Alice in dunderland

I just know that I am leaving myself open here to lots of derision and scorn, but really, y'know, I have to wonder, why did Tim Burton bother?  I got the feeling that we came in about 2/3 of the way through some other story, especially with the characters in the 'real world', all of whom have been in some British drama or other - couldn't he have found some new and 'interesting' faces to play the 'real' people?  Was he looking to provide entertainment for actors who couldn't get a part in Harry Potter?  (Apart from the truly wonderful Alan Rickman & Timothy Spall, of course)... Actually, it's just popped into my head - this is what would happen if J K Rowling met Charles Dodgson & they decided to have some fun... or if Hermione Granger's great-grandma hadn't made the cut for Hogwarts.  


Anyway, gentle reader, I thought it was ... ok.  I guess.  There were a couple of little kids in the audience who were really scared, and I have to say my friend Miss Nellie in the next seat was a bit spooked by the Jabberwocky, which is, of course, the whole point, but if you're considering taking your kids, maybe think again?  I don't think it's a kid's film.  Also, from the historical accuracy POV, I have issues (yes, I know, you know I have issues...) about sending a 19 year old girl out dressed as a child, no ladies maid or nanny (still with a nanny at 19?  I don't think so!!) would have let her out of the house without a corset (they had corsets for 8 year olds, for pete's sake) or stockings & bloomers...  Just not done, y'know.  


I think Alice's outfits throughout the film were seriously weird, too.  All that off-the-shoulder, just barely tied on, stuff?  What was the message there?  The only outfit I thought was halfway 'sensible' was the jacket & trousers she had on just before she went off to the Champion - was she dressed like a boy there because Burton was trying to say that only boys can be champions?   


The Victorians were a bit weird, though, too, weren't they?  They had some very strange ideas about what was OK for kids and what wasn't - I remember being given a copy of 'The Water Babies' when I was about 8 or 9 and being horrified by how gruesome that was - and that was another Victorian smash hit (thank the Oversoul nobody has decided to make that into a film!!)...


I remember from my brief career as a bookseller that we had some pretty gruesome Victorian illustrated books (I just tried to find them on Google, so if you never hear from me again, assume that DOCS* has come & taken me away for child endangerment) in our kids section... 


And today I ordered this:

No prizes for guessing what I'm going to do it it.  Or even what it is... you'll just have to wait and see!