What's the Problem?

Tim Burton's film adaptation "Alice in Wonderland" was released on DVD recently. Pity we didn't get to see it in theaters in 3-D---must have been terrific. The handful of digital 3D flicks I've seen in the last year or two are awesome and better with each release. I had been eager to see this film from the moment heard this: Wonderland, Burton, Bonham Carter, Depp. I heard very little about it, though, while it was running in its theater release.

And then it made it to DVD VERY fast---always a sign that the box office wasn't all the studio had anticipated. So I ordered it, I watched it, I LOVED IT. I watched it again and then, again. And then I bought it to have on my iPhone because I found I was wanting to watch it more than my kids did.
I did some light googling for reviews and turns out the critics didn't like it so much. And it didn't do so well with audiences eithers. This I do not understand. Perhaps, just perhaps, that's because people are either very strongly attached to the book (never read it) or the other film adaptations (not so sure I've seen any of them start to finish)---the story never held my interest previously.
But Tim Burton is fabulous and dark and odd. And his quirks with Carroll's psychedelic adventure was a perfect pairing... the costumes, the sets, the madness all made the perfect platform for Johnny Depp who was MAGNIFICENT as the Hatter. I must say: his costume (as well as Bonham Carter's) was so awesome, I could freeze frames over and over just to get the minutiae of it:


I love the Hatter's bandolier of thread spools. Want one for myself. There were actually some really awesome bonus features on the DVD, one of which was the costuming piece and another about the production piece...amazing blending of pure CGI, CGI/live capture and then purely live capture elements. It was a fantastic piece of work.

Anybody else see it? Whatcha think?