Talbot / Wheeldon: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Talbot / Wheeldon: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Blu-ray Movie Review

Down the high tech rabbit hole.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 8, 2011

The sheer lunatic verbal audacity of Lewis Carroll would certainly argue against Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland being adapted into a “mute” genre like ballet. After all, a great deal of Alice’s enduring allure is Carroll’s brilliant deconstruction of language, where every day turns of phrase become something quite antithetical to their “normal” meanings, and where language itself often devolves into non sequitur and outright incomprehensibility. How can something like that possibly be adapted into the world of dance? And yet that’s the task Christopher Wheeldon set before himself when offered the chance to create the Royal Ballet’s first story ballet in well over a decade. And while the visual possibilities of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland certainly are imposing, is it possible to recreate the peculiar and particular ingenuity of Carroll’s genius into a medium where only movement and sound are the communicative devices? Wheeldon’s chutzpah seems even more grandiose when one considers how many adaptations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have at least partially missed their mark, even when not saddled with the “limitations” of ballet. Film has repeatedly gone to Carroll’s twin masterworks for inspiration, but especially in the early days of cinema, the relatively primitive special effects left Alice awash in lands of giant papier-mâché headed creatures and not very convincing settings. Even later films, like the interesting if ultimately unsatisfying 1972 musical version (with a score by John Barry, no less), never really delivered suitable levels of whimsy despite increased technical advances. One might think that animation would be the perfect vehicle for Alice’s cartoonish adventures, but even such a recondite name as Disney stumbled, at least a bit, in adapting Carroll’s tale to that medium, and the Disney version is almost never included in the top tier of that studio’s iconic masterpieces. So how incredible, really, that someone should even attempt a ballet version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The amazing thing about this production is not that it fails—for in certain ways, it undoubtedly does—but that it manages to succeed at least some of the time. Bolstered by some absolutely amazing stagecraft, “special effects” which may in fact draw attention away from some of the ballet’s structural and dramatic issues, this Alice is a wonder to behold if it remains an aloof piece of entertainment that impresses but never fully engages.

Nicholas Wright’s scenario for the ballet retains almost all of Carroll’s Adventures, but he makes the perhaps strange decision to bookend the main story with a prelude, where Alice is being read to by Lewis Carroll, and a modern day postlude that seems to want to take Alice’s story into the next generation. While there’s nothing especially wrong with this idea, Wright also tries to deliver unneeded analogies to the main Alice story by having several “real life” characters in the prologue show up later as characters in Alice’s Wonderland adventures, sort of akin to what happens to Dorothy in the film version of The Wizard of Oz. This creates some completely unnecessary business, including making Alice’s mother a shrew who will turn into the evil Queen of Hearts. (Certainly the Liddell family can’t be overjoyed about this decision).

A couple of other headscratching decisions have been made along the way, not the least of which is casting pert brunette Lauren Cuthbertson as Alice, replete with a sort of short pageboy hairdo. Alice is so firmly associated with a long-tressed blonde that seems positively antithetical to Carroll, especially since the absolutely eye popping production design offers several outright homages to the iconic illustrations of John Tenniel. This sort of slap in the face of tradition seems at the very least dunderheaded, if not outright offensive, to Alice purists, as minor as it may seem.

On the whole, though, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a phantasmagoria of incredible production design and ingenuity. Projections make Alice’s descent into the rabbit hole viscerally exciting, and several of Carroll’s most iconic sequences are recreated with a flair and panache that certainly must have strained the ingenuity of designer Bob Crowley. But it’s this very “showy” aspect to Alice that points up some of its failings. From a dance standpoint, this is awfully old fashioned, despite some quasi-modern touches like a tap dancing Mad Hatter. And the piece just lurches from anecdote to anecdote, of course mirroring Carroll’s book, but with little of Carroll’s wit (much of which it must be admitted is based in language).

Joby Talbot’s score is filled with lots of great sounding percussion like glockenspiel and marimba and it frequently dances (no pun intended) around a sort of quasi-minimalist, riff based approach that may remind some of Philip Glass or John Adams. Talbot is not a supreme melodist, but he does give his score enough rhythmic emphasis to allow for lots of movement, and that keeps the ballet moving along, even if it really never goes anywhere. The whole ballet probably would have benefited from being shortened by a good twenty minutes, especially in the first act, which drags a bit and doesn’t quite match the second act’s manic energy.

This premiere Royal Opera House production is greeted with polite, but hardly rapturous, applause as the production draws to a close, though the audience seems to be made up largely of older people, when the ballet’s chief allure would seem to be children. (Wheeldon stages one number with the dancers actually moving through the aisles of the Opera House). Kids are no doubt going to get a kick out of the sheer visual ingenuity of the ballet while probably not caring one whit about Alice’s pedigree or any musical or dramatic, let alone dance, content. Adults may be wondering about all the sound and fury, signifying not a lot beyond spectacle.

Talbot / Wheeldon: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Opus Arte with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The visual splendor of this production is at least as audacious as Wheeldon's for even undertaking such an adaptation, and the good news is almost all of it pops magnificently in high definition. The ballet uses a lot of projections, some of them on scrims, and they help to create the hallucinatory character of the story. Fine detail is often exceptional, especially in close-ups, and colors are incredibly robust and varied. (It should be noted that some reds come awfully close to blooming at times, but never quite step over that threshold). Contrast and black levels are consistent, and the overall presentation here is extremely sharp and well defined.

Talbot / Wheeldon: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Two lossless tracks are offered on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix and an LPCM 2.0 stereo fold down. Both of these tracks offer superb fidelity, and the DTS track offers an unusual spaciousness, perhaps due to the intense use of percussion throughout composer Joby Talbot's colorful score. The playing of the Royal Opera House Orchestra under the baton of Barry Wordsworth is energetic and is delivered with brilliant fidelity on both of the mixes on this Blu-ray. Talbot's shimmering textures may not deliver a wealth of memorable or hummable melodies, but they sound bright and extremely well presented here. Fidelity is top notch, as is dynamic range.

Talbot / Wheeldon: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Being Alice (1080i; 29:06) boast some rather impressive production values, at least in its opening moments, which find Cuthbertson awakening and making her way to rehearsals at the Royal Ballet. Once we get into the meat and bones of the documentary, it settles down into more standard fare, with interviews with several of the creative staff and lots of rehearsal footage.
• Cast Gallery

Talbot / Wheeldon: Alice's Adventures In Wonderland Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has a lot to recommend it, but it also has a number of troubling aspects that may keep curmudgeons like this reviewer from being completely won over by it. Visually, it's simply one of the most impressive pieces of stagecraft in recent memory, with colorful costumes, amazing sets and ingenious production design. Musically, it's a little flatter, with lots of bright sounding percussion but nary a memorable theme in its two hour score. From a dance perspective, it's fine, but hardly innovative, and it certainly doesn't even try to emulate the Ashton approach of blending tradition with a certain amount of whimsy. It may have been an impossible task to begin with, and kudos must be afforded to Wheeldon and his creative crew for even attempting this feat. Despite its shortcomings, this is still an entertaining piece and its visual allure will probably distract most people from any major complaining. This Blu-ray looks and sound fantastic and the release comes Recommended.