Alice's Tea Party (Not Restaurant)

We finally got around to it last night—taking the fam to see “Alice in Wonderland.” Nineteen-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) falls down the rabbit hole and meets bizarre creatures including the evaporating Cheshire Cat (voiced by Stephen Fry), the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp, who excels at portraying madness) and the sadistic Red Queen (portrayed by creep-master Helena Bonham Carter). Anne Hathaway, Alan Rickman (think Sense and Sensibility or Snape), and other name actors co-star in director Tim Burton's (Nightmare before Christmas) bold adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic.

The only casting choice I squinted over was Crispin Glover as the Queen of Hearts’ right-hand man. Seriously? I’ll always see him saying, “You are my density” as George McFly in Back to the Future. Okay, my bad.

This film captures the book’s “I wonder if Carroll took LSD” feel. The madness is pitch-perfect. And it 's visually stunning, though a bit blurry. Wait. It turns out our theater failed to hand out the 3-D glasses. Oops.

Still, good story, good visuals, good acting, and just the right amount of time at about two hours. It released on DVD yesterday, so if you missed it in the theater, stick it in your Netflix queue or got hit up your local Blockbuster. In all its weirdness, it's definitely worth seeing.