Odeon's Adventures in Wonderland

[eluc55]

And all, the ones Jemble mentioned, might i suggest.

Do sleepy Hollow last. 

[Ghost of Troubled Joe]

Yep Burton had an astonishing hit rate during the 80s and 90s, twas only in the 2000s that he came unstuck. Sweeney Todd probably comes closest to the Burton of old, and even that's a bit of a curio and not really a great movie. You can't go wrong with Burton up to Sleepy Hollow though, during that time he was one of Hollywood's best- and weirdest- directors.

[Crabwalk]

I'd place it well below Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks and the Batman films, personally. But yes, it's still a great movie.

Yes, I love those films too (and Big Fish and Pee Wee's Big Adventure aren't too shabby either) but suggested Ed Wood specifically as Kittens seemed to object to the 'zany, one-dimensional' characters of Alice. Great advice all round though (cue Kittens deeming Ed Wood a bag of ol' wank).

PULL ZE STRING!

[phes]

is the personal message function not working then?

Apologies - lazy of me.

Alice 2D is the first film I've left halfway through this year. It's just a dreadful mess. It's got no style or charm and looks rubbish CGI'y. The script is wittless and Burton doesn't really get anything out of Depp and Bonham-Carter. Silence in the theatre throughout.   

[Blumf]

What happened to Tim Burton, and how hard do we have to slap him to get him out of this creative rut?

[Jemble Fred]

I forgot Sweeney Todd, I thought that was pretty much superb throughout.

Maybe he just needs to be kept away from classic children's literature, and ape-based remakes?

I do wonder how those who hated this Alice film would fare with some of the other versions though... I have a huge collection of Alice adaptations, and nearly all of them are totally shit. Disney's cartoon is the best, or maybe Svankmajer's version for something more outré, but all the live action family movies made from the book are notably awful. Hallmark's version just about scrapes through as watchable, but it's still badly written.

[sirhenry]

I do wonder how those who hated this Alice film would fare with some of the other versions though... I have a huge collection of Alice adaptations, and nearly all of them are totally shit.

The old porno version is hugely funny - for all the wrong reasons.

I was going to say that Burton should stick to his own inventions as almost all of his original creations are brilliant, but then Sweeney Todd, Batman and Ed Wood don't fit that simplistic a rule. Sleepy Hollow is more of an original as so much depends on the visuals and the atmosphere, which weren't the same in the story.

Having had a couple of days to mull it over I still want to see Alice again in 2D, but suspect I'll be disappointed and not watch it again for a decade or so. A shame as I was hoping for a sort of colour version of Nightmare Before Christmas. It isn't.

[Johnny Textface]

Saw Alice 3D last night. Must say I wasn't expecting to be quite so disappointed. The 3D is very show offy - chucking stuff at the camera etc.. The script is very dull, nothing witty or charming - Depp is particularly unmemorable while HBC gets all the best lines (few). And its all a bit episodic - meet the tweedles, meet smoking Caterpillar, meet cat, meet Hatter etc etc snore.. then big 3rd act 3D action sequence extravaganza... I started playing 'guess who voiced this creature' from about the halfway mark - that was quite entertaining. Burton really needs to stop now.

[JPA]

I forgot Sweeney Todd, I thought that was pretty much superb throughout.

Maybe he just needs to be kept away from classic children's literature, and ape-based remakes?

I do wonder how those who hated this Alice film would fare with some of the other versions though... I have a huge collection of Alice adaptations, and nearly all of them are totally shit. Disney's cartoon is the best, or maybe Svankmajer's version for something more outré, but all the live action family movies made from the book are notably awful. Hallmark's version just about scrapes through as watchable, but it's still badly written.

No love for Scissorhands?

Is the Jonathan Miller version of Alice any good Jemble?

[Jemble Fred]

Ah, must have slipped my mind due to its TV origins. It's a beautifully made, well-realised take on Carroll's book... but at the risk of irritating fans (it's undeniably a classic), I must admit to finding its slow, balmy atmosphere ultimately quite boring. It's a bit of a slog to get through, and to be honest I think Miller's decision to de-anthropomorphise all the characters really goes against what Lewis Carroll intended. Just because an adaptation is intellectually sound and interesting, that doesn't necessarily translate into a successful piece of entertainment.

It's certainly no fun at all. But still endlessly better than any of the many 70s/80s all-star adaptations with crap songs and colourful costumes.

Oh, and the aforementioned porn version is... just... the worst thing you can ever imagine.

[niat]

Saw Alice 3D last night. Must say I wasn't expecting to be quite so disappointed. The 3D is very show offy - chucking stuff at the camera etc..

Didn't they film it in 2D and then add the 3D effect later (may be misremembering the last Mayo/Kermode podcast)?

I saw the 3D trailer before Toy Story 2 3D and I thought it looked like 2D characters in a 3D plane, like the old red and green lens 3D they used to do in comics occasionally.

My son is pestering me to go and see this so it looks like I may have to endure it at some point.

[Jemble Fred]

Oh, and I've never watched Edward Scissorhands properly, though caught a fair whack of it on telly, as a Vincent Price fan. But ultimately The Mary Whitehouse Experience sort of put me off watching the film when it came out.

[Nik Drou]

Has anyone linked to this yet?

Tim Burton's Secret Formula

There's nothing as satisfying as hitting a target dead-on.

[Blumf]

The only version you need, and best of all it's less than 5 minutes long:

Malice in Wonderland

[Not Safe for Work, Home, Outdoors...]

[SavageHedgehog]

^Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....

And bare in mind that's my response having seen it before.

Must say I wasn't expecting to be quite so disappointed.

Well of course you weren't. If you had been expecting to be that disappointed, you couldn't have been that disappointed. Q.E.D.

[Jemble Fred]

The only version you need, and best of all it's less than 5 minutes long:
[Not Safe for Work, Home, Outdoors...]

Hmm. Needs more pepper. Although it's nice to discover where The Real Ghostbusters team got half their ghost designs from.

[Talulah, really!]

... I have a huge collection of Alice adaptations, and nearly all of them are totally shit.

Still, there's Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll directed and starring, as Lewis Carroll, Marilyn Manson to come.

So, that should be good.



Apparently it stars Lily Cole who judging by this picture is channelling the spirit of Michael Crawford's white rabbit.


Picture taken shortly before model rollerskates into Mothercare's new promotional campaign.

[peet]

Is it worth going to see the actual film though? How good is it?

I've just seen it. It's shite - the kind of boring expensive shite you watch grudgingly with your relatives on Christmas Day.

I genuinely nodded off about 8 times while struggling to keep up with the lack of story amongst all the moody Gothic dark tree backgrounds and hilarious wonky CGI eyes and dubious accents.

I noticed that

Spoiler alert

Stephen Fry did the voice for the shite 'Gothic' Cheshire Cat

[close]

, though, and that made me pay attention for some of the time.

In summary: Shite and shite Eowyn shite.

Edit: not forgetting it cost 13 quid plus 80p for a pair of 3D glasses...

[Lee Van Cleef]

I have to say, I generally can't stand Burton's stuff (Ed Wood aside, obviously) but I quite liked this one.  It has that typical abruptness of dialogue that I expect from Burton, and the odd word out of place that is quite poorly chosen.  Oh and yes, Depp's dance bit at the end is rather ham-fisted and jarring.

But still, I was quite taken with it.  It certainly sucked me in considering I went in determined to hate it.  Maybe I've just done a good job of shielding myself from Burton's works so his conventions don't bother me as much, but eh... I enjoyed the film.