Tim Burton: 5 Awesome Movies & 5 That Sucked

2. Alice In Wonderland (2010)

As a big budget production for Disney, expectations were high for Burton€™s quasi-sequel to Lewis Caroll's classic fable Alice In Wonderland. Once again Johnny Depp stars in a quirky role as the Mad Hatter supported by a cast including Helena Bonham Carter and Stephen Fry, along with some truly eye-popping computer animated visuals. Sadly, it€™s another messy collaboration which takes huge liberties with the source material and struggles to offer a truly engaging narrative within the overwhelmingly surreal visuals. Depp is in full-on quirky mode, giving his most distractingly weird performance since his take on Willy Wonka, while there€™s something rather unsettling about the computer enhanced mocap performances. Helana Bonham Carter€™s big headed Red Queen is like looking at Miranda Richardson€™s Queeny from Blackadder through a distorted magnifying glass. If you€™re after a more engaging and arguably even more surreal interpretation of Alice in Wonderland, you€™re far better off seeking out Jan Švankmajer€™s weird and wonderful mix of stop-motion animation and live action in €˜Alice€™.
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Contributor

Cult horror enthusiast and obsessive videogame fanatic. Stephen considers Jaws to be the single greatest film of all-time and is still pining over the demise of Sega's Dreamcast. As well regularly writing articles for WhatCulture, Stephen also contributes reviews and features to Ginx TV.