Returning Alice serves visual feast

Film review: Alice Through the Looking Glass

MANILA, Philippines - Six years ago, Alice in Wonderland successfully sailed through the box-office by creating a magical world that undoubtedly thrilled and delighted young and old audiences. This time around, a giant mirror does all the “tricks” for Alice’s journey, as viewers are transported back in time in Alice Through the Looking Glass.

While Alice in Wonderland was directed by the genius Tim Burton, he acted as producer for Alice Through the Looking Glass and passed on the director’s chair to James Bobin, a relatively unknown megman who gets his biggest directorial break to date with the said fantasy-adventure fare.

Bobin has definitely big shoes to fill. In the sequel, he had to create the colorful and magical Underland that brings Alice to another “life.” With a period setting in the late 1800s, Alice Through the Looking Glass starts when Alice reaches London after traveling the high seas.

The entire caboodle is back and the film remains faithful to the characters created by Lewis Carroll. Johnny Depp returns as the eccentric Mad Hatter/Tarrant Hightopp, who is dying with sadness because of the death of his family. However, Alice finds a way to bring back Hatter’s happiness by traveling back in time again through the giant mirror and returning to Underland to find Hatter’s family.

Then, there are the warring sisters — the bad, jumbo-headed Red Queen Iracebeth (Helena Bonham Carter) and the sweet White Queen Mirana (Anne Hathaway) — the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), Bayard the Bloodhound (Timothy Spall) and March Hare (Paul Whitehouse).

Absolem (voiced by the late character actor Alan Rickman) is now a butterfly in the sequel. He was previously a Blue Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. The film is a fitting tribute to Rickman, who died last January. He is also remembered as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter films.

Alice Through the Looking Glass is one of those rare movies where the one who plays the title role (Mia Wasikowska as Alice Kingsleigh), sadly, gets easily overshadowed by other actors starring with her.

Two of the most well-loved characters are Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the adorable brothers (voiced by Matt Lucas). Just like Mad Matter, who has a young version (briefly played by Louis Ashbourne Serkis), Tweedledee and Tweedledum have their kiddie counterparts, too.

Moreover, there are the young Mirana and young Iracebeth who were shown primarily as sisters before they grew apart back when they were still young. They got to reconcile towards the end, a scene reminiscent of reuniting sisters Elsa and Anna in Frozen.

For the sequel, characters like Time (Sasha Baron Cohen) and Zanik Hightopp (Rhys Ifans), the Mad Hatter’s father, are introduced. Cohen was given his strong moments in the film, like when he stands before all the dangling watches, each with a name of a person living or dead, contemplating on who to deal with next in his Chronosphere.

“Every day is a gift, every hour, every minute, every second counts,” Alice reminds Time.

With a colossal budget of $170M, Alice Through the Looking Glass is loaded with wondrous computer-generated images, undoubtedly spectacular visual feast for the viewers. The film was released in the US last May, but its release here in Manila was apparently delayed.

By the end of the film, the still feisty Alice is seen sporting a short hairstyle, doing away with her long, blonde locks and putting up the family’s shipping company, happily with her mom Helen (Lindsay Duncan).