Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Wasikowska is the perfect lead for Burton's visual wonderland

6/07/2016

Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Wasikowska is the perfect lead for Burton's visual wonderland

♥♥♥♥

1 Film Exc
ess win:

Best Digital Effects

5 Film Excess nominations:

Best Lead Actress: Mia Wasikowska (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia)
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, also for The King's Speech (lost to Dianne Wiest for Rabbit Hole)
Best Costumes: Colleen Atwood (lost to Pat Field for Sex and the City 2)
Best Digital Effects (won)
Best Makeup and Hair (lost to The Wolfman)

+ Best Blockbuster Movie of the Year
+ Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mia Wasikowska

A poster full of exciting details and depth for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Alice is a young, beautiful English girl, who is in the process of finding out who she is, when she is proposed to at an overwhelming ceremony and flees down a rabbit hole, which she happens to fall into and ...

Californian master filmmaker Tim Burton (Batman Returns (1992)) hasn't paired himself with the easiest story from the Disney back catalog here with Lewis Carroll's (A Tangled Tale (1885)) two Alice novels (1865 and 1871). But he lays a good, strong foundation with the first scenes and then opens up an incredibly animated universe with inspired, Oscar-nominated costume, makeup and hair work.
Johnny Depp (The Tourist (2010)) is tremendous as the Mad Hatter; Helena Bonham Carter (Sixty Six (2006)) gives one of her career's best performances as the mercurial Red Queen; Matt Lucas (The Labyrinth (2016)) is fun as Tweedledee/Tweedledum, but the cat may be the favorite among the crazy characters, an amazing-looking creation. Mia Wasikowska (Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)) is, however, the film's natural center and absolutely perfect and enchanting as Alice.
The film loses some of its 3D magic as home viewing, SPOILER and the dragon scene in the end is a somewhat strange change of tone in an otherwise tip-top witty-wacky movie. Alice in Wonderland is a little long but also funny and visually resplendent.
It is written by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King (1994)).

Related posts:

Tim Burton: Dark Shadows (2012) - Fun, flamboyant vampire romp is a celebration of culture
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Corpse Bride (2005) - Impressive, loud, hollow, dark doll fairytale
Ed Wood (1994) - Burton's sticky biopic with strenuous Depp
Batman Returns (1992) - Burton gives us the ultimate, Gothic spin on Gotham City and its sinister characters
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Batman (1989) - A huge, glitzy, empty joker
Beetle Juice (1988) - Burton and team serve one of the best horror comedies ever

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 200 mil. $
Box office: 1.025 bil. $
= Big hit
[Alice in Wonderland premiered February 25 (London) and runs 108 minutes. Burton signed with Disney to make two 3D films with them: Alice and a Frankenweenie (1984) remake that premiered in 2012. Shooting lasted from September - December 2008 in England and LA, with 90 % of the shoot taking part in front of green screens. The film was shot with conventional cameras and then converted into 3D, as 3D cameras were thought to be too clumsy. In England, the film's release was controversial, as some theater chains chose to boycott it, because the theater-to-DVD window was announced to be shortened from 17 to 12 weeks. The film opened #1 (and stayed atop for 3 consecutive weeks) to a 116.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 334.1 mil. $ (32.6 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 133.6 mil. $ (13 %) and the UK with 64.4 mil. $ (6.3 %). It is the 2nd highest-grossing film of the year, behind Toy Story 3. It is Burton's highest-grossing film ever and only the 6th film to cross the 1 bil. $ mark ever. It broke several records and by spring 2011 had also accrued 76.4 mil. $ from 4.3 mil. DVD sales. Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 stars out of 4, equal to the rating it gets here. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Visual Effects, (which it lost to Inception), Costumes and Art Direction, winning the latter two. It was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and 5 BAFTAs, winning two. Alice in Wonderland is rotten at 52 % with a 5.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Alice in Wonderland?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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6/07/2016

Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Wasikowska is the perfect lead for Burton's visual wonderland

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