Alice Through the Looking Glass
2016 · Directed by James Bobin
Original language: English
- adventure
- family
- fantasy
The story
Alice Kingsleigh returns to Underland and faces a new adventure in saving the Mad Hatter.
What it’s like
Saturated, candy-bright colour pushed to the edge of garishness: Underland's crimson Queen's palace, lurid turquoise seas, and gilded Victorian interiors shot in sweeping, digitally polished widescreen with a glossy CGI sheen. Time itself becomes a visual motif, with a vast clockwork mechanism of gears and ticking machinery, and a sequence through a chronosphere that rushes past in streaks of light and metallic reflection. The score swells with orchestral bombast and whimsical woodwind, and the sound design leans into clanking mechanisms and echoing caverns. The vibe is busy, bright and wistful, with a melancholy undertow about lost time and family ties. It suits a weekend afternoon or a family movie night, and pairs well with a comfort rewatch of the earlier film. Pacing is brisk and action-forward, with a few tense chase beats and some dark-fantasy menace from the Queen's court and a villainous Time figure. Violence is stylised, mostly bloodless fantasy combat and peril, with no gore and only mild scares. Emotionally it is warm and earnest, centring on a young woman learning to trust her own judgment and a fractured friendship slowly mending. Made for fans of whimsical adventure who enjoy elaborate production design and don't mind a loud, spectacle-first tone.
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