Disney's 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' is bolder, brighter, madder

'Alice Through the Looking Glass' may not be classic Lewis Carroll, but it will suck you into its magic mirror regardless, writes Sue de Groot

'Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" Alice asked the Cheshire Cat. "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," replied the cat. "I don't much care where," said Alice. "Then it doesn't much matter which way you go," replied the cat.

This conversation, from Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice in Wonderland, pretty much sums up the wayward whimsy of Disney's new film, Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Tim Burton's 2010 movie wove sections of both Alice books into a gaudy salmagundi that was delightful and disturbing in equal parts, with staggering special effects. It was universally hailed as a masterpiece of casting and cinematography. Where could Disney possibly go next?

The answer is not just through the looking glass, where everything is upside down and back to front, but back in time. The cast of Alice in Wonderland reprise their roles, with the ethereal Mia Wasikowska as wide-eyed Alice and Johnny Depp as the whirly-eyed Mad Hatter (Depp fans have been known to speculate whether the actor wears contact lenses in everyday life and takes them off to reveal his real eyes in the Alice films).

This time, however, the characters also appear as their younger selves and reveal all sorts of secrets - such as what it was that went so wrong between the Red Queen (Helena Bonham-Carter) and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway).

Directed by James Bobin, Alice Through the Looking Glass takes its heroine back to Underland and pits her against Time (Sacha Baron Cohen), a very strange creature (if strange has any meaning in the world of Under/ Wonderland) that is part human and part clock.

Most captivating of all, the Cheshire Cat goes back to his kittenhood and becomes a grinning, inscrutable ball of fur. This film may not go in any particular direction, but it really doesn't matter.

• 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' will be in SA cinemas on Friday May 27