Sticking reasonably close to the original tale of the book, Tim Burtons vision of Alice in Wonderland is ready made for 3D cinema with the colourful, psychedelic world suiting the medium perfectly. We find Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as a teenage girl who’s quirky ways don’t fit in with the rest of her society class but this doesn’t stop Hamish Ascot (Leo Bill) from wanting her hand in marriage but only for the betterment of his family so Alice wants no part of this and runs away only to fall down a rabbit hole and into the fantasy land. Along the way she meets, and is assisted to varying degrees, by all the characters from the books in order to help her cause to defeat the Jabberwocky (briefly voiced, but superbly so by Christopher Lee) and restore the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) to power.

There were times when Wasikowska seemed perfect for the role as she played Alice with a mix of innocence and determination with equal measure but once she needed to carry out a scene with one of the stronger actors this is when she felt like a background piece rather than the central figure that the story should have dictated.

Johnny Depp is one of the few actors who can take a weird character and make it unique each time. Be it Jack Sparrow, Wonka, Edward Scissorhands or any of the others he has portrayed the one thing you cannot deny is that they are memorable and in this case, while quiet annoying at times, his Mad Matter is near perfect. The dual personalities of his quiet demeanour when happy to the gruff Scottish accent he develops when annoyed is a great trait that he brought and it is his character, more than any other, which is most memorable, even above the only other contender the ever childish and easy to anger Red Queen, despite Helena Bonham Carters best efforts. The rest of the acting is fine but neither Crispin Clover as the Knave of Hearts or Hathaway as the White Queen get a lot to work with though the voice acting talent is excellent with Timothy Spall, Barbara Windsor, Alan Rickman, Matt Lucas, Stephen Fry and Michael Sheen all adding character to the creatures.

While far from being a great film, it does hit the right notes in terms of bringing a version of the classic tale to the big screen and, as you would expect, Burton’s vision is decidedly dark which was a nice step away from the cartoonish look of previous versions but it does suffer from feeling the need to cram in action sequences to keep the masses interested, when they are not necessarily needed.

DJ Speaks Rating: 5.5 Out Of 10