"Disney" and "Flop" Do Not Often Appear in the Same Sentence

Yikes.

Leaving aside all the personal drama involving Johnny Depp, I'm really not surprised by this. (Full story here.)

The first Alice seemed so promising -- if there was ever a director who you would think would perfectly capture Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, it would be Tim Burton. And with a cast that included Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, and Alan Rickman (RIP, Snape)...well, it seemed like it would be amazing.

And...it wasn't. I was so excited about this movie -- Alice is one of my favorite novel -- that a group of friends and I splurged and saw it in IMAX (the REAL IMAX in downtown Raleigh; not the IMAX screens they have in some movie theaters). 

Now, I'm rather picky when it comes to adaptations (particularly of adaptations of my favorite books), and while some of the connections to the original source material were clever, I remember walking out of the theater really disappointed. 

And the trailer for Through the Looking Glass looks predictably lackluster. I was planning on seeing it for two reasons only: (1) it's Disney, and Alice, so...research? and (2) it was one of Alan Rickman's last films. 

Part of my skepticism, I think, lies with the screenwriter, Linda Woolverton...she also wrote the screenplays for Beauty and the Beast and Maleficent. But I'm still sorting out my thoughts on that issue...