The story got fore-told, how so? Do you mean in the parchment thing, the prophecy? That didn’t bother me, that’s a staple of fantasy fiction. The question is ‘how’ Alice will get the ability to fulfill her destiny. In this movie, I was touched by the scene where Alice counts down the reasons she can beat the Jabberwock.

The made-up words were probably all words taken directly from Carroll’s poetry. The plot of the story, Bandersnatches and Jabberwocks and Vorpal swords, is from a very well known poem, so I quite enjoyed that. The raven like a writing desk thing is infamously Carroll’s.

My problem with Burton’s movies is that they are saccharine and empty. There is little story, and never a sense of threat, because the characters are mere cutouts we don’t care about. We’re along for the ride, to see how Burton Burton-izes a world we’re all already familiar with. Even when he includes dark imagery, like mini-Alice jumping over severed heads, there’s very little atmosphere and zero tension built up. It’s not what Burton does.

I can accept that, I guess. I just have that as my expectation.