Alice Through The Looking Glass Trailer

One of the weird things about the late 2000s trend of up-jumping classic fairy tales, seminal works of literature we all know from childhood, and even bible stories and myths into fantasy blockbusters is that very few of these films have actually been successful.  Sure, we’ve cranked out film after film in this genre like Mirror Mirror, Jack the Giant Slayer, Pan, Hansel & Gretel: Witchhunters, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Dracula Untold, Hercules and countless more but for the most part they’ve all been total failures, regardless of actual quality.  That same disclaimer, regardless of quality, applies to the smattering of financial success within the genre, almost all of which seem to come from the pop culture warriors at Disney. 

To some extent it makes sense that Disney are the folks making the most money on easily accessible revisions to classic fairy tales, myths, and literature given that’s been their bread and butter since before World War 2.  At the same time however, Disney did more than anyone to launch this particular trend with the 2010 mega-hit Alice in Wonderland, which ended up the 2^nd highest grossing film of the year, beating out competitors like Harry Potter 7 and Twilight: Eclipse.  Now, Disney returns to the Alice well 6 years later with a sequel minus Tim Burton entitled Alice Through The Looking Glass.

I’m really not sure what I expected from this trailer, only that I was still both horrified and disappointed by what I got.  Exactly nothing about this trailer inspires any kind of confidence as it seems to be making all the same terrible mistakes as the first film again only maybe a little bit worse.  That’s actually a good place to start making my feelings on the matter abundantly clear: Disney’s live action Alice in Wonderland film is absolutely terrible, an ugly, unpleasant mess with terrible directing, flat visuals, poor writing and a complete lack of mood, atmosphere, theme or anything that might be even remotely endearing.  If ever there was a signifier of “bad Disney,” IE the Mouse House living down to everyone’s expectations and legitimately stifling interesting creative voices the way critics have always claimed it’s Alice in Wonderland 2010.  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may have started Tim Burton and Johnny Depp’s decline in public favor but Alice in Wonderland cemented it.  Both men have spent more or less the last 3 years hiding from the mainstream and while Burton has at least tried to reform his image with the commendable if not terribly well discussed Big Eyes it’s a shame to see Depp crawling back to the Disney well again for another crack at this franchise. 

Additionally, Alice in Wonderland’s monster success compared to the relatively failure of Tron: Legacy that same year kicked off 4 years of terrible live action Disney flicks desperately trying to recapture the dull, gray “magic” of Alice in Wonderland, specifically it’s surprising efficiency and dispassion at adapting a complex fantasy work into a by the numbers action blockbuster.  Stuff like John Carter, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Lone Ranger all trace their awful origins back to this one movie so the fact it’s being rewarded with a sequel is absolutely horrifying to say nothing of incredibly disappointing given the murderers row of talent still lined up to be squandered in this flick.  As I mentioned, Johnny Depp may have fallen from public favor in recent years but he’s still a fine actor, as are Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, and Alan Rickman to say nothing of smaller but equally talented actors like Toby Jones, Michael Sheen, and Stephen Fry who’ve been roped into this film. 

To Alice Through the Looking Glass’s credit, this new film at least looks better visually rendered than the previous installment.  Wonderland’s uniquely cartoony affects are incredibly difficult to translate well even with the advent of CGI and the first film really fell down in this particular area.  A big part of this was the emphasis on gray, war torn landscape with the more fanciful elements acting as burned away fragments of a world now lost.  This new film seems to be set in a legitimately realized dark Wonderland that may still be glassy eyed and tonally dark but at least seems like a well realized world instead of a burnt out husk. 

That’s about where the praise ends though because everything else in this trailer is setting off red flags.  Mia Wasikowska looks every bit as dead eyed and unenthused as last time in the role of Alice while Depp looks equally obnoxious and manic as the Hatter and the fact that he’s now become even more integral to the plot is a turn for the absolute worst.  Additionally we have the return of Alice’s heroic destiny from the first film because Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, and Spider-Man peddling that particular ware wasn’t quite bad enough to convince anyone in Hollywood that a “heroic destiny” is a bad idea. 

On top of all this there’s Sacha Baron Cohen as the new villain “Time,” who looks like a pretty transparent reworking of the Gnome King from Disney’s own Return to Oz.  Cohen is basically the third side of the equilateral triangle of hit or miss Burton favorites formed alongside Depp and Carter so it’s not surprising he’d make his way into this sequel just a shame that he’ll probably end up as undirected as the rest of the cast.  Cohen’s been good in previous films like Hugo and Sweeney Todd but he needs a firm director, much like Depp and Carter, as without that he tends to descend into mugging to the camera and I get the sense that’s where Alice is going with his talents. 

I get that Disney’s at this weird crossroads of not wanting to accept a decrease in its cultural capital while simultaneously being unsure about a lot of its upcoming offerings so they want to hedge their bets with sequels to sure things like Frozen 2 and Maleficent 2 but this film looks like it’s going to end up causing decidedly more harm than good.  It’s the same kind of thinking that’s inflicting Finding Dory or Incredibles 2 on us in that it springs from a fundamental doubt in the capabilities of storytellers to maintain interest in new properties in the face of increased competition.  

The real shame is that there’s no reason for it as most of the time Disney originals like Frozen and Inside Out end up on top of the world while forced follow ups like Monsters University quickly fade from memory.  Only time will tell if Alice Through The Looking Glass is actually as bad as it seems or as successful as its predecessor but I wouldn’t be surprised if come this time next year we’re all still talking about Disney originals like Jungle Book while pandering follow-ups like this have long faded from mind.   

Alice Through The Looking Glass is scheduled for release May 27, 2016


if you liked this article please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter