Disney’s sequel to its 2010 box office smash ALICE IN WONDERLAND is a visual extravaganza to behold…
Now some six years later with ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS the Mouse House taps back into the fertile imagination of Lewis Carroll’s fantastical world and delivers a striking fantasy playing out way beyond most expectations—including mine.
Attention to detail in this sequel is stunning.
The story has Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returning from her high seas adventure as the ship’s captain.
But things aren’t good upon her return thanks to deals made by her mother, and soon everything is lost.
However fearless Alice won’t be stopped as she travels through a magic mirror to return to the world of Wonderland where her old friend the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is in a state of mad depression as he fears his family’s still alive, but is unable to locate them.
It’s there that Alice ascends to the world of time to borrow the chromosphere from “Time Himself” in order to investigate the past and locate the Mad Hatter’s family—-or something like that.
Weird as all this sounds I can assure it works!
It’s great family fantasy-fun with the likes of Anne Hathaway, Matt Lucas, Helena Bonham Carter, the late Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen perfectly cast as Time Himself.
And no, Tim Burton did not direct this sequel. He turned those chores over to James Bobin.
Make no mistake, this striking movie definitely has Burton’s fingerprints all over it.
Quirky and slightly to the left?
For sure.
However combining those elements with the magic that is Disney make for a movie Walt surely would’ve been proud of.
One other thought.
While I have pretty well become anti 3D, there are exceptions.
And this is one of those rare instances, because this eccentric fairy tale really shines in the three dimensional process.
ALICE THOUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is a dazzling cinematic event for all ages and is not to be missed.
My grade: A-
(Reviewed at the Extreme Screen Theatre at Union Station)
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings during Kansas City’s Morning News on 98.1 FM, KMBZ.
