Alice Through the Looking Glass | |
---|---|
Directed by | James Bobin |
Written by | Linda Woolverton |
Based on | Characters by Lewis Carroll |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Stuart Dryburgh |
Edited by | Andrew Weisblum |
Music by | Danny Elfman |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 113 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $170 million [2] |
Box office | $299.5 million [1] |
Alice Through the Looking Glass is a 2016 American live-action/animated fantasy adventure film produced by Walt Disney Pictures in association with Roth Films, Team Todd, and Tim Burton Productions. It was directed by James Bobin, written by Linda Woolverton, and produced by Tim Burton, Joe Roth, and the filmmaking duo of Suzanne and Jennifer Todd. It is based on the characters created by Lewis Carroll and is the sequel to Alice in Wonderland (2010). [3] Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Matt Lucas, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Barbara Windsor, Timothy Spall, Paul Whitehouse, Lindsay Duncan, Geraldine James, and Leo Bill reprise their roles from the previous film with Rhys Ifans and Sacha Baron Cohen joining the cast.
In the film, a now 22-year-old Alice comes across a magical looking glass that takes her back to Wonderland, where she finds that the Mad Hatter is acting madder than usual and wants to discover the truth about his family. Alice then travels through time (with the "Chronosphere"), comes across friends and enemies at different points of their lives, and embarks on a race to save the Hatter before time runs out.
Alice Through the Looking Glass premiered in London on May 10, 2016, and was theatrically released on May 27, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who praised its visuals but criticized its story. [4] It was also a box-office bomb, grossing roughly $299.5 million against a production budget of $170 million. [5]
For three years, Alice Kingsleigh has been following her father's footsteps and sailing the high seas. Returning to London from China, she learns that her ex-fiancé Hamish Ascot has taken over his deceased father's company and plans to have Alice sign over her father's ship in exchange for her family home.
Alice follows a butterfly she recognizes as Absolem, who was previously a caterpillar, and returns to Wonderland through a mirror. Alice is greeted by the White Queen, the White Rabbit, the Tweedles, the Dormouse, the March Hare, the Bloodhound and the Cheshire Cat, who reveal that the Mad Hatter is acting madder than usual because his family is missing.
Alice tries to console the Hatter, but he remains certain that his family survived the attack of the Jabberwocky. Believing that finding his family is the only way to restore his health, The White Queen sends Alice to consult Time and convince him to save the Hatter's family in the past. The Queen warns Alice that history will be destroyed if a person's past and present selves meet. In Time's Castle of Eternity lies the Chronosphere, an object that controls all of time in Wonderland. After Time tells Alice that altering the past is impossible, she steals the Chronosphere and travels back in time, shortly after finding the exiled Red Queen in Time's care. The Red Queen orders Time to pursue Alice, who accidentally travels to the Red Queen's coronation. There, a younger Mad Hatter mocks the Red Queen when the royal crown does not fit her abnormal head, and her crown breaks. When her father deems her unfit to rule, after she deathly threatened her subjects for mocking her, and passes the title of queen to her younger sister, the White Queen, after his death, the Red Queen throws a tantrum that causes her head to swell.
Alice learns of an event in both the Queens' pasts that causes friction between the two and travels back in time again, hoping to change the Red Queen's character and stop the Jabberwocky from killing the Hatter's family. The young White Queen steals a tart from her mother and leaves the crumbs under her sister's bed. When confronted by their mother, she lies and lets her sister take the blame, causing the princess to run out of the castle. Alice sees her about to run into a clock being carried across the square; believing this to be the event that changes her head, she shoves the clock out of the way. However, the princess still falls and hits her head. Alice is confronted by a weakened Time, who berates her for putting all of time in danger. She runs into a nearby mirror back into the real world, where she wakes up in a mental hospital, diagnosed with female hysteria. With the help of her mother, she returns to Wonderland, travels to the Jabberwocky attack and discovers that the Hatter's family did not die, but were captured by the Red Queen's Red Knights.
Returning to the present, Alice discovers the Mad Hatter is at the brink of death. After Alice tearfully says she believes him, the Hatter awakens and reforms back to his normal self. The Wonderlanders go to the Red Queen's castle and find the Hatter's family shrunk and trapped in an ant farm. The Red Queen apprehends them and steals the Chronosphere from Alice, taking her sister back to the day she lied about the tart to hide behind a door and listen to the scene. The White Queen whispers 'no' as her younger self denies stealing the tart and the Red Queen is so furious she bursts through the door and screams 'liar' at her sister's younger self. The young Red Queen sees her older self, creating a time paradox, and first their faces and bodies rust before all of Wonderland rusts.
Using the Chronosphere, Alice and the Hatter race back to the present, where Alice runs for her life to place the Chronosphere back in its original place. Initially she outruns the rust, but is stopped with her hand just above the stand. Sparks make the connection and the rust dissolves. The Mad Hatter reunites with his family, while the White Queen apologizes to the redeemed Red Queen for lying. Alice bids her friends farewell and returns to the real world.
Upon Alice's return, her mother refuses to turn Alice's ship over to Hamish. Alice and her mother start their own company and travel on its behalf.
The film was announced via Variety in December 2012. [14] Bobin was first approached about the project while doing post-production work on Disney's Muppets Most Wanted . [15] Of being asked, Bobin has said that "I just couldn't pass it up", as he has a passion for the works of Lewis Carroll as well as history in general. [16] On January 21, 2014, the film was again retitled to Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass. [17] [18]
In July 2013, it was announced that Johnny Depp would return as the Hatter, [19] with Mia Wasikowska's return confirmed the following November. [20] In January 2014, Sacha Baron Cohen joined the cast to play Time. [21] In May 2014, Rhys Ifans joined the cast to play Zanik Hightopp, the Mad Hatter's father. [22] In developing the character of "Time", Bobin sought to avoid creating a "straight-up bad guy", noting that it would be "a bit dull", and also that the role in that universe already existed in the form of The Red Queen. [15] Instead, Bobin sought to make Time a "Twit", further explaining that "There's no one better at playing the confident idiot trope than Sacha Baron Cohen", and adding that "it was very much with Sacha in mind". [15] Additionally, Toby Jones and John Sessions were originally announced to voice Wilkins and Humpty Dumpty in the film, the roles were eventually given to Matt Vogel and Wally Wingert. [12] [13]
Principal photography began on August 4, 2014, at Shepperton Studios. [23] In August 2014, filming took place in Gloucester Docks, which included the use of at least four historic ships: Kathleen and May , Irene , Excelsior , and the Earl of Pembroke , the last of which was renamed The Wonder for filming. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] Principal photography ended on October 31, 2014. [29]
The film's score was composed by Danny Elfman. The soundtrack was released on May 27, 2016, by Walt Disney Records. Pink recorded the song "Just Like Fire" for the film, and also covered Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", only used in the film's promotional material.
All music composed by Danny Elfman.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Alice" | 6:35 |
2. | "Saving the Ship" | 3:40 |
3. | "Watching Time" | 5:10 |
4. | "Looking Glass" | 3:30 |
5. | "To the Rescue" | 0:56 |
6. | "Hatter House" | 3:47 |
7. | "The Red Queen" | 2:29 |
8. | "The Chronosphere" | 4:15 |
9. | "Warning Hightopps" | 2:23 |
10. | "Tea Time Forever" | 1:45 |
11. | "Oceans of Time" | 1:15 |
12. | "Hat Heartbreak" | 2:27 |
13. | "Asylum Escape" | 4:06 |
14. | "Hatter's Deathbed" | 3:22 |
15. | "Finding the Family" | 2:04 |
16. | "Time Is Up" | 4:24 |
17. | "World's End" | 1:50 |
18. | "Truth" | 4:09 |
19. | "Goodbye Alice" | 2:13 |
20. | "Kingsleigh & Kingsleigh" | 1:19 |
21. | "Seconds Song" | 0:11 |
22. | "Friends United" | 1:06 |
23. | "Time's Castle" | 1:49 |
24. | "The Seconds" | 1:55 |
25. | "Clock Shop" | 0:50 |
26. | "They're Alive" | 2:23 |
27. | "Story of Time" | 3:03 |
28. | "Just Like Fire" (performed by Pink) | 3:35 |
Total length: | 76:53 |
Alice Through the Looking Glass premiered in London on May 10, 2016, and was theatrically released on May 27, 2016, in the United States by Walt Disney Pictures. [30]
Alice Through the Looking Glass grossed $77 million in the United States and Canada and $222.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $299.5 million, against a production budget of $170 million. [1] The Hollywood Reporter estimated the film lost the studio around $70 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues. [31]
Alice Through the Looking Glass opened in the United States and Canada on May 27, 2016, alongside X-Men: Apocalypse , and was initially projected to gross $55–60 million from 3,763 theaters over its four-day Memorial Day opening weekend, but projections were continuously revised downwards due to poor word of mouth. [32] It had the added benefit of playing in over 3,100 3D theaters, 380 IMAX screens, 77 premium large formats and 79 D-box locations. [33] [34] It made $1.5 million from Thursday previews (to the first film's $3.9 million) [35] and just $9.7 million on its first day, compared to the $41 million opening Friday of its predecessor. [36] Through its opening weekend, it earned $26.9 million, which when compared to its predecessor's $116 million opening is down 70%. [32] While 3D represented 71% ($82 million) of the original film's opening gross, 3D constituted only 41% ($11 million) for this sequel, with 29% coming from traditional 2D shows, 11% from IMAX, and 1% from premium large formats. [37] It was the studio's third production with a low Memorial Day opening after Tomorrowland in 2015 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2010. [37] During its first week, the film grossed $40.1 million. [38] In its second weekend, the film grossed $11.3 million (a 55.1% drop), finishing 4th at the box office. [39]
The film was released across 43 countries (72% of its total market place) the same weekend as the US, and was estimated to gross $80–100 million in its opening weekend. It faced competition from Warcraft and X-Men: Apocalypse. [40] It ended up grossing $62.7 million, which is well below the projections of which $4.1 million came from IMAX shows. [41] It had an opening weekend gross in Mexico ($4.5 million), Brazil ($4.1 million), and Russia ($3.9 million). [41] In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it had an unsuccessful opening by grossing just £2.23 million ($3.1 million) during its opening weekend, a mere 21% of the first film's £10.56 million ($15.2 million) opening from 603 theaters. It debuted in second place behind X-Men: Apocalypse which was on its second weekend of play. [42] In China, it had an opening day of an estimated $7.3 million [43] and went on to score the second biggest Disney live-action (non-Marvel or Lucasfilm) opening ever with $26.6 million, behind only The Jungle Book . [41] However, this was down from its $35–45 million projections. [44] It debuted at the No. 1 spot among newly released film in Japan with $5.2 million and $4.1 million on Saturday and Sunday. By comparison, the first film opened with $14 million on its way to a $133.6 million a total. [45] [46]
Alice Through the Looking Glass was released on Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-ray 3D and digital download on October 18, 2016, by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. [47] [48] It debuted at No. 2 in the Blu-ray Disc sales charts. [49]
Rotten Tomatoes reports that 28% of 261 reviews are positive, and the average rating is 4.5/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Alice Through the Looking Glass is just as visually impressive as its predecessor, but that isn't enough to cover for an underwhelming story that fails to live up to its classic characters." [4] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 34 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. [50] However, audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade earned by its predecessor, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 79% and a "definite recommend" of 51%. [51]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote in his review, "What does all this have to do with Lewis Carroll? Hardly anything" and that overall, "It's just an excuse on which to hang two trite overbearing fables and one amusing one". [52] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the movie 1.5 out of 4 stars and called the film, "gaudy, loud, complacent, and vulgar." [53] Stephen Whitty of New York Daily News called the film "hugely expensive and extravagantly stupid" and that, overall, the movie "is just one more silly Hollywood mashup, an innocent fantasy morphed into a noisy would-be blockbuster". [54] Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com was deeply critical of Alice Through the Looking Glass, calling it "junk rehashed from a movie that was itself a rehash of Lewis Carroll" and describing it as "the most offensive kind of film" due to its blockbuster tropes, lack of magic and wonder, and perceived sole purpose of financial gain. [55]
Matthew Lickona of San Diego Reader said that while he found the visual effects to be "stupidly expensive" and the story familiar, he called it "a solid kids' movie in the old style". [56]
Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel | Alice Through the Looking Glass | Nominated | [57] |
Worst Supporting Actor | Johnny Depp | |||
Worst Screen Combo | Johnny Depp and His Vomitously Vibrant Costume | |||
Golden Trailer Awards | Best Animation Family | "Poem" | [58] | |
The Don LaFontaine Award for Best Voice Over | "Poem" | |||
Best Fantasy Adventure TV Spot | "Grammys" | |||
Best Original Score TV Spot | "Grammys" | |||
Grammy Awards | Best Song Written For Visual Media | "Just Like Fire" – Oscar Holter, Max Martin, Pink and Shellback | [59] | |
Hollywood Music in Media Awards | Best Song – Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film | "Just Like Fire" – Oscar Holter, Max Martin, Pink and Shellback | Won | [60] [61] |
People's Choice Awards | Favorite Family Movie | Alice Through the Looking Glass | Nominated | [62] |
Satellite Awards | Best Art Direction and Production Design | Dan Hennah | [63] | |
Best Costume Design | Colleen Atwood | |||
Saturn Awards | Best Costume Design | Colleen Atwood | [64] | |
Teen Choice Awards | Choice Music: Song from a Movie or TV Show | "Just Like Fire" by Pink | [65] | |
Visual Effects Society Awards | Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature | Jacob Clark, Joseph Pepper, Klaus Seitschek and Cosku Turhan | [66] | |
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel published on 27 December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book.
Alice in Wonderland is a 1933 American pre-Code fantasy film adapted from the novels by Lewis Carroll. The film was produced by Paramount Pictures, featuring an all-star cast. It is all live action, except for the Walrus and The Carpenter sequence, which was animated by Harman-Ising Studio. The film was seen by Walt Disney, and inspired him to create his company's 1951 animated adaptation.
The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Carroll. The phrase "mad as a hatter" pre-dates Carroll's works. The Hatter and the March Hare are referred to as "both mad" by the Cheshire Cat, in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in the sixth chapter titled "Pig and Pepper".
The March Hare is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
The Queen of Hearts is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. She is a childish, foul-tempered monarch whom Carroll himself describes as "a blind fury", and who is quick to give death sentences at even the slightest of offenses. One of her most famous lines is the oft-repeated "Off with his/her head!" / "Off with their heads!"
Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen, and was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. With the voices of Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna and Kathryn Beaumont in her film debut, the film follows a young girl, Alice, who falls down a rabbit hole and enters a nonsensical world, Wonderland, which is ruled by the Queen of Hearts, while encountering strange creatures, including the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.
Adventures in Wonderland is a 1992–95 American live-action/puppet musical television series based on the novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll as well as the 1951 animated film. In the series, Alice, is portrayed as a girl who can come and go from Wonderland simply by walking through her mirror.
Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871) have been highly popular in their original forms, and have served as the basis for many subsequent works since they were published. They have been adapted directly into other media, their characters and situations have been appropriated into other works, and these elements have been referenced innumerable times as familiar elements of shared culture. Simple references to the two books are too numerous to list; this list of works based on Alice in Wonderland focuses on works based specifically and substantially on Carroll's two books about the character of Alice.
An unbirthday is an event celebrated on all days of the year which are not a person's birthday. It is a neologism which first appeared in Lewis Carroll's 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass. The concept gave rise to "The Unbirthday Song" in the 1951 animated feature film Alice in Wonderland.
The Dormouse is a character in "A Mad Tea-Party", Chapter VII from the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay written by Linda Woolverton and produced by Walt Disney Pictures. The film stars Mia Wasikowska in the title role, with Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Crispin Glover, while featuring the voices of Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, and Timothy Spall. A live-action adaptation and re-imagining of Lewis Carroll's works, as well as a remake of Disney's 1951 traditionally animated film, the film follows Alice Kingsleigh, a nineteen-year-old who accidentally falls down a rabbit hole, returns to Wonderland, and alongside the Mad Hatter helps restore the White Queen to her throne by fighting against the Red Queen and her Jabberwocky, a dragon that terrorizes Wonderland's inhabitants.
James Bobin is a British filmmaker. He worked as a director and writer on Da Ali G Show and helped create the characters of Ali G, Borat, and Brüno. With Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement, he co-created Flight of the Conchords. He directed the feature films The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) from Disney, and Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) from Paramount Pictures.
The Red Queen is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Lewis Carroll's fantasy 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass. She is often confused with the Queen of Hearts from the previous book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), although the two are very different.
Alice is a 2009 television miniseries that was originally broadcast on Canadian cable television channel Showcase and an hour later on American cable television channel Syfy. The miniseries is a reimagining of the classic Lewis Carroll novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), taking place about 150 years later with science fiction and additional fantasy elements added. The miniseries, produced by Reunion Pictures is three hours long, split into two parts, which premiered on Sunday, December 6, 2009, and Monday, December 7, 2009, respectively. Writer and director Nick Willing previously directed a 1999 adaptation of the books that followed the story more closely; however, Alice is intended to be a modern interpretation, imagining how Wonderland might have evolved over the last 143 years. The mini-series was partially shot in the Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.
The Puppy is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He appears in the chapter "The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill".
Alice, the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll's novels Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), has been adapted to several media.
Alice in Wonderland, or simply Alice, is a Disney media franchise, commencing in 1951 with the theatrical release of the animated film Alice in Wonderland. The film is an adaptation of the books by Lewis Carroll, the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass, which featured his character Alice. A live-action film directed by Tim Burton was released in 2010.
Tarrant Hightopp, also known as the Mad Hatter, is a fictional character in the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland and its 2016 sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass, based upon the original character from Lewis Carroll's Alice novels. He is portrayed by actor Johnny Depp. He serves as the films' male protagonist.