Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)

Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton based on the 1865 fantasy novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Michael Sheen, and Stephen Fry. Wasikowska plays nineteen-year-old Alice, who returns to "Underland", after first visiting thirteen years previously. She is told that she is the only one who can slay the Jabberwocky, a dragon-like creature controlled by the Red Queen who terrorizes Underland's inhabitants.

The film uses a combination of live action and 3D animation in a story that can neither be described as a sequel nor as a re-imagining. Burton developed the story because he never felt an emotional connection to the original book, with its series of events about a girl wandering from one weird character to another. The film premiered in London at the Odeon Leicester Square on February 25, 2010, and was released in Australia on March 4, 2010, and the United States and the United Kingdom on March 5, 2010, through IMAX 3D and Disney Digital 3D, as well as in traditional theaters. Despite its short theatrical release window and mixed reviews, the film grossed over $1 billion worldwide.

Plot
Troubled by a strange recurring dream and mourning the loss of her beloved father, nineteen-year-old Alice Kingsleigh attends a garden party at Lord Ascot's estate, where she is confronted with the stifling expectations of the society in which she lives, and the particular problem of a very public and very unwelcome proposal of marriage from the young Lord Ascot himself. Unsure of how to reply to him, and increasingly confused, she runs away to chase after a rabbit in a blue waistcoat, and accidentally falls into a large rabbit hole. She is transported to a world called Underland, where she is greeted by the White Rabbit, the Dormouse, the Dodo, and Tweedledum and Tweedledee. They argue over her identity as "the right Alice," who it is foretold will slay the Red Queen's Jabberwocky on the Frabjous Day and restore the White Queen to power. They consult Absolem the Caterpillar, who decides that she is "not hardly Alice." The group is then ambushed by the Bandersnatch and a group of playing-card soldiers led by the Knave of Hearts. Alice escapes and flees into the woods.

The Knave informs the Red Queen that Alice has returned to Underland and is threatening her reign, and the army of red playing cards are ordered to find Alice immediately. Meanwhile, the wandering Alice encounters the Cheshire Cat, who takes her to the Mad Hatter and March Hare. On the way to the White Queen's castle, Hatter relates the terror of the Red Queen's reign, and comments that Alice is not the same as she once was. The Hatter helps Alice avoid capture by allowing himself to be seized instead. Later, Alice is found by Bayard the Bloodhound, who wishes to take her to the White Queen, but Alice insists upon helping the Hatter, so they go to the Red Queen's castle.

The Red Queen is unaware of Alice's true identity (believing she is named "Um") and therefore welcomes her as a guest. Meanwhile, the Hatter persuades the Queen to let him serve as her personal milliner in an attempt to delay his execution. Alice learns that the Vorpal Sword (the only weapon capable of killing the Jabberwocky) is locked away in a case inside the Bandersnatch's den. The Knave attempts to seduce Alice, but she rebuffs him. She later manages to retrieve the sword and befriend the Bandersnatch. The Knave finds her with the sword and attempts to arrest her. Alice escapes on the back of the Bandersnatch and delivers the sword to the White Queen. The Cheshire Cat saves the Hatter from execution, and the Hatter calls for rebellion against the Red Queen. The resistance flees to the White Queen's castle, and both armies prepare for battle. Alice remains unsure about the expectation for her to champion the White Queen, and meets once more with Absolem. He reminds Alice of her past visit to Underland (which she mistakenly called "Wonderland" at the time) thirteen years earlier, and helps give her the courage to fight the Jabberwocky.

When the Frabjous Day arrives, both the White and Red Queens gather their armies on a chessboard-like battlefield and send forth their chosen champions (armor-clad Alice and the Jabberwocky respectively) to decide the fate of Underland. The White Queen offers her sister a chance for peace, but is refused. Encouraging herself with the words of her late father, Alice manages to kill the Jabberwocky. Having regained control of the throne, the White Queen banishes the Red Queen and the Knave to the Outlands, and gives Alice a vial of the Jabberwocky’s blood, which will take her home. The Hatter suggests that she could stay in Underland, but she decides that she must go back and promises that she will return.

After drinking the blood, Alice returns home, where she addresses all of the issues she faced at the beginning of the film and takes charge of her life. She then becomes an apprentice to the old Lord Ascot, with the idea of establishing oceanic trade routes to China. As the story closes, Alice prepares to set off on a trading ship. Absolem, now a butterfly, lands on her shoulder. Alice recognizes him and greets him before he flutters away.

Cast and characters
The film features a variety of characters, many of whom are based on characters that are featured in works by Lewis Carroll.


 * Mia Wasikowska as Alice Kingsleigh. When creating the character, screenwriter Linda Woolverton researched how young women were expected to behave in the Victorian era and then made her the opposite. Wasikowska read Carroll's books as a child and re-read them to prepare for her role. She also watched Jan Švankmajer's Alice. She said, "When we were kids, my mum would pop it in the VCR player. We would be disturbed, and wouldn't really understand it, but we couldn't look away because it was too intriguing. So I had kept that feeling about Alice, a kind of haunting feeling." Although facing pressures to conform to society's expectations, Alice grows into a stronger-willed and empowered heroine who chooses her own path; Independent columnist Liz Hoggard praised Alice as a role model for girls, describing the character as "stubborn, brave, [and] non-girlie". Mairi Ella Challen portrayed Alice as a six-year-old.
 * Johnny Depp as Tarrant Hightopp, the Mad Hatter. Wasikowska said that the characters "both feel like outsiders and feel alone in their separate worlds, and have a special bond and friendship." Burton explained that Depp "tried to find a grounding to the character...as opposed to just being mad." Burton also said that, "In a lot of versions it's a very one-note kind of character and you know [Depp's] goal was to try and bring out a human side to the strangeness of the character." The orange hair is an allusion to the mercury poisoning suffered by milliners who used mercury to cure felt, Depp believes that the character "was poisoned...and it was coming out through his hair, through his fingernails and eyes". Depp and Burton decided that the Mad Hatter's clothes, skin, hair, personality and accent would change throughout the film to reflect his emotions. In an interview with Depp, the character was paralleled to "...a mood ring, [as] his emotions are very close to the surface". The Mad Hatter is "made up of different people and their extreme sides", with a gentle voice much like the character's creator Lewis Carroll reflecting the lighter personality and with a Scottish Glaswegian accent (which Depp modeled after Gregor Fisher's Rab C. Nesbitt character) reflecting a darker, more dangerous personality. Illusionary dancer David "Elsewhere" Bernal doubled for Depp during the "Futterwacken" sequence near the end of the film.
 * Helena Bonham Carter as Iracebeth, the Red Queen, which is a combination of the Red Queen and the Queen of Hearts. Her first name is a play on the word irascible, as she is easily irritated and quick to anger. Bonham Carter's head was digitally increased three times its original size on screen. The character hates animals, choosing to use them as servants and furniture. The actress took inspiration from her young daughter Nell, a toddler, stating that, "The Red Queen is just like a toddler, because she’s got a big head and she’s a tyrant. Toddlers have no sympathy for any living creature", adding, "Nell just bosses us around with no 'please' or 'thank yous.'"
 * Anne Hathaway as Mirana, the White Queen. She was one of few characters that did not require digital manipulation. Hathaway summed up her character with a caption on a magnet of Happy Bunny holding a knife; "Cute but psycho. Things even out." According to Hathaway, "She comes from the same gene pool as the Red Queen. She really likes the dark side, but she's so scared of going too far into it that she's made everything appear very light and happy. But she's living in that place out of fear that she won't be able to control herself." Hathaway described her interpretation of the White Queen as "a punk-rock vegan pacifist", with inspiration drawn from Blondie, Greta Garbo, and the artwork of Dan Flavin. Burton said that the White Queen's appearance was inspired by Nigella Lawson.
 * Crispin Glover played Ilosovic Stayne, the Knave of Hearts. The character is arrogant and tricky, and while following the Red Queen's every order, he is the only one capable of calming her dramatic mood swings. Glover said, "The Red Queen has a fair amount of short-tempered reactions to things that people do, and so [the Knave] has to be quite diplomatic." Stayne's body was completely CGI with only Glover's head being live-action.
 * Matt Lucas portrayed both Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Burton commented on the mixture of animation and Lucas, saying that "It's a weird mixture of things which gives his characters the disturbing quality that they so richly deserve."
 * Michael Sheen portrayed Nivens McTwisp, the White Rabbit. Sheen said the character, "...is such an iconic character that [he] didn't feel like [he] should break the mold too much." Burton said the quality he wanted most in his clock-watching bunny was a twitchiness, also commenting that "[in] any incarnation of the [White Rabbit] through the years, there's that sort of nervousness of a rabbit."
 * Alan Rickman portrayed Absolem, the Caterpillar. Although Rickman was filmed while recording his voice in a studio, his face was not composited onto the character's face as originally planned.
 * Barbara Windsor portrayed Mallymkun, the Dormouse. Burton said that Windsor's voice sealed the deal for her role as the character.
 * Stephen Fry portrayed Chessur, the Cheshire Cat. Burton stated that the character had a creepy quality in addition to tapping into his own hatred of cats.
 * Paul Whitehouse portrayed Thackery Earwicket, the March Hare. Burton stated that because Whitehouse is a great comedic actor, a lot of his lines came from improvisation.
 * Timothy Spall portrayed Bayard the Bloodhound.
 * Michael Gough portrayed Uilleam, the Dodo bird. Burton said that Gough was the first person he thought of for the role of the Dodo because he has "a full life quality to his voice".
 * Christopher Lee voiced the Jabberwocky for its short speaking role. While it only had a couple of lines, Burton said that he felt Lee to be a good match for the iconic character because he is "an iconic guy".
 * Imelda Staunton played the Talking Flowers.
 * Frank Welker provided additional voices and vocal effects.
 * Leo Bill portrayed Hamish Ascot, the son of Lord Ascot.
 * Frances de la Tour portrayed Imogene, Alice's aunt.
 * Burton and Bonham Carter's children make cameo appearances.

Production
Tim Burton signed with Disney to direct two films in Disney Digital 3D, which included Alice in Wonderland and his remake of Frankenweenie. He explained "the goal is to try to make it an engaging movie where you get some of the psychology and kind of bring a freshness but also keep the classic nature of Alice." On prior versions, Burton said "It was always a girl wandering around from one crazy character to another, and I never really felt any real emotional connection." His goal with the new movie is to give the story "some framework of emotional grounding" and "to try and make Alice feel more like a story as opposed to a series of events." Burton focused on the poem "Jabberwocky" as part of his structure, and refers to the described creature by the name of the poem rather than by the name "Jabberwock". Burton also stated that he doesn't see his version as either a sequel to any existing Alice movie or as a "re-imagining".

This film was originally set to be released in 2009, but was pushed back to March 5, 2010. Principal photography was scheduled for May 2008, but did not begin until September and concluded in three months. Scenes set in the Victorian era were shot at Torpoint and Plymouth from September 1 to October 14. Two hundred and fifty local extras were chosen in early August. Locations included Antony House in Torpoint, Charlestown, Cornwall and the Barbican, however, no footage from the Barbican was used. Motion capture filming began in early October at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California, though the footage was later discarded. Filming also took place at Culver Studios. Burton said that he used a combination of live action and animation, without motion capture. He also noted that this was the first time he had filmed on a green screen. Filming of the green screen portions, comprising 90% of the film, was completed after only 40 days. Many of the cast and crew felt nauseated as a result of the long hours surrounded by green, with Burton having lavender lenses fitted into his glasses to counteract the effect. Due to the constant need for digital effects to distort the actors' physical appearances, such as the size of the Red Queen's head or Alice's height, visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston cited the film as being exhausting, saying it was "The biggest show I've ever done, [and] the most creatively involved I've ever been."

Sony Pictures Imageworks designed the visual effects sequences. Burton felt 3D was appropriate to the story's environment. Burton and Zanuck chose to film with conventional cameras, and convert the footage into 3D during post-production; Zanuck explained 3D cameras were too expensive and "clumsy" to use, and they felt that there was no difference between converted footage and those shot in the format. James Cameron, who released his 3D film Avatar in December 2009, criticized the choice, stating, "It doesn't make any sense to shoot in 2-D and convert to 3-D".

Soundtrack
Longtime Burton collaborator Danny Elfman's score was released March 2, 2010. It debuted at #89 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums.
 * Track listing

Almost Alice
Almost Alice is a collection of various artists' music inspired by the film. The lead single, "Alice", by Avril Lavigne, premiered on January 27, 2010 on Ryan Seacrest's radio program. The album was released on March 2, 2010.

Release
On February 12, 2010 major UK cinema chains, Odeon, Vue and Cineworld, had planned to boycott the film because of a reduction of the interval between cinema and DVD release from the usual 17 weeks to 12. A week after the announcement, Cineworld, who has a 24% share of UK box office, chose to play the film on more than 150 screens. Cineworld's chief executive Steve Wiener stated, "As leaders in 3D, we did not want the public to miss out on such a visual spectacle. As the success of Avatar has shown, there is currently a huge appetite for the 3D experience". Shortly after, the Vue cinema chain also reached an agreement with Disney, but Odeon had still chosen to boycott in Britain, Ireland and Italy. On February 25, 2010 Odeon had reached an agreement and has decided to show the film on March 5, 2010. The Royal premiere took place at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on February 25, 2010 for the fund-raiser The Prince's Foundation for Children and The Arts where the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attended. It also did not affect their plans to show the film in Spain, Germany, Portugal and Austria. The film was released in the U.S. and UK, in both Disney Digital 3D and IMAX 3D, as well as regular theaters on March 5, 2010.

Marketing
On June 22, 2009, the first pictures of the film were released, showing Depp as the Mad Hatter, Hathaway as the White Queen, Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum. A new image of Alice was also released. In July, new photos emerged of Alice holding a white rabbit, the Mad Hatter with a hare, the Red Queen holding a pig, and the White Queen with a mouse.

On July 22, 2009, a teaser trailer from the Mad Hatter's point of view was released on IGN but was shortly taken down because Disney claimed that the trailer was not supposed to be out yet. The teaser was also planned to premiere along with a trailer of Robert Zemeckis' film adaptation of A Christmas Carol on July 24, 2009 for G-Force. The following day, the teaser trailer premiered at Comic-Con but the trailer shown was different than the one that leaked. The ComicCon version didn't have the Mad Hatter's dialogue. Instead, it featured "Time to Pretend" by MGMT, and the clips shown were in different order than in the leaked version. The leaked version was originally to be shown to one of the three Facebook groups used to promote the film that had the most members. The groups used to promote the film are "The Loyal Subjects of the Red Queen", "The Loyal Subjects of the White Queen" and "The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter".

Also at ComicCon, props from the film were displayed in an "Alice in Wonderland" exhibit. Costumes featured in the exhibit included the Red Queen's dress, chair, wig, spectacles and scepter; the White Queen's dress, wig and a small model of her castle; the Mad Hatter's suit, hat, wig, chair and table; Alice's dress and battle armor (to slay the Jabberwocky). Other props included the "DRINK ME" bottles, the keys, an "EAT ME" pastry and Stand-In modes of the White Rabbit and March Hare.

Video game
On July 23, 2009, Disney Interactive Studios announced that a video game based on the film, developed by French game studio Étranges Libellules, would be released in the same week as the film for the Wii, Nintendo DS and Windows PC, with the soundtrack being composed by veteran video games music composer Richard Jacques. The Wii, DS and PC versions were released on March 2, 2010.

Home media
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released a 3-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack (which will include the Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy), 1-Disc Blu-ray and 1-Disc DVD on June 1, 2010 in the US and July 1, 2010 in Australia. All versions are presented in 1080p with a 16:9 aspect ratio and Dolby Digital 5.1 HD surround sound. The DVD release includes three short features about the making of the film, focusing on Burton's vision for Wonderland and the characters of Alice and the Mad Hatter. The Blu-ray version has nine additional featurettes centered on additional characters, special effects and other aspects of the film's production. In some confusion, a small number of copies were put on shelves a week before schedule in smaller stores, but were quickly removed, although a handful of copies were confirmed purchased ahead of schedule.

Box office
Alice in Wonderland opened at number one with $40,804,962 in North America, setting a new March opening-day record. Alice earned $116.1 million in its opening weekend, handily topping the previous record held by 300 ($70.9 million) for the largest opening weekend in March and the record for the largest opening weekend during springtime - the latter previously held by Fast and Furious ($71.0 million). It is currently the eighth highest-grossing opening weekend of all time, the highest opening weekend for a non-sequel - taking the record from Spider-Man - and the highest one as well for a non-holiday, non-summer period. The film also became the highest-grossing film of 2010 within the first three days of release beating Valentine's Day's $106 million gross. The film made an additional $94 million in 40 other countries in its opening weekend, putting its worldwide total at $210 million. The film broke the previous IMAX record held by Avatar of $9.5 million by earning $11.9 million on 188 of the large format screens, with an average of $64,197 per site.

The film grossed $62.7 million in its second weekend, the fifth-largest second weekend gross, and remained at number one. On its third weekend, it remained at number one with $34.1 million, the sixth-biggest third weekend gross, and beat that weekend's opening releases: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Bounty Hunter, and Repo Men, respectively. By June 1 the worldwide box office gross totaled $1,006,060,345, surpassing The Dark Knight to become the 5th-highest-grossing film of all time (since having dropped to sixth place). Among 2010 releases it stands as the second-highest-grossing film of 2010 in the United States and Canada behind Toy Story 3 and the second-highest-grossing film of 2010 internationally, also, behind Toy Story 3. It is the sixth film ever to surpass the $1 billion mark worldwide. It is the second film produced and released by Walt Disney Pictures to do so after Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. The film closed in theaters on July 8, 2010 with a gross of $334,191,110 in the United States and Canada - ranking twentieth on the all-time list in these territories but out of the top 100 when adjusted for inflation - and $690,108,612 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1,024,299,722. Among films starring Johnny Depp it is the second-highest-grossing one in the United States and Canada behind Dead Man's Chest ($423 million), the highest-grossing one overseas —overtaking At World's End ($652 million)— and the second-highest-grossing one worldwide after Dead Man's Chest ($1.066 billion). Alice in Wonderland is Tim Burton's highest-grossing film.

Additionally, its overseas total of $690,108,612 is currently the largest one among 2010 film and the fifth largest overseas total of all time after Avatar's $2,017.0 million, Titanic's $1,242.4 million, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's $742.1 million and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs's $690.1 million. It is also the highest overseas total for a Disney film, beating Pirates 3's $651.6 million total. Among its international releases, its five highest-grossing markets after the United States and Canada are Japan ($133,694,649), where it is the 7th highest-grossing film of all time, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($64,437,055), France and the Maghreb region ($45,855,971), Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States ($42,114,337), where it ranks 5th on the all-time list of highest-grossing films, and Italy ($39,952,697) where it is the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time.

Critical response
The film received generally mixed reviews. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 51% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 246 reviews, with an average score of 5.7/10. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 53 based on 38 reviews.

Todd McCarthy of Variety praised it for its "moments of delight, humor and bedazzlement", but went on to say, "But it also becomes more ordinary as it goes along, building to a generic battle climax similar to any number of others in CGI-heavy movies of the past few years". Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said "Burton has delivered a subversively witty, brilliantly cast, whimsically appointed dazzler that also manages to hit all the emotionally satisfying marks." while also praising its Computer-generated imagery (CGI), "Ultimately, it's the visual landscape that makes Alice's newest adventure so wondrous, as technology has finally been able to catch up with Burton's endlessly fertile imagination." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said, "But Burton's Disneyfied 3-D Alice in Wonderland, written by the girl-power specialist Linda Woolverton, is a strange brew indeed: murky, diffuse, and meandering, set not in a Wonderland that pops with demented life but in a world called Underland that's like a joyless, bombed-out version of Wonderland. It looks like a CGI head trip gone postapocalyptic. In the film's rather humdrum 3-D, the place doesn't dazzle — it droops." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four stars and said in his review that, "Alice plays better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it until a pointless third act flies off the rails." The market research firm CinemaScore found that audiences gave the film an average rating of A-minus.

Several reviews criticized the decision to turn Alice into a "colonialist entrepreneur" at the end of the film setting sail for China. Given Britain's role in the Opium Wars during the Victorian Era and subjugation of China through "unequal treaties", China expert Kevin Slaten writes, "Not only is it troubling imagery for a female role model in a Disney movie, but it's also a celebration of the exploitation that China suffered for a century."

Possible stage adaptation
Walt Disney Theatrical is already in early talks with Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton to develop the property as a Broadway musical. Woolverton authored the screenplay for Disney's The Lion King and is also the Tony Award-nominated book writer of Beauty and the Beast, Aida and Lestat. Burton will also render the overall designs for the stage musical. Woolverton will adapt her screenplay for the stage production. Neither a composer nor songwriting team has been chosen yet. Robert Roth is set to helm the stage musical that will have choreography by Matt West. The duo also collaborated on Disney's first Broadway outing, Beauty and the Beast.