Alice in Wonderland Uses Its CGI Power for Good, Not Evil

When we saw the first preview for Tim Burton's highly-anticipated adaptation of the children's classic, we were a bit underwhelmed. A new trailer is out and we're grinning like a Chesire Cat on LSD. Finally, he got it right.

Though this two-minute trailer contains many of the same sequences as the first one, today's version is much cleaner and crisper. It also offers a little insight into the plot. It seems that Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is returning to Wonderland to find that the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) has taken over and made everything as horrible as a death in the family during Saturday morning cartoons. Now, Alice teams up with Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter (really, did anyone think he wasn't going to kill this role?) to fight for the nice White Queen (Anne Hathaway in Glinda the Good Witch drag, if that's a compliment) and restore the kingdom.

From the looks of it, Burton got the balance of real life and computer-generated magic just right. The trap that many fall into—like George Lucas' Star Wars prequels—is to opt for a perfect glimmering surface free of grit, grime, and flaw. It seems like Burton's fantasia—while lush and populated with strange and brilliant creature—has enough quirk and darkness to keep it interesting and somehow realistic. Before we were dreading the unveiling of this manufactured fairy tale, now we'll be the first in line, with our 3-D glasses already on.