Alice in Wonderland [DVD] [2010]

This is one of my favorite Tim Burton films, and the blu-ray offers a beautiful rendering of it, with excellent sound reproduction. I won't review the movie itself, since many others already have done it -- but I did notice some reviewers criticizing the film for not simply being a live-action version of the Disney cartoon version from the early 1950s. I don't think Burton intended it to be. It struck me as borrowing from the elements of the cartoon, and from Carroll's Through The Looking Glass, and particularly his poem about the Jabberwock -- and using all those elements as a backdrop for a tale of an intelligent, independent-minded young woman finding the courage and confidence to break from the social constraints of her day. To me, this blu-ray offers a colorful and poignant visual experience, with great music, great acting, and great dialogue from a real visionary. Along with "Edward Scissorhands," another favorite of mine, I highly recommend it.

I'm in the habit of reviewing 3D Blu-ray titles primarily on the merit of their 3D quality, especially when the title being reviewed is as well known as Alice in Wonderland. Insofar as the movie in general goes, I can only say: Tim Burton. Johnny Depp. Classic Lewis Carroll. Enough said... if you are buying this, you probably already know that you are going to like the movie in terms of story, acting, and production value. The 3D content, however, warrants further discussion. While the bulk of this movie is computer rendered animation which by default lends itself well to 3D, the human actors and real-world scenes were all shot using 2D cameras and converted to 3D post-production. This is an area where other movies currently available have pretty much failed... just read the reviews for Clash of the Titans and The Last Airbender here on BestBuy.com if evidence is needed that most people are less than impressed with 2D-to-3D conversions. Alice in Wonderland, however, does not disappoint! The scenes at the beginning and end of this movie were shot in 2D and are mostly devoid of computer animation, yet contain a level of 3D depth that goes above and beyond its peers. It has been said that Burton filmed this movie with 3D in mind, and it shows. What "3D in mind" means exactly is anyone's guess, but it seems that great care and precision was taken in separating details as fine as a lock of hair from the background behind it. Scenes where actors and set pieces are plentiful are reminiscent of a diorama with obvious layers of depth. Not quite as impressive as native 3D, but significantly better than any other 2D conversion I've seen. The 3D fun really begins when Alice tumbles down the rabbit hole and takes her first steps into the vividly-colored and Burton-styled Wonderland. Jaws will drop. It is easy to forget how much of this movie is computer-rendered thanks to the seamless inclusion of live actors (at least the parts of them that aren't rendered), and that may also be part of why the 3D seems so effective when compared to other 2D conversions. Whatever the reason for its efficaciousness, the 3D in this movie is a joy to behold. Slowly but surely, the number of Blu-ray 3D movies worth buying is growing. This title will make a great addition to pretty much anyone's collection.

A favorite of my nieces, so I purchased it for her. Truly not bad for adults either.

For starters, it seems that everyone I know is shocked when I tell them that this Alice in Wonderland is a sequel of sorts. At the age of 19 and about to be forced into marriage, this is Alice's second trip to Wonderland. I'm glad Tim Burton and his team came up with a new story that still featured all the great characters from the original source material. That's also where the weakest part of the movie lies. The dialogue given to the characters is great, but the script is razor thin. I think if more effort went into this particular aspect, I might have given it five stars. I saw it in IMAX 3-D and the visuals are as grand and beautiful as you would expect from Burton. It's not quite as eye-popping as Avatar, which was shot completely in IMAX 3-D, whereas, Alice in Wonderland was upconverted (Clash of the Titans did the same thing to bad effect). The music by Danny Elfman is some of his best stuff in recent years and the costumes/makeup are top notch. Aside from the look of film, the acting also makes it very memorable. There are so many well animated and voice acted characters running around I don't know where to begin. I guess I'll start with those made of flesh and blood. I didn't like Depp's take on Willy Wonka that much, and I'm a big fan of his, but his Mad Hatter is just the right amount of crazy. His voice goes back and forth from having a lisp to sounding like William Wallace from Braveheart. His look is so jarring, you probably wouldn't even know it was him if you somehow dodged all the advertisements before entering the theater. Helena Bonham Carter played the Red Queen brilliantly. I couldn't take my eyes off her giant head. Anne Hathaway really surprised me here (in a good way) with her take on the White Queen and it was nice to see Crispin Glover back on the big screen in a role that suited him. Last, but certainly not least, Mia Wasikowska was absolutely captivating as Alice. The way she talked and her reactions were just what the film needed in it's central role. All the digital animal characters were great, but my favorites were the Cheshire Cat, voice by Stephen Fry, and the March Hare voiced by Paul Whitehouse. I'm somewhat surprised that the combination of violence and meanness, along with the smoking Blue Caterpillar didn't get this a PG-13 rating. It's not too harsh, but young kids might get a little freaked out. Overall, Alice in Wonderland looks like a polished jewel, has great acting/voice acting, wonderful music and even manages to get quite a few laughs in the process. If only the simple story didn't let me down in the end, this could have been a classic in the making. Even still, I wouldn't mind Tim Burton taking us on another trip down the rabbit hole in a few years.

I am 60 years old and when this book was read to me and I saw the original movie of Alice in wonderland, I was amazed at the movie which was quite different than this. Watch the original movie, and compare it. I do like it definitely!

Having grown up with the classic Disney cartoon version, I find this rendition no better or worse (overall), but just different. A good compliment to the cartoon version, but not sure I would buy it if I could only have one (eg if stuck on a deserted island). It's better than the average movie, but not the best. It includes Tim Burton (director), Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham Carter: it's weird, which perfectly fits Wonderland, but entertaining. Acting is solid, though I don't remember Alice being quite as quirky as Wasikowska's portrayal, but maybe I didn't pay enough attention when recently rewatching the cartoon classic and my childhood memories are misremembered (ie Alice is the only "normal" character). Some of the big/sprawling scenes mixing live-action and CGI seem "off", where the live-action seems to visually stick-out from the CGI, but it's minor (though possible to do right as Tron: Legacy shows from the same year, but admittedly its CGI landscapes were less detailed). No Digital / Disney Movies Anywhere, just DVD & Blu-ray. Blu-ray is better than the HD digital version (and bandwidth isn't the problem with 30 Mbps downstream), but reserved for family movie night (to keep it out of grubby little kids' hands). Due to the ubiquity of Disney Movies Anywhere (eg mobile app, website, third-party online services available on smart TVs) I'm finding the digital version has more utility than the DVD version (that I historically ripped and hosted on my home network to prevent the children from handling/damaging the discs), so I would have preferred Blu-ray + Digital, but that's not what was on-sale or available.

I love johnny depp movies and its additional collection to my disney movies.

Alice In Wonderland live action was really awesome.