Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016 film)
Alice Through the Looking Glass is a 2016 American live-action/animated fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures in association with Roth Films, Team Todd, and Tim Burton Productions. It was directed by James Bobin, written by Linda Woolverton, and produced by Tim Burton, Joe Roth, and the filmmaking duo of Suzanne and Jennifer Todd. It is based on the characters created by Lewis Carroll and is the sequel to Alice in Wonderland (2010).[3] Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Matt Lucas, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Barbara Windsor, Timothy Spall, Paul Whitehouse, Lindsay Duncan, Geraldine James, and Leo Bill reprise their roles from the previous film with Rhys Ifans, Andrew Sachs, Matt Vogel and Sacha Baron Cohen joining the cast. In the film, a now 22-year-old Alice comes across a magical looking glass that takes her back to Wonderland, where she finds that the Mad Hatter is acting madder than usual and wants to discover the truth about his family. Alice then travels through time (with the "Chronosphere"), comes across friends and enemies at different points of their lives, and embarks on a race to save the Hatter before time runs out.
Alice Through the Looking Glass premiered in London on May 10, 2016, and was theatrically released on May 27, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who praised its visuals but criticized its story.[4] It was also a box-office bomb, grossing roughly $299.5 million against a production budget of $170 million.
Plot[edit]
For three years, Alice Kingsleigh has been following her father's footsteps and sailing the high seas. Returning to London from China, she learns that her ex-fiancé, Hamish Ascot, has taken over his deceased father's company and plans to have Alice sign over her father's ship in exchange for her family home. Alice follows a butterfly she recognizes as Absolem, who was previously a caterpillar, and returns to Wonderland through a mirror. Alice is greeted by the White Queen, the White Rabbit, the Tweedles, the Dormouse, the March Hare, the Bloodhound and the Cheshire Cat. They reveal that the Mad Hatter is acting madder than usual because his family is missing.
Alice tries to console him, but he remains certain that his family survived the attack of the Jabberwocky. Seeing it as the only way to restore his health, The White Queen sends Alice to consult Time and convince him to save the Hatter's family in the past. The Queen warns Alice that history will be destroyed if a person's past and present selves meet. In Time's Castle of Eternity lies the Chronosphere, an object that controls all of time in Wonderland. After Time tells Alice that altering the past is impossible, she steals the Chronosphere and travels back in time, shortly after finding the exiled Red Queen in Time's care. The Red Queen orders Time to pursue Alice, who accidentally travels to the Red Queen's coronation. There, a younger Mad Hatter mocks the Red Queen when the royal crown does not fit her abnormal head, and her crown breaks. When her father deems her unfit to rule and passes the title of queen to her younger sister, the White Queen, the Red Queen throws a tantrum that causes her head to swell.
Alice learns of an event in both the Queens' pasts that causes friction between the two and travels back in time again, hoping to change the Red Queen's character and stop the Jabberwocky from killing the Hatter's family. The young White Queen steals a tart from her mother and leaves the crumbs under her sister's bed. When confronted by their mother, she lies and lets her sister take the blame, causing the princess to run out of the castle. Alice sees her about to run into a clock being carried across the square; believing this to be the event that changes her head, she shoves the clock out of the way. However, the princess still falls and hits her head. Alice is confronted by a weakened Time, who berates her for putting all of time in danger. She runs into a nearby mirror back into the real world, where she wakes up in a mental hospital, diagnosed with female hysteria. With the help of her mother, she returns to Wonderland, travels to the Jabberwocky attack and discovers that the Hatter's family did not die, but were captured by the Red Queen's Red Knights.
Returning to the present, Alice discovers the Mad Hatter at the brink of death. After Alice tearfully says she believes him, the Hatter awakens and reforms back to his normal self. The Wonderlanders go to the Red Queen's castle and find the Hatter's family shrunk and trapped in an ant farm. The Red Queen apprehends them and steals the Chronosphere from Alice, taking her sister back to the day she lied about the tart to hide behind a door and listen to the scene. The White Queen whispers 'no' as her younger self denies stealing the tart and the Red Queen is so furious she bursts through the door and screams 'liar' at her sister's younger self. The young Red Queen sees her older self, creating a time paradox, and first their faces and bodies rust before all of Wonderland rusts.
Using the Chronosphere, Alice and the Hatter race back to the present, where Alice runs for her life to place the Chronosphere back in its original place. Initially the rust outruns her but she is stopped with her hand just above the stand; sparks make the connection and the rust dissolves. The Mad Hatter reunites with his family, while the White Queen apologizes to the redeemed Red Queen for lying. Alice bids her friends farewell and returns to the real world where her mother refuses to turn Alice's ship over to Hamish, and the two set to travel the world on behalf of their own company.