The Oregon Faith Report - Faith News from Oregon

March 6, 2010

Family-Faith Film Review: Alice in Wonderland
By Catholic Office of Film and Broadcasting

Alice in Wonderland—Very loosely inspired by, but not recklessly departing from, Lewis Carroll’s famous books, this 3-D fantasy-adventure mixes animation and live action as it follows its plucky Victorian heroine (Mia Wasikowska) — here a 19-year-old — down the rabbit hole into a strange, nonsensical realm where she conspires with the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and various frazzled fauna to end the despotic rule of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter). Although younger viewers will be frightened by certain sequences, director Tim Burton refrains from indulging in the more macabre or avant-garde aspects of the tale; and yet, while it conveys a salubrious message with vaguely Christian echoes, the film’s aesthetic impact is lessened by the lack of a coherent visual style. Sequences of fantasy action and violence, including a skewered animal eyeball, human characters striking one another; images of mild animal cruelty, some discussion of beheadings, a character smoking a water pipe and one instance of light profanity.  A-II — adults and adolescents. (PG) 2010. Full Film Review of Alice in Wonderland here.