Review of Disney’s Alice Through The Looking Glass (*In theatres May 27th)
Let me first start off by saying that I chose to take my 12-yr old neighbor instead of my own 6 and 9-yr old kids, just for fear of there being “scary” parts of which neither of my children are fans. However, I did run into some close family friends at the theater, and they had their 7 and 9yr olds in tow. The following review stems from a collaboration of all of our views on the film. Before going, I must admit that I did read a few reviews online, none of which seemed overly impressed by the movie. I am happy to report that ALL of us found ourselves in opposition of these critics!
Alice Through The Looking Glass takes us back to Wonderland (now referred to as the Underland by Alice). This time Alice is a strong-willed, ship captain, and travels back in time to try and help her friend, the Mad Hatter, find his family to whom he believes to be still alive. Alice meets Time, a somewhat dark character at first, who holds the key to allowing Alice to travel back-and-forth through time to alter the past, in turn, trying to prevent some of the future from occurring. As she travels through time, she does go in and out of Wonderland, allowing us to run into the old characters we all love from the original movie – White Rabbit, White Queen, Cheshire Cat, and Tweedledee and Tweedledum – which give us the occasional humorous parts throughout the film. Overall though, the film is very much a detailed story, all revolving around time and time travel. For this reason only, younger children (under 7) may have a difficult time understanding it all. Also, there are a few “dark” parts of the movie, which involve minimal violence and frightening storms and fire, which may be a bit scary for younger audiences.
I took the opinions of 6 people (3 adults and the 3 varying aged children), and everyone enjoyed the movie. We all liked the story line, and the graphics and 3D action was great. The characters were fantastic, Johnny Depp as the Hatter, and Sacha Baron Cohen as Time. And lets not forget the Red Queen — she was also really great in the movie.
I would definitely recommend seeing Alice Through The Looking Glass. Possibly with a bit older children, only for the reason of understanding the concept of time in the film, and also for a few “dark/scary” portions. But again, the 7-yr old who attended really liked it, and only said she was scared two times. *She did not quite understand the actual time theme to the movie, but that did not equate to her disliking it at all. In the end, all three kids said they liked it and want to buy it when it comes out on DVD! I’d say it’s a winner!
