Tim Burton's bloated "Alice in Wonderland" snaps to life with a vivid, staccato rhythm and attack whenever Helena Bonham Carter shows up as the Red Queen. (She should have been crowned the MTV movie awards' best villain last night.) The home-video release of "Alice in Wonderland" has roused controversy because Disney distributed the DVD\Blu-ray just three months after the movie's theatrical debut. But this "Alice" should be remembered not for that attention-getting ploy but as an inspired oddball chapter in the ongoing collaboration of Burton and Bonham Carter.
Seeing Bonham Carter decree "Off with their heads!" or "Off with his head!" or "Off with her head!" is an audiovisual comic spectacle comparable to Mel Brooks in "History of the World Part I" declaring "It's good to be the king." Bonham Carter's Red Queen uses power to amuse herself and terrorize her subjects, often simultaneously. For the audience of this gaudy yet blurry and emotionally wan movie, she's a devilish version of a godsend.
I wrote a website rundown of my favorite "Alice in Wonderland" adaptations or spin-offs, including the sublime Dennis Potter-scripted "Dreamchild," when Burton's film opened (yes, just twelve weeks ago). Why not mix them up with a Burton-Bonham Carter film festival? I'd start at the top, with that stellar piece of puppet animation, "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride": Bonham Carter imbues the title role with an ecstatic hopefulness. And in Burton's version of "Sweeney Todd," she brings the key character of meat-pie maker Mrs. Lovett a humor at once grotesque and voluptuous. Bonham Carter makes Lovett's competition with the memory of Todd's wife stronger and more poignant than in any other production that I've seen (including the original, with Angela Lansbury).
When did Bonham Carter first catch your eye? Do you applaud her team-ups with Burton? (They have been domestic as well as artistic partners for roughly a decade.) Burton appears to be at the point in his career when he must go looking for inspiration. Where do you think he should direct his search? "Corpse Bride" was back in 2005. Are we overdue for another Burton original?
