Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American period adventure fantasy film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay written by Linda Woolverton and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film stars Mia Wasikowska in the title role, with Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Matt Lucas, and Crispin Glover, while featuring the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Timothy Spall. A live-action adaptation and re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's works, the film follows Alice Kingsleigh, a nineteen-year-old who accidentally falls down a rabbit hole, returns to Wonderland, and alongside the Mad Hatter helps restore the White Queen to her throne by fighting against the Red Queen and her Jabberwocky, a dragon that terrorizes Wonderland's inhabitants.
Alice in Wonderland
- Walt Disney Pictures
- Roth Films
- The Zanuck Company
- Team Todd
- February 25, 2010 (Odeon Leicester Square)
- March 5, 2010 (United States)
108 minutes
$1.025 billion[5]
Alice in Wonderland came under development in December 2007, when Burton was asked to direct two 3D films for Disney, including the remake of Frankenweenie. Production began in September 2008 and concluded within three months, and was shot in the United Kingdom and the United States. It was followed by an extensive post-production and visual effects process where filming included live-action and motion capture sequences. Burton's frequent collaborator Danny Elfman composed an original theme for the film, which premiered in London at the Odeon Leicester Square on February 25, 2010, and was released in the United Kingdom and the United States through the Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats as well as in conventional theaters on March 5 to mixed reviews from critics.
The film generated over $1.025 billion in ticket sales and became the fifth highest-grossing film during its theatrical run, and it is also the second-highest-grossing film of 2010.[6] Amongst Disney's live-action adaptations, the film is tied for third-most-expensive, alongside Mulan, and fourth-highest-grossing readaptation to date. It received three nominations at the 68th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. At the 83rd Academy Awards, it won Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design, and was also nominated for Best Visual Effects, while the film received numerous other accolades.
While not the first such film in its genre, Alice in Wonderland is credited with starting a trend of live-action fairy tale and fantasy films being green-lit, particularly from Walt Disney Studios.[7] A sequel, titled Alice Through the Looking Glass, was released on May 27, 2016.
Plot[edit]
In 1868, 19-year-old Alice Kingsleigh, having mourned the recent loss of her father, is troubled by strange recurring dreams and the stifling expectations of the society in which she lives. After receiving an unwanted marriage proposal from Hamish Ascot at his father's garden party, Alice spots a familiar white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocket watch. She follows it to a rabbit hole and accidentally falls in. She shrinks after drinking from a bottle labeled 'Drink Me' (called a Pishsalver), meaning she cannot reach a key on a table, and then eats a cake labeled 'Eat Me' (called an Upelkuchen), transforming into a giantess. After drinking from the bottle again to fit through a tiny door, she enters the forest of a fantastical place called Underland. There, she is greeted by the White Rabbit, a Dormouse, a Dodo, Talking Flowers, and identical twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who all apparently know her.
Alice asserts that she is dreaming, but learns from Absolem the Caterpillar that she is destined to slay the Jabberwocky and end the tyranny of the Red Queen. The group is ambushed by the ravenous Bandersnatch and the Red Queen's knights, led by the Knave of Hearts. All are captured except Alice, who escapes, and the Dormouse, who takes one of the Bandersnatch's eyes. The Knave informs the Red Queen of Alice's return, and is ordered to find her immediately.
The Cheshire Cat guides Alice to the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse's tea party. The Red Knights and the Knave of Hearts disrupt the party, but Alice manages to hide in a teapot. The Hatter then takes her to a safe place. The Hatter explains that the Red Queen took over Underland, usurping her sister the White Queen. While in the woods, the Red Knights find the two, but the Hatter gives himself up so that Alice can escape. She is found by the Knave's Bloodhound, named Bayard, who is allied with the resistance. He takes Alice to the Red Queen's castle, where she accidentally outgrows her clothes after eating another Upelkuchen.
Infiltrating the palace as a courtier named "Um", Alice learns that the vorpal sword, the only weapon capable of killing the Jabberwocky, is locked inside the Bandersnatch's den. The knave makes advances to Alice, which she rebuffs, but the jealous Red Queen orders her beheading. Alice obtains the sword and returns the Bandersnatch's eye. He gratefully helps her escape the castle and delivers her to the White Queen, who gives Alice a potion that returns her normal size. The Cheshire Cat uses his shapeshifting powers to free the Mad Hatter, who incites rebellion amongst the Red Queen's subjects. Meanwhile, Absolem, who is turning into a pupa, finally gets Alice to remember that she visited Underland when she was a little girl, and called it "Wonderland". Just before his chrysalis closes, he advises her to fight the Jabberwocky, save Underland, and stop the Red Queen for good.
The Queens gather their armies on a chessboard-like battlefield and send Alice and the Jabberwocky to decide the battle in single combat. Alice beheads the Jabberwocky with the vorpal sword, and the red knights gratefully turn against their ruler. The White Queen banishes her sister and the Knave into exile together, then gives Alice a vial of the Jabberwocky's purple blood, which can fulfill one wish. Alice says farewell to her friends, then wishes to return home.
Alice awakens and escapes the rabbit hole, dirty and scratched from her fall. When she returns to the gazebo at the garden party, she refuses Hamish's proposal and impresses Lord Ascot with her idea of establishing trade routes to Hong Kong, inspiring him to take her on as his apprentice. As Alice prepares to set off on a trading ship, Absolem, in his new butterfly form, lands on her shoulder.
Release[edit]
Theatrical[edit]
Alice in Wonderland was theatrically released in United Kingdom and United States, in Disney Digital 3D, RealD 3D and IMAX 3D,[75] as well as regular theaters on March 5, 2010.[100] Prior to the release, the film was premiered at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on February 25, 2010, for the fundraiser The Prince's Foundation for Children and The Arts where the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attended.[101]
On February 12, 2010, major UK theater chains, Odeon, Vue, and Cineworld, had planned to boycott the film because of a reduction of the interval between cinema and DVD release from the usual seventeen-week period to twelve. Disney's pretext for cutting short Alice's theatrical run, is possibly to avoid the release of the DVD clashing with the 2010 FIFA World Cup.[102] However, exhibitors protested that Alice would be less threatened by the World Cup than other titles.[102] A week after the announcement, Cineworld, who has a 24% share of UK box office, chose to play the film on more than 150 screens. Cineworld's chief executive Steve Wiener stated, "As leaders in 3D, we did not want the public to miss out on such a visual spectacle. As the success of Avatar has shown, there is currently a huge appetite for the 3D experience."[103] Shortly after, the Vue cinema chain also reached an agreement with Disney, but Odeon had still chosen to boycott in Britain, Ireland, and Italy.[101] On February 25, 2010, Odeon had reached an agreement and decided to show the film on March 5.[104] It also did not affect their plans to show the film in Spain, Germany, Portugal, and Austria.[101][105][106]
Home media[edit]
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released a three-disc Blu-ray combo pack (which includes the Blu-ray, DVD and a digital copy), single-disc Blu-ray and single-disc DVD on June 1, 2010, in North America and July 1, 2010, in Australia.[107] The DVD release includes three short features about the making of the film, focusing on Burton's vision for Wonderland and the characters of Alice and the Mad Hatter. The Blu-ray version has nine additional featurettes centered on additional characters, special effects and other aspects of the film's production.[108] In some confusion, a small number of copies were put on shelves a week before schedule in smaller stores, but were quickly removed, although a handful of copies were confirmed purchased ahead of schedule.
In its first week of release (June 1–6, 2010), it sold 2,095,878 DVD units (equivalent to $35,441,297) and topped the DVD sales chart for two continuous weeks. By May 22, 2011, it had sold 4,313,680 units ($76,413,043). It failed to crack the 2010 top ten DVDs list in terms of units sold, but reached 10th place on that chart in terms of sales revenue.[109][110]
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Alice in Wonderland grossed $334.1 million in North America and $691.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $1.025 billion against a budget of $200 million.[5][111][112] Worldwide, it is the second-highest-grossing film of 2010.[113] It is the third-highest-grossing film starring Johnny Depp,[114] the highest-grossing film directed by Tim Burton,[115] and the second-highest-grossing film of Anne Hathaway. Additionally, it is the second-highest-grossing children's book adaptation (worldwide, as well as in North America and outside North America separately).[116]
On its first weekend, the film made $220.1 million worldwide, marking the second-largest opening ever for a movie not released during the summer or the holiday period (behind The Hunger Games), the fourth-largest for a Disney-distributed film and the fourth-largest among 2010 films.[117] It dominated for three consecutive weekends at the worldwide box office.[118][119][120][121] On May 26, 2010, its 85th day of release, it became the sixth film ever to surpass the $1 billion mark and the second film that had been released by Walt Disney Studios that did so.[122][123]
In North America, Alice in Wonderland is the forty-fourth-highest-grossing film but out of the top 100 when adjusted for inflation. It is also the second-highest-grossing film of 2010, behind Toy Story 3,[124] the second-highest-grossing film starring Johnny Depp[114] and the highest-grossing film directed by Tim Burton.[115] The film opened on March 5, 2010, on approximately 7,400 screens at 3,728 theaters with $40.8 million during its first day, $3.9 million of which came from midnight showings,[125] ranking number one and setting a new March opening-day record.[126] Alice earned $116.1 million on its opening weekend, breaking the record for the largest opening weekend in March (previously held by 300),[127] the record for the largest opening weekend during springtime (previously held by Fast & Furious), the largest opening weekend for a non-sequel (previously held by Spider-Man)[128] and the highest one for the non-holiday, non-summer period. However, all of these records were broken by The Hunger Games ($152.5 million) in March 2012.[129][130] Alice made the seventeenth-highest-grossing opening weekend ever[131] and the fifth-largest among 3D films.[132] Opening-weekend grosses originating from 3D showings were $81.3 million (70% of total weekend gross). This broke the record for the largest opening-weekend 3D grosses[133][134] but it was later topped by The Avengers ($108 million).[135] It had the largest weekend per-theater average of 2010 ($31,143 per theater) and the largest for a PG-rated film.[136] It broke the IMAX opening-weekend record[137] by earning $12.2 million on 188 IMAX screens, with an average of $64,197 per site. The record was first overtaken by Deathly Hallows – Part 2 ($15.2 million).[134] Additionally, it had the biggest opening weekend for a film starring Tim Burton, smashing the previous record held by Planet of the Apes.[137] Alice remained in first place for three consecutive weekends at the North American box office.[138][139] Alice closed in theaters on July 8, 2010, with $334.2 million.
Outside North America, Alice is the thirteenth-highest-grossing film,[140] the highest-grossing 2010 film,[141] the fourth-highest-grossing Disney film, the second-highest-grossing film starring Johnny Depp[114] and the highest-grossing film directed by Tim Burton.[115] It began with an estimated $94 million, on top of the weekend box office, and remained at the summit for four consecutive weekends and five in total.[142][143] Japan was the film's highest-grossing country after North America, with $133.7 million, followed by the UK, Ireland and Malta ($64.4 million), and France and the Maghreb region ($45.9 million).[144]
Critical response[edit]
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 51% of 277 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The website's consensus is: "Tim Burton's Alice sacrifices the book's minimal narrative coherence—and much of its heart—but it's an undeniable visual treat."[145] According to Metacritic, which calculated a weighted average score of 53 out of 100 based on 38 reviews, the film received "mixed or average reviews".[146] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average rating of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[147]
Todd McCarthy of Variety praised it for its "moments of delight, humor and bedazzlement", but went on to say, "But it also becomes more ordinary as it goes along, building to a generic battle climax similar to any number of others in CGI-heavy movies of the past few years."[148] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter said "Burton has delivered a subversively witty, brilliantly cast, whimsically appointed dazzler that also manages to hit all the emotionally satisfying marks", while as well praising its computer-generated imagery (CGI), saying "Ultimately, it's the visual landscape that makes Alice's newest adventure so wondrous, as technology has finally been able to catch up with Burton's endlessly fertile imagination."[149] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly said, "But Burton's Disneyfied 3-D Alice in Wonderland, written by the girl-power specialist Linda Woolverton, is a strange brew indeed: murky, diffuse, and meandering, set not in a Wonderland that pops with demented life but in a world called Underland that's like a joyless, bombed-out version of Wonderland. It looks like a CGI head trip gone post apocalyptic. In the film's rather humdrum 3-D, the place doesn't dazzle—it droops."[150] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film three out of four stars and wrote in his review that, "Alice plays better as an adult hallucination, which is how Burton rather brilliantly interprets it until a pointless third act flies off the rails."[151] Danny Elfman's score received particular praise by critics, with Jonathan Broxton wrote "What is even more impressive, however, is the knowledge that Elfman’s the composer of intellectual authority is as much in play here as Elfman the enthusiastic newcomer; the vibrancy of the work, the structure of the themes, the cleverness of the orchestrations and harmonies, combined with the flavors of the past, make this score indispensable. Even by his own recent high standards, it’s the best Elfman score in many years, and even at this early stage a contender for the best score of 2010."[152]
Several reviews criticized the decision to turn Alice into a "colonialist entrepreneur" at the end of the film setting sail for China.[153][154][155] Given Britain's role in the First and Second Opium Wars during the Victorian era and the foreign domination of China through "unequal treaties", China expert Kevin Slaten writes, "Not only is it troubling imagery, for a female role model in a Disney movie, but it's also a celebration of the exploitation that China suffered for a century."[156]
Game developer American McGee, best known for creating Alice and Alice: Madness Returns, was asked in a 2011 interview about Tim Burton's interpretation of the title character since both versions share a similar dark and twisted tone of Wonderland. McGee praised the film's visuals and audio but criticized the lack of screen time Alice had compared to the other characters. He felt Alice did not have any purpose in the story and that she was merely used as a "tool".[157]
Legacy[edit]
Following its release, the film drove about $1.6 billion in retail sales for Disney, including home video and merchandise sales.[162]
After the release and success of the movie, Walt Disney Pictures has announced the development of several live-action adaptations of their Animated Classics series.[163][164][165][166][167][168][169]
Walt Disney Theatrical was in early talks with Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton, who had previously written stage adaptions of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Aida, and Lestat, to develop the property as a Broadway musical set to premiere in London.[170] Rob Ashford was attached to direct and choreograph.[171][172][173] As of 2013, no further developments had been made.[174]