As most schoolchildren will know, Lewis Carroll is famous for creating the character Alice, who was the 19th century young heroin with a big imagination.

Alice featured in two novels, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Alice Through the Looking-Glass and what she found there (1871). Because both books are rich in fantastic, strange and wonderful characters, tinged with an element of danger; they have been adapted on TV, Stage and film on countless occasions.

Fantasy director Tim Burton brought Alice in Wonderland to the big screen in 2010 with a Who’s Who cast of great British stalwarts, most of which have come back for the sequel.

Alice Through the Looking Glass shows very little resemblance to Lewis Carroll’s book but is nonetheless an adventurous romp with many of the loveable characters plus a few new ones, stepping up to lend a hand to Alice.

Following a riveting opening sequence involving an older and wiser Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now a Captain of a sailing vessel, being pursued by pirate ships through rough seas. Alice returns to England and her estranged Mother (Lindsay Duncan) where she is also visited by an old Wonderland friend, the Blue Caterpillar Absolem (now a beautiful butterfly), voiced by the late Alan Rickman to whom the film is also dedicated.

Alice is told that she must go back to rescue her old friend The Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) or Hatter Tarrant Hightopp as he is known and also save his family.

It’s not long before Alice follows Absolem through a large Looking-Glass mirror to Wonderland, although this time she comes face to face with the sinister looking Time (Sacha Baron Cohen), who controls time throughout the land and has the power of life and death when your time is up.

The Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) is also back and is just as bad as before and we also have her good sister the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

Can Alice save her dear friend the Hatter and his family as she literally races with time?

Tim Burton has taken more of a back seat in this follow up with the title of executive producer and has handed the directing reigns over to British director James Bobin, The Muppets (2011), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), Flight of the Conchords and the Ali G Show. So not a stranger to comedy timing!

The screenplay is once again written by the American writer Linda Woolverton who adapted Alice in Wonderland and also Beauty and the Beast (1991), The Lion King (1994) and Maleficent (2014). But despite this impressive pedigree, the film seems to lack heart and you don’t care as much for the characters as you should.

There is also something creepy about Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the Mad Hatter as a depressed but at the same time flamboyant introvert.

The one saving grace though is the over-the-top performance from Sacha Baron Cohen as Time, who steals most of the scenes he is in.

The film looks good but after looking at the same landscapes for just under 2 hours, you start to get a bit fidgety in your seat.

The film is released on Friday May 27.

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