ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010, Blu-ray released June 1, 2010 – MSRP $44.99)
My schedule has been overwhelming lately. I’ve found it rather difficult to cram Blu-ray viewing sessions into my crowded, busy days. As such, it took me three sittings to make it through Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland, but the experience was surprisingly rewarding in the end.
I, probably like you, heard a lot of pretty negative things about Alice in Wonderland - garish computer-generated effects, uneven storytelling, excess of Burton-isms, etc. Perhaps it’s as a result of my awareness of these criticisms that the film actually worked for me, for the most part. I was aware, going into my screening of the film, that it was more of a re-imagining of the famous Lewis Carol tale – a quasi-sequel of sorts with a fairly typical Hollywood-style structure and a climax featuring an all-out battle that some feel is out of place. I didn’t. It might be a typical and very predictable story decision but ultimately it works for the film, as Burton has envisioned it. And speaking of his vision for Wonderland, it’s absolutely Wonder-ful (sorry…)
Some might find the design elements in Alice in Wonderland over the top. Who am I kidding? They’re way over the top! But I would argue that they marry perfectly to the story and to the wonderful performances throughout. In fact, some of the bizarre character effects are critical to the performances – the Red Queen’s (Helena Bonham Carter) gigantic head, Tweedledum and Tweedledee’s (Matt Lucas in both roles) round, eggs-on-feet shape, and the crazed, bulging green eyes of the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) all play a part in setting this version of the tale apart from the more traditional tellings of films past. The green-screen nature of Wonderland (and there is a ton of it here) is quite evident but considering that most of the design elements are strikingly beautiful, well lit and placed convincingly in the scene I can forgive them. This is such a beautiful rendering of a world already brimming with imagination, I can’t help but love it a little, and let slip those common narrative missteps that Burton seems in the habit of making. This is no Planet of the Apes or Mars Attacks! This is an adaptation that works and is well worth watching.
Alice in Wonderland arrives on Blu-ray in an absolutely perfect visual presentation. Colours are rich, detail is plentiful and blacks are deep and dark. This digital-to-digital transfer could easily be your new demo disc. It’s stunning! And the DTS HD Master Audio track is equally as impressive, sporting incredible dynamic range and a wide, very active sound field. Like I said…perfect!
Where the otherwise wonderful The Alice in Wonderland Blu-ray disc stumbles, however, is in the special features department, which is surprising considering the heft of the production and the marketing push behind it. But the collection of featurettes present are plenty informative and afford a fairly generous look behind the scenes. When combined, the 28-minute “Wonderland Characters” and the 19-minute “Making Wonderland“, each comprised of six well rounded shorts, make up a decent little documentary on the film. But so much blood and sweat was poured into the various levels of this production I can’t help but feel like things are being glossed over (I would have gladly listened to Danny Elfman talk about the score of the film for another 30-minutes!) With the lack of director commentary, deleted scenes and production art on this current high-def offering, I can’t help but feel that we’ll see a more robust multi-disc Blu-ray release of Alice in Wonderland at some point. As it stands now, you can purchase the film in a single disc Blu-ray edition or the jumbo combo-pack with DVD and Digital Copy included.
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