Victor Grippi – The Atomic Writer

Let's go down the Rabbit Hole together...

In the latest Tim Burton feature we have a retelling of the classic Alice in Wonderland and Through the looking Glass stories originally by Lewis Carroll. What makes this version unique is the state of the art special effects and 3D rendering creating an immersive and enjoyable cinematic experience that lacks in only one little itsy- bitsy area – story. As fas as story goes, Alice in Wonderland lacks a compelling storyline that left The Atomic Writer yawning and almost falling to sleep a couple of times. That is until the Cheshire Cat materialized and imparted his words of wit on our eager ears.

The story borrows elements from both Alice in Wonderland and Through the looking glass. In Alice, the Red Queen’s army is made up of playing cards. You know the Jack of Clubs, Ten of Diamonds, and such. In The Looking Glass the army is made up of chess pieces. Blending these elements with the Red and White Queen and the ultimate antagonist, the Jabberwocky, works to a degree, but elements of the story that should have drawn us into the plot and allowed the audience to fully invest and root for the main characters just don’t work out. I mean what does Alice really want? What is her backstory? A little girl who has dreams and then learns later perhaps those weren’t dreams. Or is Alice a symbol of the suffrage movement. But was that Lewis Carroll’s real intent? Or more likely, our twenty-first century take on it.

Alice has kind of a character arc, although it seems contrived and forced at the end when she decides to slay the Jabberwocky in the last few minutes of the movie. It happens suddenly and without much preamble. Too many things happen to Alice and cause her to react instead of act on her own. In fact, going back to the slaying of the Jabberwocky, Alice reminds me of Milla Jovovich in Ultraviolet or perhaps in any of the Resident Evil features. She turns into the strong female protagonist who slays the dragon and saves the kingdom. But didn’t she just meet the White Queen, Anne Hathaway, so what investment would she have to save her? Remember, all that Alice wants is to wake up from what she thinks is a dream and go home. But isn’t home where she’s about to become a wife slave to an Englishman with bad teeth? Is it a dream? Or does the rabbit hole exist deep within all of us. Ah, my friends, that’s the real question. How many of you out there have dared to peek down your own internal rabbit hole, and come back sane enough to tell about it.

The movie is book ended with the above ground Alice struggling with a pending engagement in a stuffy high society nineteenth century England where a woman’s place is beside her husband and silent. The undertones of the modern Alice amp up this woman with a cause, aka suffrage, aspect and the parallels with the underworld do make a poignant point. In the top-world Alice has very little say in her future and is quite timid and shy. While in the under-world she is the captain of her own destiny and learns that she is indeed the real Alice and expected to fulfill the destiny so conveniently drawn out on the scroll of life. Well, let me clarify “Captain of her Own Destiny”, Alice is her own captain at least in the last 15 minutes of the movie where after shrinking and growing a few too many times she decides to suit up and pull her Milla Jovovich impersonation.

Let’s not forget one of the best characters in the movie, The Cheshire Cat. An amazing job on his animation and his dialogue is entertaining. I’ve always liked the Cheshire Cat and have worked him into several of my own stories. Of course I must mention the Mad Hatter for he is truly another memorable character. Here’s a role where the actor needs to play a goof ball insane lunatic and who better to pull it off than wacky when he wants to be – Johnny Depp.

All in all The Atomic Writer throughly enjoy Alice in Wonderland and fully recommends it to all my readers. Go ahead and bring the kiddies because it is a story no more scary than the Wild Hare’s ride at Disneyland. I mean come on, I remember, as a wee lad, getting the crap scared out of me on that ride. This movie is no different. And look how I turned out…

Remember, never stop looking up at the night sky and asking…what if.

Victor Grippi
The Atomic Writer