ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2016) movie

Genre               |  Fantasy Adventure

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   113 minutes

Released         |   26 May 2016

cast

Mia Wasikowska ... Alice Kingsleigh
Johnny Depp ... Tarrant Hightopp
​Helena Bonham Carter ... Iracebeth
Anne Hathaway ... Mirana
Sacha Baron Cohen ... Time

director

James Bobin

writer

​Linda Woolverton ... (screenplay)
 
Lewis Carroll ... (books)

cinematographer

​Stuart Dryburgh

music

​Danny Elfman

film editor

​Andrew Weisblum

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box office result

Worldwide             $299,457,024 ​  ​  

Australia                 $​​​​​6,472,106

North America        $​77,041,381 ​

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the best dialogue

Red Queen: [from trailer] Hello, Alice.
Mad Hatter: Aaahhh!

Time: He is me and I am he
Time: All of that was or ever shall be.

James Harcourt: A full cargo aboard, Captain. Shall we commence with Kingsleigh and Kingsleigh's maiden voyage?
Helen Kingsleigh: Time and tide wait for no man, Mr. Harcourt.
Alice Kingsleigh: Or, indeed, woman.
James Harcourt: Captain aboard. Full sail...

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ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2016) IMAGES

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Posters

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Posters

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

​After slipping through a mirror, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) finds herself back in Underland with the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Her friends tell her that the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is in a funk over the loss of his family. Hoping to save his loved ones, Alice steals the Chronosphere from Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) to travel into the past. While there, she encounters the younger Hatter and the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter).

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKIN GLASS (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 24 May 2016
​Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is an unexpected follow-up to Tim Burton’s equally unexpected 2010 box office hit, ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS. While this new film lacks the outright absurdity of the first, ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS retains the strong visual style established by Burton but opts for a time-tripping adventure that allows Director James Bobin to tell a more expansive tale. The story turns into something that TV insiders call a “procedural”, where the main character(s) spend the movie searching for clues about what happened to somebody earlier in the piece, and has many similarities to BACK TO THE FUTURE: PART II, as Alice (Mia Wasikowska) sets out to help her friend, (Mad) Hatter Tarrant Hightop (Johnny Depp), who has lapsed into a serious funk about what happened to his family many years before.

ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS opens with a wonderfully conceived segment in the Straits of Malacca, as the now Captain Alice Kingsleigh sales her father’s ship - the Wonder - through the narrow passage of water pursued by three Pirate ships. It's clear the saviour of Wonderland has grown into a mature, capable leader, but she has not lost her belief that anything is possible. Her dreams of returning to the Far East are shattered when her former suitor  Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill) uses his position of power to threaten Alice and her mother Helen (Lindsay Duncan). If Alice doesn't relinquish the Wonder, her mother will be dispossessed of their family home. On cue, the stress of this real-world dilemma is overtaken by the appearance of Absolem (voiced by Alan Rickman), the strange blue caterpillar from the first film, now a butterfly, beguiles Alice back into Wonderland.

Returning to the magical world, Alice finds all her former companions in a much-depressed state. Upon enquiring as to their reason for such glumness, they inform her that The Hatter (Johnny Depp) has lost the will to live. Alice rushes to her friend’s bedside, but is driven out by The Hatter himself when tells him that she doesn't believe it's possible to bring his deceased family back from the dead.

​Upon her return to White Queen Mirana (Anne Hathaway), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) and the rest of the characters, Alice learns that only Time (Sacha Baron Cohen) can help her unravel the mystery of how Hatter’s family died by allowing her to use a device that controls the flow of time: the Kronosphere. Alice’s overtures are rebuffed by Time, but the unexpected arrival of Red Queen Iracebeth (Helena Bonham Carter) at Time’s castle fortress allows her to steal the device and begin her quest across the sea of time to save her friend’s life.

While there is an internal logic to the plot, ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, ultimately, feels more like a series of vignettes stitched together to approximate something that runs around about the length of a feature film. (In this case, 103 minutes).

With the exception of Alice, the different groups of characters featured throughout the film are disconnected from one another and, only at the end, come together in an albeit contrived manner as Alice literally races “the past” to save “the present”. There is little reason for ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS to exist other than to exploit the ongoing potential of the Disney-owned rights to Lewis Carroll’s famous literary character.

Unlike the first film in the series, THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS doesn't have “curiosity” factor. Audiences are familiar with the Wonderland landscape and its collection of oddball characters. While Disney’s “Go To” screenwriter of fantasy fare, Linda Woolverton, tries to expand both Alice and Hatter, very little other characterisation exists. Even Sacha Baron Cohen’s Time, the film's other main player, is just a broad sketch who lacks any real motivation other than as an automaton whose sole purpose is to keep the moments ticking by.

Thankfully, the film's short runtime prevents this new tale from wearing too thin and wraps itself up, dare it be said, just in the nick of time!

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