The Disney Style team has recreated five of the most dramatic looks from “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, inspired by the extravagant styles and makeup of the main characters of the movie.
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The script also sees the return of several illustrious cast members from the earlier iteration, including Anne Hathaway (White Queen), Helena Bonham Carter (the rival sibling, Red Queen) and Lindsay Duncan (Alice’s widowed mother).
In Disney’s 1951 movie version, the White Rabbit’s pocket watch was always set to 12:25.
The film only has a cursory relation to Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass”, his sequel to “Alice in Wonderland”.
Helena, 50, plays the Red Queen in the new movie, while Sacha portrays Time and she admitted filming on a huge soundstage against a green screen for CGI made things hard.
When we meet the older, emboldened Alice (Mia Wasikowska), she’s captaining a galley ship over treacherous waters in order to escape from a trio of pirate ships.
As the distressed friends explain, the Hatter has fallen victim to a awful depression, devastated by the death of his family some years ago. To Alice, the solution for the Hatter’s depression is to find his family, who are presumed dead. But the magic is missing in this sequel, as is Burton, replaced in the director’s chair by James Bobin (Muppets Most Wanted).
She explained: “There was not much atmosphere”.
Everything then naturally leads to her escaping through the looking glass (with help from Absolem, now a butterfly and briefly voiced by the late Alan Rickman in his very final role) back to Wonderland, and it’s here that she meets nearly all the characters from the first film.
Convinced his family is somehow still alive, the Hatter holes up in his hat-shaped house and implores Alice to help him find them.
He was all praise for his leading lady Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice.
He plays the Mad Hatter, now called Hatter Tarrant Hightopp.
Like its previous edition, “Alice Through The Looking Glass” too is packed with life lessons for its young audience. Bobin’s film manages some moments of creativity, including an effect that coats all of “Wonderland” in scary rust and Sacha Baron Cohen’s unusual performance as Time personified.
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Along the way we learn more about the Hatter’s childhood and the tragic accident that turned the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) evil; but, really, we’re just bouncing from one impeccably styled scene to another. And while Through the Looking Glass isn’t quite as memorable as other adventures from the Disney vault, it remains a wonderfully courageous, family-friendly creation.
