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 2nd 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.
