Time, you should know, is part clock, part man (Sacha Baron Cohen) and sounds a lot like Werner Herzog. They have all made it another worthwhile trip down the rabbit hole. Depp’s Hatter, meanwhile, has gotten so wispily weird I’m not convinced he’s actually there at all. Lovely to look at, to be sure – Colleen Atwood’s costumes are exuberant perfection, and the Mad Hatter’s adorably chapeau-shaped cottage made me want to move in immediately – but tiresome. I felt disconnected from the characters due to their weak motivations and annoyed with Alice for basically causing the problem that Wonderland faced because she refused to take some advice. The Red Queen’s head? Alice (Mia Wasikowska), first seen outrunning pirates off the coast of Malay as the captain of a sailing vessel, enters Wonderland again to escape her odious family. Alice Through The Looking Glass refuses to let something unusual just be, and a lot of the magic is stripped away as a result.
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A quirky James Bobin helms the curious sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass, so the fit seems to make sense. She winds up back in time to an ethereal, magical world filled with colors and magic. Not one of the Hatter’s odd friends-the portly Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the March Hare, or the Cheshire Cat-want to believe Hatter’s tale. Hatter believes his family is still alive and survived the Attack of the Jabberwocky.
Upon landing in the White Queen’s (Anne Hathaway) garden, all of Alice’s friends from the first movie inform her that the Hatter (Johnny Depp) is sick and she might be able to help him.
Where would you travel in time if you had access to a Chronosphere? The muddled script by Woolverton has Alice stealing a time traveling device to focus on the Red Queen’s (Helena Bonham Carter) origin more than Hatter’s woes. In addition to limited-edition dolls, fine China tea sets and handbags inspired by “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, there is also a collection of goods on HSN.com, and Hot Topic has also released a line of clothing, home goods and accessories from the film. Because both books are rich in fantastic, odd and wonderful characters, tinged with an element of danger; they have been adapted on TV, Stage and film on countless occasions.
“So numerous messages went straight to my heart”, she says.
Disney continues to highlight the importance of how we choose to spend time with those we care about, solidifying the feel-good spirit of this film.
The sequel faces numerous same problems as the original film, plus some new stumbles of its own.
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But behind all the chases and the battles in Alice Through the Looking Glass, behind the conflicts and the bravado, there beats a hollow heart.
