This is not Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, nor is it Disney's. It's dark, a bit dystopian, quasi-surrealist, very Tim Burton in a lot of ways. But who is it for?

The visuals, set design, setpieces, and acting are teen to adult—only certain kids will take these in without being troubled or having nightmares.

On the other hand, the plot is incredibly, incredibly simple and not subtly revealed. It amounts to: girl (Alice) doesn't like her life because everyone tells her what to do. Girl flees to wonderland, where everyone but her thinks she's a hero. After some initial resistance, girl accepts that she's a hero and slays dragon (jabberwock). This gives girl the confidence to return to her real life and tell everyone bossing her around to shut up.

This is not a plot synopsis, this is effectively the plot—not very much happens other than that. Flee to wonderland. "You're a hero." "No I'm not." "Yes you are." "Okay, I guess I'll try." Dragon gets slain. "I did it!" Return to real life with knowledge she's a dragon-slayer. "Shut up, all of you!" The end.

The stuff that takes up the time is mostly just conversation and little bits of fiddling about—sight gags and Burtonesque visuals and so on. Absolutely a kid-only plot in terms of sophistication and sustained interest. There's just not enough meat here—no intrigue, no character relationships, nothing in particular—to keep an adult interested.

So we have a movie that has a kid-style plot—enough to fill a picture-book of about 20-25 pages with a girl-and-dragon morality play fairy tale. Yet we have adult visuals—giant heads and grotesque people and severed heads and fingers and so on.

Basically, it's the Tim Burton logic taken to the extreme—take a kid-level idea and roll it up into deeply adult visuals.

Who is this for? I suppose at the end of the day, there is a segment of kids that will enjoy it. They're the kids that aren't squeamish and love surreal and troubling stuff. They do exist.

Of course, kid #1 in this group is Tim Burton himself—who is probably the person this film is really for!

Alice is now 19 years old and, at what is supposed to be a surprise engagement party for her (she's expected to accept the proposal of a Lord), she sees a rabbit in a waistcoat and feels compelled to follow him. Of course, she falls down a hole and ends up back in Wonderland (or is it Underland?) and, on top of that, is she the "right" Alice? Mia Wasikowska is a fairly unknown actress but , as Alice, she is a perfect combination of softness and strength, sometimes confused, but never helpless. Johnny Depp has defined the role of the Mad Hatter forever more as far as I'm concerned. His madness is gentle, he's compassionate, and even seems a bit in love with Alice. All of the characters are marvelous, from the Tweedles to the Cheshire Cat to the Red Queen (Big Head) to the White Queen (admittedly, though, Anne Hathaway with her dramatic gestures, kinds of takes it over the top). This is a marvelous movie but I don't recommend it for young children as it's definitely not in light, airy, fairy-tale mode.

I saw this movie in 3D at the theater years ago. It was amazing then, but I must say I love it more now than I did in the theater! The Blu-ray format is super clear and vivid.

The actors in this film are all wonderful, from Alice to the flower faces. I thoroughly enjoy them but particularly the Hatter and Cheshire Cat. Johnny Depp's Hatter is phenomenal. I could watch the Hatter all day! Every time I watch it, from the moment he sees Alice for the first time, when his whole face lights up and his huge bow tie sweeps up along with it, I am hooked again on sweet Tarrant Hightopp, the Mad Hatter. I love both sides of this wonderful character.

The special effects are phenomenal, within the action as well as within the characters. One only has to watch the Red Queen to ponder how in the world they pulled that off! Getting back to Cheshire...I find him captivating because of his flowing, undulating movement, his shifting colors, and most of all his voice, played by Stephen Fry. The animation is truly lovely.

Bottom line--charming movie, swept me into the lives of Underworld's residents, and left me wishing Alice would stay in Wonderland (as she called it) so we could see more of it!

I made this purchase so that my Geometry class could watch Alice in Wonderland while doing lessons on rotation, translations, dilations and reflections. There are so many connections in the movie to these different transformations. It was a fun way to incorporate creativity, pop culture and geometry in a week long lesson. I loved watching the new version of Alice in Wonderland, but also used clips from the animated version in class while teaching. I found several worksheets/plans on Teachers Pay Teachers and used the animated version for the first part of the week. Once we were done understanding the different types of transformations I showed the live action version and incorporated a math writing assignment where students described the different transformations shown in the movie! Our school does writing week once a month for math so this was a great way to meet that need.

As much as I hate to agree with James Cameron because I've seen a lot of movies in 3D that weren't shot in 3D but his particular diss towards Tim Burton it's somewhat accurate the 3D and Alice in Wonderland it's kind of lousy at moments is great but the human seems It's like Atari 2600 a version of 3D you can see they just 3D the whole block around her head instead of the individual hair some of the Marvel movies weren't filmed in 3D and I dare you to find anything like that in there this might be the 50s movie I watched in 3D I like the movie I like Tim Burton this is strictly a 3D review considering the Wizard of Oz look like I could swim through my television I expected a little more from this I was anticipating Looking Through the Looking-Glass a little more it just fell flat. Like I said this is not a review of the movie The Amazon or the seller the price was good it came as promised and it was well worth the money what was the level of special effects and fantasy and considering Disney I expected more. I wanted to go in the rabbit hole but I'm off to see the wizard

This is a very different Alice than I’ve reviewed for the past two weeks. Because Alice is grown up in this one rather than a child, the conflict is more serious. It’s not longer a whimsical place full of fun and whimsy; Underland is a place where the threat of death is very real. Danger lurks around every corner, and everyone is looking for Alice Kingsley, who believes the entire fiasco is a dream.

I know a lot of people who really dislike this version. It’s definitely not my favorite, but you have to admit, Tim Burton’s vision of Wonderland is visually stunning. The art direction is absolutely gorgeous, and so much fun to look at. Every time I watch it, I see something new that I’d never noticed before.

The conflict here is quite interesting; because it’s something of a sequel, it’s all about Alice stepping up and becoming a heroine, rather than simply an observer. The idea that she believed in dreams when she was little but has lost those beliefs as she’s grown up is a very relevant theme. Alice has to figure who and what she wants to be; this is the main crisis she is dealing with at home, having just been proposed to by someone she could never marry, though everyone expects her to accept.

Alice is played by Mia Wasikowska, and honestly, she’s probably one of my least favorite Alice’s. I loved her Jane Eyre, but she just doesn’t seem to work here. She has a look that is classic Tim Burton, so it’s no wonder why she was cast, but she’s quite robotic for most of the film. Johnny Depp is, of course, brilliant as the Mad Hatter, skipping between light-hearted and serene Hatter to a truly mad, intense and angry Hatter. Helena Bonham Carter is terrifying and odd as the Red Queen, while Anne Hathaway is possibly even more bizarre as her sister the White Queen.

The Jabberwock is not just a poem Alice recites; here he is a monstrous beast that Alice must defeat to save Underland. This scene alone is creepy and slightly nightmarish and knocks this movie up and out of the kids range (if other things about it hadn’t already). Tim Burton’s Alice is not one I would recommend showing your small children. Everything has an eerie and nefarious air to it, and it’s a much more grown up tale than what I imagine Lewis Carroll had in mind.

See this review with full formatting over at my blog, Ramblings on Readings!

The video was good, but I'm not a fan of Prime Video. You can only view the video once unless you can stop it before it ends and rewind. It seemed difficult to understand what you needed to do to rewind and review, at least with the first use. I didn't like that it disappeared after it ended, thought I would be able to see the parts I missed on the second time around, but it was gone and I would have had to rent it again. With little ones around, it's hard to keep everyone on the same page. My grandson's cannot sit still long enough to watch the whole thing in one sitting. When Prime said that you had 30 days to watch the video, I assumed that meant for 30 days I would be able to see it again and again if I wanted to. Not so.

This is a different Alice, an older Alice and I think that's why people find fault with it. Alice is older, and arranged to be married, but she's not thrilled. Avoiding things, she ends up falling through a hole to wonderland. And they need her. More than ever. Wait....More than ever? Was she here before? They insist she was. Alice meets a whole colorful cast of characters, nice ones and bad ones. It has its charms and it is very different from the book and even the animated Disney version. The new looking glass one is completely farther than the book. That doesn't make this a bad movie in the least. A fun family movie.