YMMV / Alice in Wonderland (2010)

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Interpretations that the White Queen is evil are not uncommon. This is actually an interpretation somewhat supported by Anne Hathaway, who claims that she tries as hard as she can to not give in to her "inner darkness".
  • The Lord Ascot: Did he sincerely believe Alice was her father's daughter? Or did he give her an internship to tighten his hold over her father's company now that she was not marrying his half-wit son? Oh, sure, he was polite and gracious enough, but going along with his wife's plan of an arranged marriage without the consent and knowledge of the unsuspecting bride?
  • Alice at the end: Oh, this is fun... Did she leave Underland because there's no place like home, or because she realized Underland was just as restricted as Victorian England because destiny says so, and home is a little more free?
  • Did she travel to China to become a woman of the modern, career-driven feminist archetype? Or is she going to ditch the company first chance she gets and return to Underland? Hey, before she sailed off she'd pretty much wrapped up her life in England, canceled the engagement, set her brother-in-law straight, said goodbye to her mother and sister, and most importantly, ensured her father's dream reached beyond the limits of his life.
  • When the Knave of Hearts is told he will be chained to The Red Queen for the rest of their lives, he immediately draws a weapon before being disarmed. Was he about to kill her... or himself? Or was he going to kill the White Queen (or both queens)? The latter interpretation would account for the Hatter's pissed-off look when he threw the scissors to disarm him.
  • How about Aunt Imogen's dreams of a prince who can't marry her? Perhaps she was left at the altar by a former betrothed (or engaged to someone who died), and she clung to her delusions rather than accept the painful truth.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: When Alice falls down the rabbit hole, a piano falls after her, nearly crushing her... Before it suddenly stops, starts playing itself, and then it's never seen or brought up again.
• Cargo Ship:
  • The Cheshire Cat and the Mad Hatter's Hat. He brought it on himself.
  • The White Queen can make furniture fall in love with her. Although that could be a reference to the fact that the role of most furniture is played by animals in the Red Queen's kingdom.
  • The Jabberwock and the Vorpal Blade sure seem to have a lot of history.
• Complete Monster: The Jabberwocky is a monstrous creature that serves as Iracebeth the Red Queen's personal attack dog. The Jabberwocky is responsible for the infamous "Horunvendush Day", in which he burned massive swathes of Underland, killed many of the White Queen's subjects, and helped Iracebeth imprison the Hightopp Clan for years inside a jar. Through his terrifying influence, Iracebeth is able to rule Underland with brutal tyranny, chopping off hundreds of heads and enslaving armies to her will, all under threat of the Jabberwocky burning more of Underland. When he is pitted against Alice, the Jabberwocky mocks her as "insignificant" and tries to kill her and Mirana the White Queen's army to assert the Red Queen's dominion forever.
• Critic-Proof: It received mixed/average and even negative reviews from critics, but broke $1 billion at the box office.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The Cheshire Cat is a popular character even among the film’s detractors, thanks in part to his design, personality, and voice managing to capture the essence of the original character.
• Fan Nickname: Some fans have taken to nicknaming The Dormouse, whose name is Mallymkin, "Boo." It's mainly so they can shout "GO FOR THE EYES, BOO! GO FOR THE EYES!"
• I Am Not Shazam: As everyone who's read it knows, Jabberwocky is a poem, and the creature that's slain in it is called the Jabberwock. But in this movie, the monster itself is called the Jabberwocky.
• Les Yay: The Red Queen stating that men and women end up loving her. Though the line is meant to denote her delusions of being a beloved ruler, it hasn't stopped fans of interpreting it as her being romantically attracted to women.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Alice crossing the moat of heads.
  • The White Queen's recipe for pishalver (shrinking potion) which includes "buttered fingers", horsefly urine, and spit.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The concept of an older Alice going back to Wonderland and finding it transformed into a dystopia by the Queen of Hearts has been done before.
  • The framing device of Alice fleeing from a garden party because she's expected to do something she doesn't want to do can also be seen in the 1999 TV adaptation. Although in that version, where Alice is a child as in the original books, she just wants to avoid having to sing for the guests, not a marriage proposal.
• One-Scene Wonder: Marton Csokas as Alice's patient, loving, slightly odd father in the very first scene of the film.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: Elements of an abortive American McGee's Alice adaptation are still visible here and there.
• Shipping:
  • Alice/Mad Hatter gets in with a bit of Unresolved Sexual Tension. The pairing was originally intended to be canon, according to an early version of the script. Strong hints remain in the film's novelization and one of the visual guides, which states that "Although Alice and Tarrant (The Mad Hatter) do care for each other, they are not compatible because she is always either too tall or too small." Barely a week after the movie came out in 2010, Fanfiction.Net was flooded with Fix Fic (thirty fanfics in the new section and at least that many more in the general Alice in Wonderland section) with fan authors who either have Alice stay in Wonderland with the Hatter, or have him go to her.
  • For some, Mad Hatter/White Queen is the preferred ship, and actually receives a bit of supporting evidence in the video game adaptation. Since neither one is precisely sane, it gives a new meaning to Crack Pairing.
• So Okay, It's Average: Not even with all of its flaws is it the worst movie ever, has some good effects, some good action and some good scenes. Some of Tim Burton's fetish for the macabre and disturbing images get in the way but it's not the worst. On the flipside, many fans of Burton feel actually that there wasn't enough of his unique style and quirkiness and was too predictable and cliche to make it one of his more memorable films.
• Spiritual Adaptation: Between its gothic and macabre aesthetic (as is to be expected from having Tim Burton in the director's chair), Alice here being more of a badass in contrast to her original counterpart, and similar themes, this movie is as close as you can get to an American McGee's Alice adaptation.
• Squick:
  • You really don't want to know what's in all of those drinks/food items you've been consuming, Alice. Adding a "butterfinger" gets squicky when you see it's an actual finger.
  • The stepping stones Alice uses to cross the moat to the Queen's Castle? Those are not statue heads, mind you.
  • Hamish wiping his nose and then looking inside the handkerchief at the beginning. It's no wonder Alice doesn't want to marry him after that!
• Tainted by the Preview: Plenty of people completely wrote the film off because of this.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Jabberwocky, voiced by Sir Christopher Lee, only has two lines before Alice cuts off his tongue. Why does he have an enmity with the Vorpal Sword? Why does he stick by the Red Queen's side out of apparent loyalty? Why was he sleeping inside that hill? We'll never know.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Wonderland/Underland becoming more and more realistic/coherent as Alice ages is an interesting concept that spawns a lot of questions about the nature of it, as well as Alice herself. That however, is only implied throughout the movie, with the majority of the plot concerning around a prophecy of Alice slaying the Jabberwock(y). A tone much like the original, but from the perspective of an adult could make this movie stand out a lot more, but sadly, the character of Alice and her connection to Wonderland is hardly explored.
• The Un-Twist: Alice turned out to be the right Alice after all.
• Vanilla Protagonist: One of the biggest criticisms against the movie is that Alice herself isn't interesting, especially in comparison to the strange locations she ends up in and the characters she meets. While some argue that this was intentional, others think that Alice should be an interesting character for her connection to Underland and her belief that she's just dreaming, some outright call her a waste of Mia Wasikowska's acting ability.
• Vindicated by History: Though it remains divisive, the overall opinion of the movie has improved overtime. In particular a lot of fans look at it more fondly due to seeing it as something with more passion and creativity put into it compared to subsequent live-action Disney films.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The movie is arguably a result of Burton running with the theory that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was at least in part political commentary of the Wars of the Roses, with the Queen of Hearts being combined with the Red Queen of Through the Looking Glass (thus taking the possible symbol of "painting the roses red" — possibly an allegory for Lancaster aggression against the house of York, which was symbolized by white roses—and combining it with the imagery of Red (Lancaster) and White (York) Queens going to war). Evidence for this interpretation includes Johnny Depp's deliberate switches to a ridiculously over-the-top Scottish accent whenever he talks about rising up against the Red Queen.

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