're thinking of, but if it were, it wouldn't be a good example because no one even saw that movie! It's not even a relatable point!
So who are all of these other "anachronistic feminists" we're talking about then? Jane Eyre? Anne Of Green Gables? Pygmalion/My Fair Lady? Well those were all written within their respective time periods so they're not exactly "anachronistic" as it were, right? What are we really talking about then? The Fifth Element? Star Wars? Okay, fair enough, I guess those and Aladdin are all pretty applicable. Touche Uhlich. Oh wait! You added the caveat of them having to be feminists tearing down Victorian patriarchal norms! Say what? I guess you wish you hadn't taken out the old thesaurus and then ctrl+T'd now!
I'm not quite sure what your qualm is with the Avril Lavigne theme song that isn't in the movie at all and just used for the credits, much less what it means for something to be a "skin-deep grrrl-power accessory?" Are you trying to imply that the character of Alice somehow draws power and confidence from a song that exists outside of viewing experience of the movie? Did you see a cut of the movie that somehow had the Avril Lavigne song interposed into the movie? I guess it's cool that you spelled the word girl with the r's instead of like a normal person! I'm going to go out on the limb and say that your "grrl-power" spellings and use of "[shudder]" is an even more obnoxious construct than all of the exclamation points I've used in this review!
Now, maybe I'm being harsh on this random person who I don't know anything else about apart from this one review that he wrote for a magazine. And truth be told, while I enjoyed Alice In Wonderland, and think that it's worth going to see if you like nice-looking movies that have a simple story and are paced pretty well, the movie isn't so amazing that it requires this vehement of a defense. But conversely, I don't think that the movie is so bad that it deserves this sort of dismissive and uppity criticism that was dished out in such a haphazard and baseless way by one KEITH UHLICH. I just think everyone should maybe think about being a little nicer.
*It's a reference to what happens in Alice In Wonderland when Alice follows a rabbit down a rabbit hole to get to Wonderland, you see.
David Cho is the publisher of The Awl, which has no financial arrangements with the Disney Company.
LOVED THIS.
You Asian kids write the best angry, right movie review reaction blog posts!
(I just have Mary on the brain, what with the Kit Kat flavor expozay. If only you two had seen this movie together.)
Wait, I thought we were supposed to be teaching young girls that the only path to fulfillment is motherhood and also not to wait to long to have babies because STALE OVARIES *shudder*. I am SO confused here guys.
(David's recovering from a breakup.)
"too long" WHERE THE FUCK DID THAT EDIT BUTTON GO OFF TO?
(I heard his ex has already started seeing someone new. You know, after the initial pain that was so much worse than his wore off.)
TOO SOON.
TAGS: SHHH WE'RE MAKING FUN OF BALK, DAVID WE'VE SPOKEN ABOUT THIS BEFORE, AWWW BUNNY YOU JUST NEED A COOKIE AND YOU'LL BE FINE, ANY CHANCE WE CAN GET THAT EDIT BUTTON BACK?
And I bet it was really easier to find someone new.
for her* EDIT BUTTON!
But "also not to wait to long to have babies" works too! Start your longing early, grrls!
@Cieca: Nice.
Between this and the Eli Roth post, you guys are really calling people out in the remix today.
On the "patriarchal tip" I guess, did Burton give Alice daddy issues? He did that to poor Willy Wonka as sank his ship in the process.
Oh God. I was sort of looking forward to seeing this, but now that you've reminded me of the horror that was Burton's Willy Wonka, I am no longer excited.
On the bright side, another Danny Elfman score!
When's the last time Johnny Depp didn't look terrifying?
@maebefunke - In my dreams last night?
I was deeply disappointed by Burton's Willy Wonka, and entirely satisfied by Alice in Wonderland, FYI. And as it happens, Alice has the opposite of daddy issues, meaning, her father was an excellent role model who inspired her and gave her strength. If that makes a difference.
An excellent role model who is dead. And that is why she acts like a man. And sells opium to China.
I would now like to be furious at Eli Roth for playing an anachronistic feminist who tears down a Victoria's Secret.
Why would he do that? They took his used panties back.
"Mr Victoria, tear down this display wall!"
The "grrrl" in his review is a reference to Riot Grrrl, the feminist punk rock movement, I believe.
and it is wrong! Avril Lavigne is not even a skin-deep riot grrl! riot grrls do not sing about banging skater bois, they sing about beating the shit out of your rapist
I hated this movie and if you want to know why go here:
http://hiredgoons.tumblr.com/
(scroll about halfway down)
too... laz...
"Unhappiness based on what their preconceptions of what Tim Burton matched with the material of Lewis Carroll should be (which seems unfair to do, but whatever) rather than judging the film just against itself."
I did the first thing (I HAVE WAITED SIXTEEN YEARS FOR THIS MOVIE) and tried to do the second thing but CANNOT.
This could have been so good, and the original source material is so dense (more so than MANY books for adults) but they fucked it up so royally (heh) with battles, and quests and blah blah blah.
I see what you're saying.
I think if I had such a close relationship to the source material, this was probably super sacrilege (especially the Depp scene you mentioned, which I was worried would end up being Shrek-y) and that seems like a much more fair criticism/reason not to like it (which I tried to convey, maybe unsuccessfully though) than just being haughty and above it and saying Ed Wood was better.
I completely agree.
It's unconscionable to mess around with the plot of this story so much. To me it reveals a disregarding of the source material that borders on contempt.
But, it's not unsurprising considering that Burton has done this before with other stories that didn't need changing, like Sleepy Hollow and The Planet of the Apes.
I also love Tim Burton (God, Ed Wood) but yes, he is becoming a brand.
It's as though everything GOOD about the book was taken out and they threw in some halfed-ass C.S Lewis plot.
Ditto. That said, I am prepared to completely forgive all of that if he included anything as remotely terrifying as A)the 1985 Jabberwocky or B)1985 Carol Channing
Highly recommend Martin Garnder's 'Annotated Alice'
http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Alice-Definitive-Lewis-Carroll/dp/0393048470
to anyone who grew up loving this book so much - he goes into great detail as to the hidden gems of the original stories.
For example, you can play 'Through the Looking Glass' AS AN ACTUAL CHESS GAME.
OH GOD 1985 CAROL CHANNING IS TEEEEERRIFYING.
Best version might be the 1966 BBC (Ravi Shankar!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUIAPJHi90A&feature=related
Or 'Alice' by Jan Svankmajer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5wHMgTPF-s
You're...a boy?
You know, Natasha VG said the exact same thing.
I thought it was pretty clear I was a gay male, go fig.
OH GOD [insert date] CAROL CHANNING IS TEEEEERRIFYING.
Another tumblr revelation: your avatar is NOT Audrey Hepburn in a polka dot dress.
@Goons: If, as you suggest on your tumblr, this movie doesn't involve any obscure scholastic asides, I am also annoyed on behalf of the source material.
@DoctorDisaster: At least some death jokes! I mean that shit was made for Burton.
It's so conventional-fantasy narrative I find it almost insulting.
Not even almost! I find it insulting.
"As Carroll sees it, the world of children is a dangerous one. Not knowing the rules, however foolish or arbitrary those rules may be, is a source of great peril. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is shadowed by hints of death, and death is a recurring theme of both of Carroll's books. Through the Looking Glass, the second book about Alice's adventures, is an even darker story; in Through the Looking Glass, reminders of death are inescapable. But even here, at the start of Alice's adventure, we are reminded of the frailty of humans and of children in particular. The first hint of mortality comes with Alice's concern about the marmalade jar; her worry shows that Wonderland is not an escape from all of the limitations of the real world. Death is still a possibility. A moment later, Carroll treats us to a very macabre joke. When Alice is falling, she takes pride in her composure: "ÂŒWell!' thought Alice to herself, ÂŒafter such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!'" (13). The narrator adds, grimly, "Which was very likely true." The narrator agrees with Alice, but not for the reason she might think: after falling off a house, the reason why she would not say anything is because she would be dead. Alice makes another unknowing allusion to her own death when she peers into the tiny door. She realizes that she cannot even fit her head through the opening, and even if she could, her head "would be of very little use without my shoulders" (16). She is referring, unknowingly, to her own decapitation. The moment is both an allusion to death and a bit of foreshadowing. At the end of the book, the Queen of Hearts will try her best to separate Alice's head from her shoulders."
@gumplr: a drunken socialite cocktease by way of Diane Arbus.
Should tell you something about me.
That's also mentioned in the Signet Edition of Alice's Adventures.
Nobody will read this because I didn't get any special pre-screenings and had to wait until the movie came out like a regular unspecial person to see it. However, with respect to your opinion, I just wanted to throw it out there that I am so hardcore obsessed with Alice in Wonderland that I recently decoupaged my motherfucking coffee table with its text and illustrations because it is impractical to actually be reading the books as often as I would like to, and I also own a white rabbit that blogs under the pseudonym "The White Rabbit." And I thought this movie was fucking awesome and perfect and everything I wanted it to be.
"(I)t's worth going to see if you like nice-looking movies that have a simple story and are paced pretty well..."
You know, if you're an idiot or a toddler or a cat. Otherwise, go see a movie that actually has a plot worth following.
Uh, could you define "plot worth following"? Like, are there movies where when you follow the plot, you get gold bars or miles or something?
"Go eat some food that has a flavor worth tasting!"
"Go listen to some music that has a melody worth hearing!"
"Go masturbate to a fantasy that ends in a graphic sex act worth enjoying!"
"Shutter Island" has lots of weird madness in its plot that's totally worth following because it rewards with an ending that satisfies.
As opposed to "Alice". Although I haven't seen it (I know, I know), all the weird madness of that plot seems to reward the viewer with C.S. Lewis-style action sequences.
Ends in?!?
I mean, "Shutter Island" made my head explode. I believe that's equivalent to your "gold bars".
I'm mostly just upset because people keep praising movies because they're "nice to look at". I understand the merit of good visuals, but I need some good writing if you want me to like it.
Shutter Island, really? I haven't read the book or seen the movie, and I know how it ends just from the trailer.
But how could he not know she was his sister?
"Shutter Island" has lots of weird madness in its plot that's totally worth following because it rewards with an ending that satisfies.
ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Shutter Island's ending was a cop-out jerk-the-rug-out-from-under-you mindfuck for the sake of mindfuck. It was the possibly the least satisfying ending I have encountered in a movie in years, mostly because I was really intensely engaged throughout the whole film, to the point where I desperately had to pee but didn't because I was convinced the movie was really really information rich and even I only took a minute or so to run to the john I'd miss some crucial bit of data and then ... and then ... fucking feh, I could have taken a dump, because NONE OF IT MATTERED.
(This is just to say that Your Mileage May Vary on Shutter Island, or indeed any movie, including Alice in Wonderland!)
*SPOILER ALERT*
Goons: I'm talking about the very last scene. Where Leo Dicap. relapses but then not really.
You should see it. You might be surprised.
It's better than a Pink Floyd laser show at the planetarium, even if the music doesn't sync up quite so well. And better than most paintings.
I want Cho and Mary to watch Valentine's Day together and then write a review of it while eating BK Broilers and club-soda-flavored Kit Kats.
OMGYES!
No KEITH UHLICH tag? If you really want to trip his google alert you gotta get it into the metadata.
What are you talking about Willis? Every single movie and tv show aimed at young girls is about empowerment, being all that you can be, being a rebel etc. etc. It's especially annoying for me as in movies they're usually rebelling against some stuff Brit who wants to stop them wearing pink t-shirts and being all punk rock.
What people are objecting to is adding this sort of stupid self-help motivational backstory (same reason Burton fucked up Willy Wonka) to a classic that doesn't need it. You can imagine the Hollywood execs sitting around saying "but what's her motivation?" and they come up with the same old cliched bollocks.
Harumph.
Is there anything in it about going green? I think they get tax credits for that.
As long as he (I shouldn't even type this, because it's bound to get seen)--as long as he leaves Wind in the Willows the fuck alone.
@LondonLee: Exactly, it's like Disney Studio Execs wrote the movie and paid Burton to illustrate it.
He's come full circle in his career, I guess.
Please. Shhhhh....
I saw the Jessica Biel movie and: WOOF. That ass was not made for a flapper wardrobe. (Her acting was also charmless/annoying, but really, the clothes are what got to me.)
It's no Summer Catch, that's for sure.
Who can live up to Freddie Prinze, Jr.? Certainly, not Colin Firth.
Yeah I mean "simple story", right there, that sounds like the crux! It gets glossed over here but I have never heard the words "simple story" and thought "man that sounds like exactly what I need right now, narratively speaking." Especially given the unsimpleness of the source, and also of a lot of what burton has done in the past.
And I do not like judging movies "as kids' movies" because that's what gave us episodes 1-3 of Star Wars.
This is what I was trying to say. I just took the dickish route.
I have an important question: how annoying is Anne Hathaway in this movie? Please let me know at your earliest convenience, thanks!
Campy.
If you don't like Anne Hathaway, you will leave hating Anne Hathaway.
If you like Anne Hathaway, you will leave liking Anne Hathaway.
She tries a little too hard and, simultaneously, not hard enough.
I have always had mixed feelings about Anne Hathaway but I liked her more than usual in this.
Fuck Anne Hathaway for calling herself Anne Hathaway (or being named that and not changing it).
If you're gonna call yourself Anne Hathaway, you'd better deliver. And not walk around looking like The Joker without makeup.
Between this piece and all the fast food ones, I think I'm a little in love with David Cho.
Point about being a mere theme song taken, but Avril Lavigne still fills me with qualms. So many qualms. (And what a fabulous word "qualm" is. )
I think I'm alone in the word because Burton's derangements just creep me out instead of entertaining me, and think that his Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter thing really needs to stop (yes, both are good actors -- I suppose -- and HBC is his wife/partner/whatver, but there comes a point... It's like Leonardo DiCaprio and Scorcese: THERE ARE OTHER ACTORS IN THE WORLD!)
My B, I thought your asterisk moment was referring to The Matrix.
I loved the movie though admittedly I'm not the biggest fan of the director. He loves to approach projects from a more gothy viewpoint which isn't really my thing. Talented man with some amazing movies so don't get me wrong on that score.
Johnny Depp -= really enjoy the man. Can be brilliant. He kinda weirds me out a bit at times in this movie and he mumbles quite a bit at other times but good performance. Adored the movie on a whole. Watched it yesterday and could easily watch it again today. Unfortunately I'm off to blare some Ryan Adams while I clear out the mess that has accumulated over here. SIGH.
HIGHLY - HIGHLY recommend the movie (and cleaning if anyone wants to do it for me!). There is absolutely no need to look for symbolism etc in the movie - take it as it is -- it's a damn movie already!! LOL.
Stina
Also - the Avril Lavigne song is HORRIBLE! Yes, I have been known to sing along with Avril as various songs come on the radio etc but this one... UGH.
For some "anachronistic feminist tearing down Victorian patriarchal norms", please see Pirates of the Caribbean. Technically not Victorian, but technically there is no reason for a hatter to be sword fighting like a legendary pirate.