Wonderland's wonder threatened by 3-D

I'm a huge Tim Burton fan. Three of his films I can easily put in my top ten, so naturally, I was excited when I heard he was directing an adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland." And then when I heard that they were going to release it in 3-D, I was even more excited because the last time I saw a movie in 3-D, it was "Nightmare Before Christmas." So was perfect! Stop-motion animation works in 3-D because it's made from actual 3-D figures and filmed shot by shot. Stop-motion is enhanced by 3-D. But I must say that paying $13 for my ticket to see "Alice in Wonderland," put a damper on my film-going experience before I even sat down in my seat. Movie tickets are already expensive, and I feel like "Wonderland" would have been just as good, or even better, in mere 2-D. I liked the film; I did. I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. But updating the story of Alice to 13 years in the future is something that I would expect Burton to do - making the story darker and wittier. Opening with a potential marriage proposal from a less-than-satisfactory suiter, Alice finds herself following the White Rabbit into a garden maze and into the rabbit hole. If you ask me, that would be a pretty good excuse for ditching the lame guy that your parents want you to marry. It's like she'd come back shouting, "I fell down a hole and started hallucinating that there were talking rabbits and a bitchy queen with a humungous head, OMG!" It would make you sound as mad as the Hatter, but "Alice in Wonderland" isn't supposed to be like real life. I did especially like how Johnny Depp played the Mad Hatter - as certainly bonkers. He wasn't just eccentric. He was actually really freaking crazy. And he did a corny dance called a "funderwhack," which was funny, but completely random. Of all the characters, the Hatter had the most depth, which is something that Burton tends to do. He gives one character a strong multidimensional personality and the rest of the characters not quite as much depth. But the little quirks that the supporting characters had like Tweedle Dee and Dum, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and the White Queen were the aspects of the first story that Burton brought back to light. Alan Rickman made the perfect Caterpillar - prophetic and obviously on drugs. Every time you saw him he was smoking a hookah, or a bong, or whatever they would call it in Wonderland. Come on, it is "Alice in Wonderland." Anne Hathaway as the campy, over-the-top White Queen was a clever addition - with her subtle twitches and peeves bringing bouts of laughter in the theater. At one point she mentioned that she doesn't hurt any living things, but she surely had a problem with filthy bugs. However, with how many characters there were, "Alice in Wonderland" could have easily been longer. In fact, 109 minutes is really short compared to most movies being made right now. And paying $13, I wanted more movie! With more time we'd get to know Alice a bit more. Seeing that the film was called "Alice in Wonderland," it was surpisingly without an explanation or background on why exactly Alice needed to go back. We were given the Caterpillar's prophecy, but Alice's significance was still vague. Needless to say, if you hadn't read the book or seen the cartoon, you probably wouldn't get any of the characters' allusions to when Alice came to Wonderland when she was a child. Thankfully, I have seen the original Disney cartoon, so I understood everything that the characters of Wonderland mentioned. Making the film longer would have given us more character development, and a more satisfying conclusion. That part was a little disappointing, but I won't spoil it for anyone. But of all the parts that I did like - the graphics were beautiful. Helena Bonham Carter's giant bulbous head and Alice's ever shrinking and growing transformations were clever, but not campy. The various monsters of Wonderland were undeniably Burton - repulsive and dreamlike at the same time. However, I feel like the 3-D almost took away from Burton's style. His films use the old techniques to make his make-believe worlds surreal. I don't want my Burton movies to look realistic, and 3-D is trying too hard to make it seem real. The 3-D aspects of "Alice in Wonderland" distracted from what Burton does best - his visuals. Maybe I should see it again in 2-D. At least I won't have to pay the $13.