Alice in Wonderland 2010

19 year old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returns to the magical Wonderland from when she was young and meets some old friends, and learns of her destiny.. to overthrow the evil Red Queen, sister to the good White Queen (Anne Hathaway). 

Mia Wasikowska gave a good performance playing Alice as she was more independent and resourceful than I remember, surely ahead of her time! 


In order to bring peace to Wonderland, Alice must slay the monster known as the Jabberwocky (I don't remember this Harry Potter type battle from the novel), which seemed shoehorned in to give the film some more structure and narrative and give the older, supposedly more resourceful Alice a mission, which The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) helps her with. His performance is a strange one - wearing lots of make up and adopting an occasional Scottish accent, there may be some sadness as well as madness in his air because he and the other characters have been waiting up to 13 years for Alice to come back. 
However, in one scene the Hatter does a Michael Jackson inspired dance for no apparent reason, which I found cringeworthy. 
The suggestion through the film that Wonderland may actually be real (with Alice often questioning her surroundings) reminded me of themes explored in Pan's Labyrinth and The Chronicles of Narnia. In my opinion this gave the film a darker edge and made it more appealing to adults and older children.