Tim Burton rewatch! Yes, I know Burton only produced Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) and didn’t direct. But just as the produced-not-directed Nightmare Before Christmas reflected on Burton’s filmography, I feel Looking Class reflects it as well – but in a different way.

Here’s what happens: Alice is now a seasoned adventurer, running her father’s shipping company while battling pirates. But former suitor Hamish returns, threating to take over the business and reduce Alice to an office clerk. Then Wonderland comes calling, with a new quest for Alice. Now there’s time travel, courtesy of Time himself, with Alice going back to discover the secrets of Wonderland’s past.

Origin story: If Burton’s not in the chair, who is director James Bobin? He’s no slouch when it comes to weird and quirky media. He co-created two cult TV favorites, The Ali G Show and Flight of the Conchords, and he got Muppet-y with his first two films, The Muppets (2011), and Muppets Most Wanted (2014). After Alice, he directed the equally weird Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019).

Outsider theory: The time travel mechanic makes this sequel a stealth prequel. The Red Queen is also back, and we get her origin story. She’s sympathetic now, as we see her evil ways were born of her feeling isolated and different from others.

Reality breaks through: At the movie’s midpoint, when Alice is at a low point and all seems lost, she leaves Wonderland and returns to Earth for a bit, where we catch up on the frame story. It’s nice to see the filmmakers tying the two storylines together in a more cohesive way.

Best bits: Red Queen: “Alice, you always were an irksome, slurvish, interrupting thing!”

Thoughts on this viewing: What makes this movie interesting is its consistency. Yes, it’s all green-screen CGI, but with a consistent visual look throughout, so this feels like a singular world. Making the first movie an Alice-based action movie was awkward, but now that has been established, this movie can take the action-adventure tone and run with it in way the first cannot. It’s not perfect – a little too long, and Johnny Depp looks utterly lost under all that makeup – but this is the big, bold fantasy film that the 2010 Alice wanted to be but wasn’t.

Next: Held for Ransom.

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