Was Hook not a lesson to us all not to tamper with works of wonder? Tim Burton’s mystifyingly popular re-imagining of Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories does many things wrong even just on a surface level: that tedious Danny Elfman score; the weird obsession with violence against eyes; the torpor that infects everyone as they stand stiffly in front of green screens; the lazy cribbing from the Lord of the Rings films; introducing the amazing Mia Wazikowska to a wider audience with such an unchallenging role, etc.

Most egregious, though, is the decision to treat the original stories as prequel to a standard Chosen-One-against-the-Evil-Empire fantasy plot that ran out of juice years ago. All Burton can bring to this overused plot…

¨You used to be much more...muchier. You`ve lost your muchness.¨

Those are the words the Mad Hatter tells Alice after she has returned to Wonderland, but now much older as a 19 year old girl who has no memory of her last visit there when she was a little kid. Tim Burton directs this classic Disney tale and he teams up once again with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. They have already worked together in Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton`s Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Depp and Burton have a profound respect for each other and it is always a pleasure to experience one of their creative films. When I heard they were going to work together…

'Alice in Wonderland' has become a poster child for the overly CGI-ed, clumsy re-tellings of familiar tales, but while some of the criticism is justified, there's still plenty to like. Most of the problems are connected with the story - ironically, it makes too much sense. Burton had said that he had never been able to connect to Alice emotionally since all she ever does is wander around aimlessly from one bizarre encounter to another, but that's kind of the point, Tim - that there is none. Here Alice is burdened with some teenager angst, which ultimately is rather useless and weighs the narrative down.

However, when the film is un-Disney-fied, it's great. Burton wonderfully manages to recreate the nightmarish…

Het is haast onmogelijk om te schrijven over 'Alice in Wonderland' zonder een woord te reppen over de polemiek die als een donkere schaduw over Burtons jongste hing. Bioscoopexploitanten besloten de film immers te boycotten omdat ze hun winsten alsmaar zagen slinken door de steeds korter wordende window (de tijd tussen de release van een film in de bioscoop en de film op dvd). Heel de heisa indachtig zou je haast vergeten dat Burtons knieval voor de grote studiobonzen ook nog een hersenspinsel is van één van de meest begiftigde cineasten van het moment. Maar driewerf helaas: ons hart dat vroeger duchtig klopte voor Burtons exploten (Edward Scissorhands! Ed Wood!) smeult nu nog amper. Mesdames & messieurs: Burtons nieuwste is een…