It is possible to think of a Christmas movie by imagining a Christmas story. Most revolve around the mundane life of an average person, sometimes even a child, who has lost hope in Christmas and transforms when they see the wonderous Santa Claus. The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland flips this on its head with the magical Santa Claus or St. Nick as he is called in this movie, truly being charmed when visiting the upside-down world of Wonderland. While still incorporating elements of Christmas and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the film transforms the old formula.
The worlds of Santa Claus and A Christmas Carol have crossed paths in the past. The creator of Oz L Frank Baum wrote The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, meeting Santa Claus with his characters from Oz. In turn, C.S. Lewis’ Narnia is no stranger to Father Christmas, either, as he played a crucial role in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But Santa in the nonsensical Wonderland? Does that even work?
An interesting animdation has to do with a Christmas gift the Queen of Hearts sent Saint Nicholas as a child. She wrote letters requesting a ‘bandersnatch’ as a Christmas gift. Santa, determined to fulfill her wish, head out to Wonderland. Instantly, he bumps into a Queen of Hearts who has turned into an egotistical, sadistic King ready to ‘execute’ anyone celebrating the holiday. St Nick stumbles upon Alice along with several other side characters with a plan to undertake the voyage.
The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland is based on a book of the same name created by Carys Bexington and Kate Hindley, which Pan Macmillan published just a month ago. The illustrations in the book are strikingly different from the original John Tenniel artwork of Lewis Carroll’s books, which inspired numerous films about Wonderland, including Disney’s animated classic. This shift brings both benefits and setbacks. Alice is depicted with black hair and darker skin, and most dramatically, she does not have her signature dress. The story takes place in a decidedly modern world, which detracts from her 19th-century persona. March Hare, the Hatter, Alice, and the White Rabbit face the formidable Queen of Hearts. The March Hare is quite tall, and the Hatter wears an upside-down teapot under his hat. None of these changes are necessarily negative, but at least the Queen of Hearts has the best design as she is the most important Wonderland character.
The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland was created by Lupus Films and Universal Studios, and directed by Peter Baynton with a screenplay by Sara Daddy. The voice cast includes Gerard Butler as St. Nick, Emilia Clarke as the Queen of Hearts, and Simone Ashley as Alice. The animation does a good job of reflecting the illustrations of the book, but the most impressive aspect is the captivating use of rhyme. Similar to Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, the poem which gives the book its name, The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland, all dialogue in the book is presented in rhyming couplets. Most of the time, one character ends another character’s rhyme. We have the Queen of Hearts saying things like, Look inside the chimney and under the bed. When I find St. Nick, it’s off with his head. Or St. Nick beginning with, “You’ve tried your best, Alice. You’ve done all you can,” with Prancer finishing, “I’m sure the team is hatching a mastermind plan.”
While having an hour-and-twenty-minute movie obey the rules of a forty-page book may sound painfully monotonous, it allows the film to have a certain appeal.
When the character doesn’t follow a particular rhyme scheme, you can just tell something is off.
St. Nick sings for Besides the incorporated rhymes, the movie has around six songs. The majority of the singing was done by either Butler or Clarke. St. Nick is joyful and festive throughout, and it only improves when he sings. Butler is no stranger to singing even in animation (I particularly enjoyed his song in the second How to Train Your Dragon movie), which makes his casting for this role perfect. Emilia Clarke’s prior experience as a mad queen in Game of Thrones helped, but she is not known for her singing. Still, I found her performance enjoyable. Clarke only plays the modern-day Queen of Hearts, while Eliza Riley plays the Princess of Hearts in flashbacks. Both get to sing, and there’s a nice contrast between the past’s innocent and hopeful Princess and the present-day cruel Queen who delights in cruelty.
The groundwork is entertaining and the touches are distinctive like St. Nick and Mad Hatter singing a musical number which puts this movie as one of the reasons I’d consider as a decent animated Christmas movie, but fails to deliver on the promise of an adventure set in Alice’s Wonderland. The overly positive St. Nick having to fix a blunder by someone he thought he let down certainly works, but the idea of Wonderland has so much potential. Most of the scenes either take place in the Queen’s palace or the hedge maze where Mad Hatter lives, thereby rendering Wonderland barren as an oddly captivating setting. Missing several characters like the King of Hearts and transforming others (Cheshire-Cat becomes Queen’s mischievous pet who periodically appears to trip people) is a strange choice. Alice is sadly missing the combination of a curious child’s imagination with a grown-up’s annoyance at absurd characters who all seem like they came from a children’s animated show. She is quite used to the said nature of Wonderland and is already familiar with most of the people although she’s meeting the Queen for the first time. The absurdity is mostly from quick jokes such as a caterpillar halting his fall mid-air with a slide whistle instead of through clever reasoning and word tricks.
St. Nick’s reindeer and elves are, at the very least, far more fun than the Wonderland characters, and Alice has very little that she can do.
St. Nick’s elves play music my favorite running gag is the one with the elves and their instruments. The movie begins with St. Nick already giving elves instructions to play a lively number, which is unlike the song they are playing. For the rest of the movie, elves ineffably emerge from nowhere to accompany the music in the background throughout every scene. Even the Queen of Hearts gives them direction at one point as to what to play.
To watch more movies visit Fmovies
Also Watch for more movies like:
