The plot follows Alice, after a trip at sea, as she rushes to reunite the Mad Hatter and his family. Hatter, who thought his family long dead, has reason to believe they may still be alive, and the realization has thrown him into a deep depression.
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In Alice Through the Looking Glass, Mia Wasikowska, who plays Alice again, will return to the world of Wonderland.
Alice also meets Time (Sasha Baron Cohen), an encounter that opens the door for several time-related puns and jokes.
The sequel faces numerous same problems as the original film, plus some new stumbles of its own. His character, who seems to have been inspired by a brief aside in the original novel, comes with ticking gears in the back of his head and a full clock face in his stomach – but here, the film can only muster up a series of terrible puns and a rulebook for time travel that frequently breaks down. A whimsical story through a colorful world, we get a glimpse into the past while learning a lesson about moving forward. The talented Mia Wasikowska struggles to find life inside the bland Alice while Helena Bonham Carter pointlessly chews scenery. Woolverton goes with a conventional linear approach that works in more traditional tales but not here. Wonderland is supposed to be a place where the absurd is the norm. After all, she understands the energy he’s bringing to the role. Various characters from the original make guest appearances, and there’s a very brief but largely irrelevant scene in a mental institution that feels like a nod to darker and edgier versions of the Alice story.
The exception is Depp, still an artist in his own unusual way: his lisping, chirruping turn as the Hatter is a typically mannered passive-aggressive doodle, created to disconcert rather than please.
Similarly, the script fails to do anything interesting or inventive with the time-travel angle, instead using it to give some of the characters unnecessary origin stories. The film misses Burton’s odd charm, is largely devoid of humour, and in spite of Hathway, Depp and Bonham Carter, is mostly a waste of time. It will be released by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
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Alice Through the Looking Glass shows very little resemblance to Lewis Carroll’s book but is nonetheless an adventurous romp with numerous loveable characters plus a few new ones, stepping up to lend a hand to Alice. It is a fanciful blend of exotic landscapes and beautifully crafted characters.
