Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016 film)

Alice Through the Looking Glass is a 2016 American fantasy adventure film directed by James Bobin, written by Linda Woolverton and produced by Tim Burton, Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd, and Jennifer Todd. It is based on the characters created by Lewis Carroll and is the sequel to the 2010 film Alice in Wonderland. The film stars Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Matt Lucas, Rhys Ifans, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen and features the voices of Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, and Alan Rickman.

In the film, Alice comes across a magical looking glass that takes her back to Wonderland, where she finds that the Mad Hatter is acting madder than usual and wants to discover the truth about his family. Alice then travels through time (with the "Chronosphere"), comes across friends and enemies at different points of their lives, and embarks on a race to save the Hatter before time runs out.

The film premiered in London on May 10, 2016, and was theatrically released by Walt Disney Pictures on May 27, 2016. Alice Through the Looking Glass received generally unfavorable reviews from critics, and grossed $299 million on a budget of $170 million, becoming a box office bomb and losing Disney an estimated $70 million.

The film was dedicated to Alan Rickman, who died four months before the film was released.

Plot
Alice Kingsleigh has spent the past three years following in her father's footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London from China, she learns her ex-fiancé, Hamish Ascot, has taken over his father's company and plans to have Alice sell him over her father's ship in exchange for her family home. Alice follows a butterfly she recognizes as Absolem and returns to Wonderland through a mirror.

Alice is greeted by the White Queen, the White Rabbit, the Tweedles, the Dormouse, the March Hare, Bayard and the Cheshire Cat. They inform her that the Mad Hatter, Tarrant Hightopp, is acting madder than usual because his family is missing. Alice tries to console him, but the Mad Hatter remains sure of his family's survival of the Attack of the Jabberwocky day.

Believing that finding the Hatter's family is the only way to stop his deteriorating health, the White Queen sends Alice to consult Time himself and convince him to save the Hatter's family in the past. The Queen cautions Alice that history will be destroyed if anyone sees their past or future self. Upon visiting Time's palace, Alice finds the Chronosphere, an object that powers all time in Underland.

After being told by Time that altering the past is impossible, Alice steals the Chronosphere and travels back in time, shortly after finding the exiled Red Queen, Iracebeth of Crims, is in the care of Time. The Red Queen urges Time to go after Alice. Alice accidentally flies to the day of Iracebeth's coronation, where a younger Tarrant begins a mockery of the Red Queen when the royal crown does not fit her abnormal head. This causes Iracebeth to melt down. Her father deems her inappropriate to rule and passes the title of queen to her younger sister Mirana, the White Queen.

Alice learns of an event in Iracebeth and Mirana's past that caused friction between the two, and she travels back in time again, hoping it will change Iracebeth's ways and cease the Jabberwocky from killing the Hatter's family. The young Mirana steals a tart from her mother and eats it. When confronted by their mother, Mirana lies about eating the tart, and Iracebeth is accused, causing her to run out of the castle in sadness. Alice sees her about to run into a clock, the event that deforms her head and personality. She is able to get the clock out of the way, but fails to change the past as Iracebeth trips and slams her head anyway.

Alice is then confronted by a weakened Time, who scolds her for putting all of time in danger. She runs into a nearby mirror back into the real world, where she wakes up in a mental hospital, diagnosed with female hysteria. By the help of her mother, she returns to Underland, where she travels to the Attack of the Jabberwocky and discovers that the Hatter's family never died, but were captured by Iracebeth. Returning to the present, Alice discovers the Hatter at the brink of death.

After Alice tearfully says that she believes him, Tarrant awakens and reforms back to his normal self. The Underlanders go to the Red Queen's castle, where Tarrant finds his family shrunk and trapped in an ant farm. Iracebeth apprehends them and steals the Chronosphere from Alice, taking Mirana back to the day she lied about the tart. By the time Tarrant and Alice get there, Iracebeth and her past self see each other. Time becomes irrelevant, and Underland begins to freeze. Using the Chronosphere, Alice and the Hatter race back to the present, where Alice is able to place the Chronosphere back in its original place.

With the Chronosphere stabilized, Underland reverts to normal. The Hatter reunites with his family. Mirana apologizes to Iracebeth for lying, and both of them make amends. Alice bids her friends farewell and returns to the real world where her mother refuses to return Alice's ship over to Hamish, and the two set to travel the world together with their own company.

Production
The film was announced via Variety in December 2012. Bobin was first approached about the project while doing post-production work on Muppets Most Wanted. Of being asked, Bobin has said that "I just couldn't pass it up", as he has a passion for the works of Lewis Carroll as well as history in general. In July 2013, it was announced that Johnny Depp would return as the Hatter, with Mia Wasikowska's return confirmed the following November. In January 2014 Sacha Baron Cohen joined the cast to play Time. In May 2014, Rhys Ifans joined the cast to play Zanik Hightopp, the Mad Hatter's father. In developing the character of "Time", Bobin sought to avoid creating a "straight-up bad guy", noting that it would be "a bit dull", and also that the role in that universe already existed in the form of The Red Queen. Instead, Bobin sought to make Time a "Twit", further explaining that "There's no one better at playing the confident idiot trope than Sacha Baron Cohen", and adding that "it was very much with Sacha in mind".

Principal photography began on August 4, 2014, at Shepperton Studios. In August 2014, filming took place in Gloucester Docks, which included the use of at least four historic ships: Kathleen and May, Irene, Excelsior, and the Earl of Pembroke, the last of which was renamed The Wonder for filming. Principal photography ended on October 31, 2014.

Soundtrack
The film’s score was composed by Danny Elfman. The soundtrack was released on May 27, 2016, by Walt Disney Records. Pink recorded the song "Just Like Fire" for the film, and also covered Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", only used in the film's promotional material.

Track listing
All music composed by Danny Elfman.

Release
Alice Through the Looking Glass premiered in London on May 10, 2016, and was theatrically released on May 27, 2016, in the United States by Walt Disney Pictures.

Home media
Alice Through the Looking Glass was released on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download on October 18, 2016, by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. It debuted at No. 2 in the Blu-ray Disc sales charts.

Box office
Alice Through the Looking Glass grossed $77 million in the United States and Canada and $222.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $299.5 million, against a production budget of $170 million. The Hollywood Reporter estimated the film lost the studio around $70 million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues.

Alice Through the Looking Glass opened in the United States and Canada on May 27, 2016, alongside X-Men: Apocalypse, and was initially projected to gross $55–60 million from 3,763 theaters over its four-day Memorial Day opening weekend, but projections were continuously revised downwards due to poor word of mouth. It had the added benefit of playing in over 3,100 3D theaters, 380 IMAX screens, 77 premium large formats and 79 D-box locations. It made $1.5 million from Thursday previews (to the first film's $3.9 million) and just $9.7 million on its first day, compared to the $41 million opening Friday of its predecessor. Through its opening weekend, it earned $27 million, which when compared to its predecessor's $116 million opening is down 70%. While 3D represented 71% ($82 million) of the original film's opening gross, 3D constituted only 41% ($11 million) for this sequel, with 29% coming from traditional 3D shows, 11% from IMAX, and 1% from premium large formats. It was the studio's third production with a low Memorial Day opening after Tomorrowland in 2015 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2010. During its first week, the film grossed $40.1 million. In its second weekend, the film grossed $11.3 million (a 55.1% drop), finishing 4th at the box office.

The film was released across 43 countries (72% of its total market place) the same weekend as the US, and was estimated to gross $80–100 million in its opening weekend. It faced competition from Warcraft and X-Men: Apocalypse. It ended up grossing $62.7 million, which is well below the projections of which $4.1 million came from IMAX shows. It had an opening weekend gross in Mexico ($4.5 million), Brazil ($4.1 million), and Russia ($3.9 million). In the United Kingdom and Ireland, it had an unsuccessful opening by grossing just £2.23 million ($3.1 million) during its opening weekend, a mere 21% of the first film's £10.56 million ($15.2 million) opening from 603 theaters. It debuted in second place behind X-Men: Apocalypse which was on its second weekend of play. In China, it had an opening day of an estimated $7.3 million and went on to score the second biggest Disney live-action (non-Marvel or Lucasfilm) opening ever with $26.6 million, behind only The Jungle Book. However, this was down from its $35–45 million projections. It debuted at the No. 1 spot among newly released film in Japan with $5.2 million and $4.1 million on Saturday and Sunday. By comparison, the first film opened with $14 million on its way to a $133.6 million a total.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 29% based on 234 reviews, and an average rating of 4.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Alice Through the Looking Glass is just as visually impressive as its predecessor, but that isn't enough to cover for an underwhelming story that fails to live up to its classic characters." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on 42 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, the same grade earned by its predecessor.

Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote in his review, "What does all this have to do with Lewis Carroll? Hardly anything" and that overall, "It's just an excuse on which to hang two trite overbearing fables and one amusing one". Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the movie 1.5 out of 4 stars and called the film, "gaudy, loud, complacent, and vulgar." Stephen Whitty of New York Daily News called the film "hugely expensive and extravagantly stupid" and that, overall, the movie "is just one more silly Hollywood mashup, an innocent fantasy morphed into a noisy would-be blockbuster".

Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com was deeply critical of Alice Through the Looking Glass, describing it as "the most offensive kind of film...one that spends an enormous amount of money yet seems to have nothing on its mind but money. You give it, they take it. And you get nothing in return but assurances that you're seeing magic and wonder. The movie keeps repeating it in your ear, and flashing it onscreen in big block letters: MAGIC AND WONDER. MAGIC AND WONDER. But there is no magic, no wonder, just junk rehashed from a movie that was itself a rehash of Lewis Carroll, tricked out with physically unpersuasive characters and landscapes and 'action scenes', with blockbuster 'journey movie' tropes affixed to every set-piece as blatantly as Post-It Notes."

Kyle Smith of New York Post gave the film a positive review: "The screenplay (by Linda Woolverton) isn't exactly heaving with brilliant ideas, but it works well enough as a blank canvas against which the special-effects team goes bonkers". Matthew Lickona of San Diego Reader said that while he found the visual effects to be "stupidly expensive" and the story familiar, he called it, "a solid kids’ movie in the old style".