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Helena Bonham Carter's Red Queen, by comparison, gets a more intriguing backstory that paints her in a more sympathetic light (bringing to mind Woolverton's revisionist approach to another Disney villain in her Maleficent screenplay). As for the Hatter himself, there's less emotional nuance to the character here than there was in Alice in Wonderland - to the degree that Depp's Hatter in general comes off as little more than a live-action, but still two-dimensional, cartoon character. Johnny Depp's Hatter is afforded a backstory here that involves a difficult relationship with his father Zanik Hightopp (Rhys Ifans), but that Through the Looking Glass plot thread is derivative of Depp's previous collaborations with Burton and the "daddy issues" explored therein. Unfortunately, despite another solid performance from Mia Wasikowska, Alice spends most of Through the Looking Glass serving as little more than observer to the (scenery-chewing) antics of Wonderland's various eccentric citizens - in particular, the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen, whose origins are revealed over the course of a larger storyline that is serviceable, but formulaic and banks too much on over-used time-travel narrative tropes. The Alice Through the Looking Glass narrative by Linda Woolverton, who also penned Burton's Alice in Wonderland, picks up with Alice as a young adult woman - and her character arc in the film (as Alice comes to learn that she cannot simply "cheat" her way out of her adult problems in the present) is a worthwhile extension of Alice's own coming of age journey in the previous Alice installment. Unfortunately, similar to the Bobin-directed Muppets sequel Muppets Most Wanted, the Alice in Wonderland followup comes across as an attempt to keep a lucrative Disney brand going, more than anything else. While the majority of the Alice in Wonderland cast returned for the sequel, Burton only produced Alice Through the Looking Glass - having instead passed the director's torch over to Disney's Muppets helmsman James Bobin.
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That is, of course, assuming that Alice doesn't break the timeline in the process.Īlice Though the Looking Glass is arriving on the scene some six years after director Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland opened in theaters in 2010, on its way to grossing over $1 billion worldwide and ushering in the new era of Disney live-action fairy tale re-imaginings.
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There, Alice learns that Hatter (Johnny Depp) has become convinced that his family - who were seemingly killed by the Jabberwocky years ago - is still alive and that Hatter is now rapidly aging, as a result of this "madness". The White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and the other denizens of Wonderland thus convince Alice to take on a dangerous mission in order to save the Hatter: reach out to Time himself (Sacha Baron Cohen) and use his Chronosphere (a device that allows its user to travel across the Oceans of Time) to go into the past and change Wonderland's history, saving Hatter's family from their grisly fate. Upon returning home to London, Alice discovers that circumstances have changed with regard to both her employment and her mother Helen's (Lindsay Duncan) living situation - putting Alice at risk of both losing her ship and winding up stuck behind a desk, working as a clerk for Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill), the man who once proposed to her. However, before she can make any decision on the matter, Alice is contacted by the caterpillar-turned butterfly Absolem (Alan Rickman) and follows him through an enchanted mirror that leads to Wonderland. Alice Through the Looking Glass is more of a shiny, yet hollow, Disney product than meaningful continuation of Alice's story.Īlice Through the Looking Glass picks up three years after Alice Kinsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) made her second trip to Wonderland, during which time she has traveled to China aboard her late father's trading ship - and made plans to explore the rest of the world, too.