Tim Burton's 'Alice In Wonderland'

[Azrael]

It's a funny coincidence, but Hook was one of the movies that came up in discussion while we were watching it. The difference was that Robin Williams accepted his "role" as Peter Pan the hero in fantasyland (as opposed to Peter the "grown-up" in the real world) much earlier in the movie, while Alice didn't want to know about it to the point of being irritating - "get on with it", I said at one point, "don't you see all this bad CGI around you?" I agree that Hook is much better than the reviews it got - a friend of mine is a huge fan and I really like it.

Another positive about the movie was the actress playing Alice: a natural beautiful face, totally unlike the usual Hollywood starlets. I'd like to see Burton cast her in some good movie in the future

I'm not familiar with the book(s), I just know the basic stuff, but I don't think being familiar with the source material should be a prerequisite to enjoy a movie - I was a Batman-virgin in 1989. Maybe familiarity with the story/characters improves it, but from my POV, I didn't want any part of it. With the exception of some visual trademarks seen in most Burton films (twirls, muted colour palette in the "real world"), tone-wise and story-wise it felt more like a Disneyfied mess than a Burton fairy tale. I don't know if it was only Johnny Depp that phoned his work in this movie. Anyway, it's only a movie, I just hope and pray that Burton doesn't go anywhere near the Wizard of Oz and comes up with something better for his next!

P.S. I'd like to meet the guy that had the idea of that Mad Hatter dance. He owes me a 32''.