Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the timeless Lewis Carroll novel about a curious girl named Alice and her magical adventures down the rabbit hole, has been read by millions across the world since its original publication 145 years ago. The title alone evokes tales of childhood majesty and dreams of a marvelous place called Wonderland inhabited by the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the King and Queen of Hearts and many other beloved characters. Of course, what would a classic novel be without a film adaptation? By 1903, the first cinematic version of the story was released as a silent film. In 1951, Walt Disney Studios immortalized the story in its classic hand-drawn animated rendition, and now, in 2010, the 24th cinematic edition of the story has come to theaters. This version, also released by Walt Disney Studios, is quite different from its 59-year-old predecessor. Directed by Tim Burton and starring his go-to acting pair of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, a mix of live action and elaborate CGI was used to create Wonderland, or, as it is called in the film, Underland. The story is much more plot-driven and elaborates on the original story and its sequel, creating a clichéd plot out of the random literary nonsense of the novel and previous films.The film begins with a young girl, Alice, telling her father about her dreams of another world filled with talking animals, blue caterpillars, white rabbits and monsters. She asks her father if she is mad and he responds with a line that resonates throughout the entire film: "You're mad, Alice, but all the best people are." Cue to 13 years later, still in the 1800s, and a 19-year-old Alice is at a ball with her mother, about to be proposed to by an uptight suitor. One would assume this would be a monumental moment in this young woman's life, but she cannot shake visions of a white rabbit in an overcoat running through the brush. This curiosity leads Alice to leave her suitor waiting for an answer so she could follow the rabbit deep down into the rabbit hole, and the story we all know and love begins.

Tim Burton is a very interesting director. Like him or hate him (and it usually goes one way or the other), it cannot be denied that he is a master of creating majestic worlds of mischief and mayhem. Alice in Wonderland is no different. In the film he has made the cartoonish images originally described and later drawn come to life in a way that draws the viewer into the story. Once we finally make it into Underland, nonstop eye-popping visual effects surround the screen and even in 2-D, their beauty cannot be denied. Details from flowers to fauna, caterpillars smoking hookah and evaporating cats were all elaborately designed and brilliantly executed to make Wonderland a truly 21st-century place to be.

The biggest problem with this film, though, is not its effects but its intent. The zany, random and altogether nonsensical beauty of the story has been lost in an attempt to form a plot out of randomness, using other Lewis Carroll stories to tie it all together. In its attempts to be clever, the film seems to fall short. There are no witty philosophical lines or very happy unbirthdays from the Mad Hatter but instead a heavily costumed man with wild eyebrows and interesting fashion sense who speaks with an unwelcome Scottish accent half the time.

The plot of the film seems to heavily borrow from other classic clichéd children's novels like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Wizard of Oz with an older Alice unknowingly returning to Underland according to prophecy 13 years after her original adventure to aid in the fight between the good and pretty White Queen (Anne Hathaway) and the evil, big-headed Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), who is enslaving all the talking animorphous creatures. This parallel felt strange to me because the books on which these ideas were based were written in 1900 and 1950, respectively 40 to 100 years after the source material was written. If you look to the book, and even to Disney's first film, there was never any attempt at a plotline, just an excellent story of whimsical adventure that could connect with children and adults on very different levels. With visits from the Jabberwocky and references to a frabjous day, the script's attempt to make order out of multiple Lewis Carroll poems and stories made famous for their nonsense feels plain nonsensical.

It pains me to say that I did not like the film because I feel that would not be true. It is a very simple, fun film that is visually beautiful and well-acted and designed. The film was well-done, and for the 104 minutes that I sat in the theater only the scenes not set in Underland felt fake and forced (especially the ending, which was particularly groan-worthy). Unfortunately, those scenes framed the entire film, and a bad frame can take away from a marvelous picture.

Alice, played by Mia Wasikowska in her first leading role, was very well-cast playing a girl trying to discover who she is and what she wants with apparent ease. Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter had incredible potential and looked great, but it was given too much of a weighty central role with the job of helping to facilitate and drive action while remaining a comedic fall guy. Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter played their archetypal roles as good and evil, respectively, as well as they could have, and all the rest of the creatures were animated and voiced as I imagined they would have sounded. Specifically, Alan Rickman's Blue Caterpillar and Tweedledum and Tweedledee were excellent. Tim Burton did a very good job directing a film that wasn't as dark as his previous work, but as a man who usually makes nonsense out of order (Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, Big Fish), more zany and crazy could have been added to balance out the unfortunately generic plot.