Oddly, after the Macmillan Publishing House rejected possible alternative titles 'Alice Among the Fairies' and 'Alice's Golden Hour' the work was finally published as 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' in 1865.  The classic pen and ink illustrations were by Sir John Tenniel; Dodgson evidently thought that a published book would need the skills of a professional artist.

This film version is the twenty fourth time the story of Alice has been produced and at least the ninth it as come to the big screen  and I mean BIG..the IMAX 3-D version will boggle your mind. Aside from numerous TV versions, there was a 1903 silent version starring May Clark,  1915 and 1931 efforts. 
Then, the classic, 1933 version with no less than Gary Cooper, Richard Arlen, W.C. Fields, Leon Errol, Cary Grant, Raymond Hatton, Sterling Holoway, Edward Everett Horton, Baby LeRoy, Edna May Oliver, Ned Sparks, Charlie Ruggles, Jack Oakie, Roscoe Karms, Billy Barty, Billy Bevan and Charlotte Henry as Alice. Norman McCleod directed a script by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and William Cameron Menzies.  Nothing since touches this version.

Disney did the classic animated musical version in 1951.  There have also been half a dozen stage versions.

This sets the stage for what is to follow as Alice’s entrepreneur father tells this to his young daughter who always ponders the same childhood dream of visiting a place called Wonderland populated with very strange beings. We go forward 10 years as Alice is now a lovely 19 year old and has been groomed to marry a [articular noble clod...a Lord no less.  She once again falls down that rabbit hole and encounters those she had visited when a young child. She repeats this very statement to the Mad Hatter (the term “bonkers” not quite in usage well before the twentieth century, the setting of the book and film).

 Every past film version, including Disney’s 1950s version, always seemed to merge the two books, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass,” with characters coming from both. This new version in 3-D and also on the IMAX  3-D screen does the same with the imaginative prowess of director Tim Burton. This is an Alice, as Johnny Depp ( The Mad Hatter) states, that “doesn’t look like anything that’s ever been done before.” I concur. 
In my teaching career, I forever alluded to these Lewis Carroll classics in my literature lessons. I’ll say this: Purists beware! Accept this version for what it is, and what it is is deliciously and marvelously mounted on the screen with fine talent and magnificent effects in this  version.

 With the talents of Johnny Depp (The Mad Hatter), Helena Bonham Carter (The Red Queen), Anne Hathaway (The White Queen), newcomer Mia Wasikowska (Alice Kingsley), and so many more, the film takes on a glow all its own with Tim Burton as imaginative as he’s been with his past screen endeavors. The usual darkness of the director is a bit restrained. There are touches that frighten and yet tickle the funny bone as well, making for audience enjoyment throughout. This may not be for very young children.

 Characters have been added,  but several of the original lovable ones have also been left out. I did miss not seeing the Duchess with her baby that turned out to be a pig, that bumbling old White Knight ( representing the obsolete artistocracy ) , the Mock Turtle, and the Walrus and the Carpenter. The Red Queen from the second novel is merged to be the Queen of Hearts and she's truly evil at that. A much younger White Queen from the second novel is portrayed here.  Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum ( representing the ever-arguing House of Lords and House of  Commons ) are reduced to bit parts, Also missing is the caucus race.

 I did enjoy the beginning and ending, created in the then present reality bookending the Wonderland tale. Here, Alice is a rebel of sorts, her own woman for her time in her astute and business-like manner. ( George Bernard Shaw would have loved this Alice ) It’s a film for young and old to enjoy, holding interest from start to finish. The quest in Wonderland that seems to be Alice’s lot is, as predicted, to ultimately fight the dreaded Jabberwocky, the Red Queen’s main power base in reigning in her dastardly manner. It’s the goodness and kindness of her sister, the White Queen, which must be restored to the land. And in this account, Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter plays a far more major role in all the goings-on. He is the lovable mad character that’s the very glue to make good triumph over evil. A brilliant tour de force for the Disney Studio and director Tim Burton as we will see Alice find her true destiny in both worlds. 

 It’s been nearly 150 years since Lewis Carroll’s beloved stories were published, but they still hold interest in the minds of today’s generation.

Trivia:
1. Reuniting in this film are director Tim Burton ( who started as an apprentice animator at Disney in the 1970's ) and actor Johnny Depp, now close friends. They first worked together in “EDWARD SCISSORHANDS” and have now made seven films together. 

2. Victoria was Queen of England at the time Lewis Carroll published “Alice in Wonderland” was so impressed by the work that she eagerly awaited his next book. Carroll as mentioned before, was a mathematician and his next book, which the Queen looked forward to,  turned out to be a book of mathematics.

3.The Dodo is a characature of Dodgson himself because he stuttered.

4. In 1931, the book was banned in Hunan, China, because "animals should not use human language" and it "puts animals and human beings on the same level."   More recently, in Woodsville High School in Haverhill, New Hampshire, the story was banned, because it had "expletives, references to masturbation and sexual fantasies, and derogatory characterizations of teachers and of religious ceremonies." 

In the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dramatically transformed by their involvement in a massive drug operation in Brooklyn’s Finest, a searing new crime drama from acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day). Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut. Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) has discovered there’s no line he won’t cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children. 

And Clarence “Tango” Butler ( Don Cheadle) has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz (Wesley Snipes), one of Brooklyn’s most infamous drug dealers. With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honor in one of the world’s most difficult jobs.