6.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
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.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin GloverAdventure | 100% |
Family | 95% |
Fantasy | 82% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 ES
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 EX
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (1 BD, 2 DVDs)
Digital copy (on disc)
DVD copy
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In recent years, the grotesque landscape of director Tim Burton’s mind—a dark realm filled with stark, leafless trees, crooked windmills, and dead-eyed, white-as-a-sheet waifs—has been overrun with remakes, rehashes, and reimaginings. Once the go-to-guy for strikingly original gothic fairytales —the suburban satire of Edward Scissorhands, the creaky majesty and gloom of The Nightmare Before Christmas—Burton is now seemingly preoccupied with applying his twisted aesthetic to other people’s stories. Occasionally, it works. Who better than Burton to helm a live- action version of Sleepy Hollow, with its headless horseman and flaming Jack-O-Lanterns? His last three films, however, with the exception of 2005’s brilliantly bittersweet Corpse Bride, find Burton increasingly self-indulgent and predictable, putting his crackpot spin on adapted stories that don’t really need to be re-spun. There are elements to love about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, and now Alice and Wonderland— Burton’s visual sense is as acute as ever—but his storytelling faculties have suffered, and the Johnny Depp-as-mad-genius-wearing-makeup routine is beginning to feel just that: routine.
A twisted, gnarled tree—welcome to Tim Burton’s “Underland.”
It's not quite as eye-meltingly stunning as Avatar—everyone's top-runner for the year's best picture quality—but Alice in Wonderland is a visual treat from start to finish, and makes for a fantastic Blu-ray demo disc. The vast majority of the movie was shot digitally, and the image is simply immaculate, almost entirely noiseless, ultra-vivid, and super-sharp. A few scenes were obviously shot on film—the engagement party, most notably—and even here the picture is tightly resolved, with a thin grain structure and a beautiful pale pastel cast. Once Alice drops down the rabbit hole— announcing the start of the all-digital, green-screened, CGI backgrounds—the picture intensifies appropriately, somehow looking both Burtonesque-ly bleak and incredibly saturated. Dark landscapes are contrasted with bold splashes of color, like the Mad Hatter's fiercely orange shock of hair, the sweaty green of a nervous frog-guard, and the Red Queen's crimson coif and cerulean blue eye shadow. The CGI creatures aren't as detailed, texture-wise as the flora and fauna of Avatar's Pandora, but they really aren't supposed to be—Wonderland is more cartoonish than photo-realistic. Still, everything is crisp and defined, and close-ups reveal the intricacies of the costume design and actors' faces. Black levels are strong, crush is never an issue, and contrast is punchy throughout. Finally, there are no compression blemishes to be found—no banding, blocking, or overt noisiness. You really couldn't ask for anything more.
The film's lossless audio track is just as strong, and works well to accompany the on-going action. The back of the case states that this is a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, but my PS3 actually identified it as a 6.1 mix, for what it's worth. And the film certainly makes use of all those channels, allowing for some bombastic sonic showpiece sequences and immersive ambience. You'll hear dragonflies dart seamlessly between the rear speakers, dirt spraying from front to back during the Bandersnatch chase, a Jubjub bird flapping across the soundfield, and the Jabberwocky's tail swishing through the space above your head, among many other fine touches. It's not as non-stop or showy as what you'd hear in a dedicated action film, but rest assured, your home theater set-up will get lots of love. Plus, the audio is just as solid dynamically as it is directionally, with appreciable low-end rumble, a grounded mid-range, and crystalline clarity in the upper registers. This applies to both the sound effects—which often pop out at you just as vividly as the 3D theatrical visuals—and Danny Elfman's score, which isn't quite as memorable as some of his prior Burton collaborations, but is still wonderfully rich and layered. Dialogue throughout is perfectly prioritized, and if you need them, English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles are available in easy-to-read white lettering.
Wonderland Characters (1080p, 27:56)
Alice in Wonderland is surprisingly light on special features, especially given the tech-heavy
nature of the film. The supplementary experience consists of twelve relatively brief, somewhat fluffy
featurettes. The first six fall under the Wonderland Characters heading, and as you might
surmise, focus on the wily individuals that traipse through Tim Burton's crooked CGI landscapes.
Finding Alice, The Mad Hatter, The Red Queen, and The White
Queen feature interviews with actors playing the respective characters, Time-Lapse:
Sculpting the Red Queen compresses Helena Bonham Carter's three hours in the make-up
chair into a few minutes, and The Futterwacken reveals the secrets behind the incredibly
stupid dance that the Mad Hatter does at the end of the film.
Making Wonderland (1080p, 19:29)
The remaining six featurettes are devoted to the "making of" aspects of the film's production.
Scoring Wonderland shows composer and perpetual Burton-collaborator Danny Elfman
doing his thing, Effecting Wonderland hones in on the visual effects required to bring
Burton's vision to life, and Stunts of Wonderland profiles the physical handiwork of the
actors and stunt-people. Making the Proper Size is probably the most interesting segment
on the disc, as it showcases the digital manipulation required to shrink/grow Alice and make Helena
Bonham Carter look so freakishly grotesque. Finally, Cakes of Wonderland and Tea
Party Props let some of the production design specialists show off their handiwork.
The behind-the-scenes stuff is decent, but it's all surface-level. I would've loved a commentary by
Burton or, better yet, an in-depth documentary on the history of Alice in literature and
film.
Sneak Peaks (1080p)
Here we get an anti-piracy add, not so cleverly disguised as a promo for Tinker Bell and the Lost
Treasure, and trailers for Beauty and the Beast, James and the Giant Peach,
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, and a
Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 combo pack. Plus, a somewhat incongruous anti-smoking advert.
Oh, and the top menu of the disc, for some undisclosed reason, tells you the forecast for the day.
Like Avatar, Alice in Wonderland is a visual tour de force—and Burton, it should be said, for all his predictability lately, is more compelling a stylist than James Cameron—but the film lacks the sense of wonder implied by its title and inherent in Lewis Caroll's books. Perhaps it's partly because we're already so familiar with Alice's dream world, but I think it's mostly because we expect more from the mind that gave us Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton is clearly at his best when he's exploring realms of his own creation. For a film so deeply concerned with imagination and the intersection between dreams and reality, Alice in Wonderland is disappointingly pedestrian. Still, I'll give it this—it's livelier than Disney's 1951 adaptation, and kids seem to love it, drawn perhaps by the sense of darkness and danger present in nearly all of Burton's films. This one really is divisive, so if you didn't catch the film theatrically, a try-before-you-buy rental might be a good idea. For A/V-aholics, though, the tech specs on this Blu-ray are superb—a vivid picture, pristine sound—which may be enough to sway some to a blind buy. As a side note, those looking for a truly original take on the Alice story—one that, in some ways, seems more Burton-esque than Burton's own version—should check out Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer's 1988 film, Alice, a creaky and frequently unnerving combination of stop-motion animation and live action.
2010
Sony Exclusive 3D Starter Bundle with 2 pairs of 3D Glasses
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