Your Bog Standard Fantasy Quest

Our latest trip to the movies involved Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I approached this with preconceived views of Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, none of which were overturned. I had also had preconceived notions of Alice in Wonderland, which is only to be expected of a venerated classic.
First the good stuff - the lead actress, Mia Wosikowska, and an all too short turn of one Marton Csokas as Alice's dad. Obviously there are impressive (3D) computer graphics. But I'm getting over them. Gee whizz does not make up for the formulaic dumbing down of a masterpiece.
(Interestingly my favourite movie of the last few months Where the Wild Things Are contented itself with a bit of work on the monsters' faces.)
When it comes to reimagining classics the question has to be "Why bother?" Alice has been reimagined before and far better (The Matrix) without actually destroying the original story. Tim Burton is trying here for a coming of age parable, however even this was done better in the remake of Peter Pan a few years ago. The aforementioned Where the Wild Things Are was an extension of an original entirely within the spirit of the original with the active cooperation of its original author.
With Alice I found I had to get over Tim Burton's signature gloomy twisted gothic aesthetic (one of the few directors whose films you can recognise simply by their look), Bonham Carter channelling Miranda Richardson's Queenie (from Blackadder 2 - with all the toddler temper tantrums and none of the giggling school girl charm) and Depp stealing the show. Of course he was the above the title star and deserves it, being the best movie actor around. But here he was playing one of his pathetic clown characters which are deeply unattractive and rather difficult to watch (check the creepy Willy Wonka in a previous Tim Burton effort). His was a split personality Mad Hatter (check Gollum/Smeagol - it was that type of movie, where everything reminded you of something else) whose less confused, more deluded personality sported a broad scots accent (why?).
Another thing I had to get over was the nudge nudge wink wink sexuality. There was prolonged preoccupation with clothing Alice, for every time she grew or shrank her clothing refused to likewise change shape. There was also a creepy subtext about the Red Queen's knave lusting after her. As well as the frame story of her being married off to a pompous and weedy aristocrat.
There was also the false parallelism between her having to decide whether to marry the pompous weed and having to decide whether to fight the Jabberwock. (The scenes were almost identical in composition and colour design.) Of course she decides against the first and for the second - they are not the same type of decision. The first is a decision for her own happiness, her own autonomy (and frankly, we cheer her for it). The second is a decision to do something entirely for other people because it is her duty. The film offers no real way of discerning between the two decisions.
So I did get past all that and in the end enjoyed it as your bog standard fantasy quest. Oh how I wish Burton had just made a bog standard fantasy quest and left Alice out of it.