19-year-old Alice returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror.

I really like the idea of just making a sequel or spin off to such a classic tales like Alice in Wonderland rather that trying to remake the story or reboot it. I think most people are very familiar with Alice and there is no need to remake the film as the Disney classic is good enough by itself but it is a fantastic idea to continue the story of Wonderland and have some more tales and stories from Alice. I thought the film was beautiful, fanciful and just plain fun. The story was excellent as well as Alice returns to Wonderland thirteen years later to a Wonderland now ruled and destroyed by the Red Queen and she must once again do battle and reunite with old friends. Alice in Wonderland was a wonderful, entertaining film completely worth a modern day sequel.

Tim Burton is easily the best director for this kind of film. Much like Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice he has a wonderful and kind of crazy imagination that is so fitting to Wonderland. He adds depth and story and imagination to a world that was already full of these things and does it masterfully. Alice in Wonderland is a tale of a girl falling through a rabbit hole and finding herself in a world beyond imagination and the film captures this as well. You as the audience feel like you have fallen into a wonderful world of imagination, colors, fantastic creatures and a marvelous story. A world inhabited by old friends, new enemies a world filled full of pure wonder.

I hate harping on the 3D aspect of these films every time I do a review for them but it’s almost inevitable as the studios seems so intent on making everything 3D. Some movies deserve the 3D treatment and others are a complete waste of the technology and just a gimmick to make extra money. Alice In Wonderland actually deserved the 3D treatment and was probably my favorite 3D movie I have seen so far as it just fit so well with the wonderful and fanciful Wonderland that for once I didn’t mind the gimmick of 3D. Alice in Wonderland is a bright, colorful and fanciful world and it is brought even more to life in 3D.

Oddly enough to me the most miscast actor in the film was Johnny Depp. It’s not that Depp doesn’t do a good job as the mad hatter it’s the fact that we have seen Depp in this role so often in Tim Burton films that it’s hard to separate yourself from all his previous performances as a white faced nut in a Burton film. I really enjoyed Mia Wasikowska as Alice as she seems to capture the spirit of an older Alice trying to remember a younger Alice who once wandered Wonderland. Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway also turn in fun performance as dueling queens more so in Carter’s case who seemed to have so much fun with the Red Queen. Alice in Wonderland is a wonderful, beautiful, fanciful continuation of an already great story and well worth seeing.

Grade: A