Is "Alice" Tim Burton's worst film?

Not so wonderful after all

Easily the biggest release of 2010 so far, Disney's 3-D take on Alice in Wonderland is expected to pull in huge crowds this weekend. But while Lewis Carroll's stories and director Tim Burton's vision seemed like a perfect marriage on paper, many critics are wishing that marriage annulled: the film is drawing some of the worst reviews of Burton's 25-year career. (Of course, all things being relative, a comparatively bad Burton film is still not a "bad" film -- Alice is falling decidedly into "mediocre" territory, rather than being outright terrible.)

How exactly does Alice compare to past films? First, let's look at Burton's track record.

Burton's films at a glance

Alice in Wonderland is the director's 14th feature film; reviews and box office performance for Burton's previous 13 films are summarized below. (Note that Batman Returns is not currently in Metacritic's database). As you can see, most of the director's previous films received positive reviews from users and critics, with his two most recent releases prior to Alice earning him the most positive critical reception of his career.

All Films Directed by Tim Burton

Film	Year	Rating	Metascore	Users	Opening Weekend *	Domestic Gross *
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure	1985	PG	47	7.8	$9.7M	$87.8M
Beetlejuice	1988	PG	67	9.0	$14.9M	$136.5M
Batman	1989	PG-13	66	7.9	$77.6M	$479.1M
Edward Scissorhands	1990	PG-13	74	7.2	$56.4M	$101.7M
Batman Returns	1992	PG-13	xx	n/a	$83.8M	$298.6M
Ed Wood	1994	R	70	9.3	n/a **	$10.7M
Mars Attacks!	1996	PG-13	52	6.2	$16.2M	$63.9M
Sleepy Hollow	1999	R	65	7.8	$45.0M	$150.6M
Planet of the Apes	2001	PG-13	50	5.3	$92.1M	$242.0M
Big Fish	2003	PG-13	57	8.2	$14.9M	$81.9M
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	2005	PG	72	6.6	$66.7M	$245.1M
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride	2005	PG	83	7.0	n/a **	$63.3M
Sweeney Todd	2007	R	83	7.4	$10.3M	$56.9M
Alice in Wonderland	2010	PG	53	5.3	$60-$80M ***	?????
AVERAGES:			64.5	7.3	$44.3M	$155.2M

* All box office figures are adjusted for inflation for purposes of comparison
** These films opened in limited release
*** Estimated
The Metascore is a weighted average of scores from top professional critics, on a scale from 0 (bad) to 100 (good). User scores represent an average of scores assigned by Metacritic.com site visitors on a scale from 0 (bad) to 10 (good). Source of box office grosses: Box Office Mojo.

While Alice is one of Burton's worst-reviewed films (only three of his previous releases have a lower Metascore than Alice's current mark, and one of those is the beloved cult classic Pee-Wee's Big Adventure), mediocre reviews don't necessarily harm Alice's earning power. Planet of the Apes received a similarly lukewarm critical response, yet boasts Burton's best opening weekend ever, even without adjusting for inflation.

Alice is also by far the lowest-scoring of all the Burton-Johnny Depp collaborations. The second-worst-reviewed of their seven pairings is Sleepy Hollow, a film that received generally positive reviews overall.

The best comparison for the new film is probably 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Burton's last heavily-promoted, PG-rated blockbuster. Without adjusting for inflation, Charlie is Burton's second-highest-grossing film, behind Batman, and it opened on about as many screens as Alice is reaching today. While Alice is projected to have a strong opening weekend (it will likely place among the director's top openers, if not at the very top), the new film is receiving considerably weaker reviews than Charlie -- and it will be interesting to see if those marks have an effect on the movie's long-term performance.

The critics: Do they like "Alice" more than other recent Burton films?

Let's look at how critics who have reviewed multiple Tim Burton films rated Alice in Wonderland. (For these comparisons, we are only considering reviews that are in Metacritic's database. Some newly added critics may have reviewed Burton's films in the past, but if we do not have those reviews on Metacritic, they will not be included in the data summarized below.)

As you may have gathered from the Metascores listed above, most critics prefer any of Burton's recent films to Alice, with Burton's middling Planet of the Apes remake the only exception.

Alice vs. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Comparing Individual Critic Review Scores for the Two Films
	2,2,12	2 of 16 critics rated Alice higher
		2 of 16 critics rated them about the same
		12 of 16 critics rated Alice lower

Of the 10 critics who loved Sweeney Todd and reviewed both films, only one (10%) also loved Alice. (We are using the word "loved" here to indicate that the critic assigned the film an equivalent score of 81 or higher out of 100. If a review is unscored, "loved" means that we interpreted the review to have an equivalent score of 81 or higher.)

Alice vs. Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Comparing Individual Critic Review Scores for the Two Films
	0,3,10	0 of 13 critics rated Alice higher
		3 of 13 critics rated them about the same
		10 of 13 critics rated Alice lower

Of the seven critics who loved Corpse Bride and reviewed both films, only one (14%) loves Alice.

Alice vs. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Comparing Individual Critic Review Scores for the Two Films
	1,3,12	1 of 16 critics rated Alice higher
		3 of 16 critics rated them about the same
		12 of 16 critics rated Alice lower

Of the six critics who loved Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and reviewed both films, only one (17%) loves Alice.

Again, Charlie is probably the previous Burton film most similar to Alice in Wonderland, and is certainly the one against which Alice's financial success will be measured. Unsurprisingly -- since Charlie received fairly strong reviews overall -- most of the critics in our group liked that earlier film. But two of them did not give Charlie a positive review. Joe Morgenstern was ambivalent about the earlier movie and also had mixed feelings about Alice, while Ann Hornaday gave Charlie its most negative review but likes Alice quite a bit. (In fact, Hornaday tends to grade Burton films much lower than her peers, so her strong review for the new film is a bit of a surprise.)

Alice vs. Big Fish

Comparing Individual Critic Review Scores for the Two Films
	3,5,7	3 of 15 critics rated Alice higher
		5 of 15 critics rated them about the same
		7 of 15 critics rated Alice lower

The one critic (Peter Travers) who loved Big Fish generally likes, but does not love, Alice.

Alice vs. Planet of the Apes [2001]

Comparing Individual Critic Review Scores for the Two Films
	7,1,4	7 of 12 critics rated Alice higher
		1 of 12 critics rated them about the same
		4 of 12 critics rated Alice lower

No critics who reviewed both films loved either film.

It is not surprising that critics seem to prefer Alice in Wonderland to Planet of the Apes -- the latter is Burton's worst-reviewed film, and probably his fans' least favorite as well. It is interesting to note, however, that a handful of reviewers actually preferred Apes to Alice. Two of those critics, Lawrence Toppman and Stephanie Zacharek, actually enjoyed Burton's Apes remake, but the former only slightly approved of Alice, while Zacharek offered a decidedly mixed review of the new film.

Alice vs. Sleepy Hollow

Comparing Individual Critic Review Scores for the Two Films
	2,2,9	2 of 13 critics rated Alice higher
		2 of 13 critics rated them about the same
		9 of 13 critics rated Alice lower

Neither of the two critics who loved Sleepy Hollow and reviewed both films also love Alice, although they each gave Alice a generally positive review.

Some other notes about critics who have reviewed multiple Tim Burton movies:

• USA Today's Claudia Puig loved each of Burton's last three films, and is just as enthusiastic a supporter of Alice in Wonderland. The same can be said for critic David Edelstein.
• Dating back to Ed Wood, Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman has reviewed all of Burton's films (with the exception of Sweeney Todd), and gave all but Planet of the Apes a positive review. You can say he's a Burton fan; his average review score for those seven films was 80 out of 100. However, his decidedly mixed 50 score for Alice (a C grade in the magazine) marks his lowest score for a Burton film in at least the past 16 years.
• Rolling Stone's Peter Travers has a similar tendency to like Burton films; he has given the director's movies an average score of 80 dating back to Sleepy Hollow. His score of 63 for Alice, while still representing a mostly positive review, is his second-lowest score for a Burton film in that time period (only Planet of the Apes was lower).

Comparing "Alice" to other 3-D releases

How does Alice in Wonderland compare to other recent 3-D films? In terms of reviews from critics, not well: it is in the bottom half of 3-D releases from the past two years. As you can see, however, the mediocre reviews do not necessarily translate into a poor showing at the box office. Several similarly-reviewed, PG-rated 3-D films went on to gross close to $200 million in the U.S. alone.

Of course, reviews have little impact on the opening weekend of a film when tickets are sold out for many showings well before the reviews are published. Based on early tracking, Alice has a chance for the biggest-ever opening weekend for any 3-D film -- an honor currently held by Avatar.

Recent 3-D Films (2008-10), Ranked by Metascore

	Film	Year	Rating	Metascore	Users	Opening Weekend	Domestic Gross
1	Up	2009	PG	88	8.9	$68.1M	$293.0M
2	Avatar	2009	PG-13	84	8.0	$77.0M	$712.5M
3	Coraline	2009	PG	80	7.8	$16.8M	$75.3M
4	Under the Sea 3D	2009	G	77	5.4	$0.7M	$20.7M
5	Bolt	2008	PG	67	7.9	$26.2M	$114.1M
6	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	2009	PG	66	7.8	$30.3M	$124.8M
7	Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour	2008	G	59	4.5	$31.1M	$65.3M
8	Journey to the Center of the Earth	2008	PG	57	4.8	$21.0M	$101.7M
9	Monsters vs. Aliens	2009	PG	56	6.8	$59.3M	$198.4M
10	A Christmas Carol [2009]	2009	PG	55	7.6	$30.1M	$137.9M
11	Battle for Terra	2009	PG	54	7.4	$1.1M	$1.6M
12	Alice in Wonderland	2010	PG	53	5.3	?????	?????
13	My Bloody Valentine 3-D	2009	R	51	7.7	$21.2M	$51.5M
14	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	2009	PG	50	7.0	$41.7M	$196.6M
15	Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience	2009	NR	45	2.0	$12.5M	$19.2M
16	X Games 3D The Movie	2009	PG	43	7.0	$0.8M	$1.4M
17	G-Force	2009	PG	41	4.0	$31.7M	$119.4M
18	Fly Me to the Moon	2008	G	36	1.3	$1.9M	$13.8M
19	The Final Destination	2009	R	30	4.8	$27.4M	$66.5M
	AVERAGES:			57.5	6.1	$27.7M	$128.5M

Comparing "Alice" to recent Disney releases

Below, we compare Alice in Wonderland to other recent releases from Disney, including Walt Disney Pictures, Disneynature, and Touchstone releases. Just four of the 14 wide release Disney films from the past 12 months received positive reviews from critics.

Films Released by Disney in the Past 12 Months

Film	Release	Rating	Metascore	Users	Opening Weekend	Domestic Gross
Alice in Wonderland	3/05/10	PG	53	5.3	?????	?????
When in Rome	1/29/10	PG-13	25	6.5	$12.4M	$31.1M*
The Princess & The Frog	11/25/09	G	73	7.9	$24.2M	$103.4M*
Old Dogs	11/25/09	PG	19	3.9	$16.9M	$48.8M
A Christmas Carol [2009]	11/6/09	PG	55	7.6	$30.1M	$137.9M
Surrogates	9/25/09	PG-13	45	5.6	$14.9M	$38.6M
X Games 3D The Movie	8/21/09	PG	43	7.0	$0.8M	$1.4M
Ponyo	8/14/09	PG	86	7.5	$3.6M	$15.1M
G-Force	7/24/09	PG	41	4.0	$31.7M	$119.4M
The Proposal	6/19/09	PG-13	48	6.8	$33.6M	$164.0M
Up	5/29/09	PG	88	8.9	$68.1M	$293.0M
Earth [2009]	4/22/09	G	72	5.4	$8.8M	$32.0M
Hannah Montana the Movie	4/10/09	NR	47	4.7	$32.3M	$79.6M
Race to Witch Mountain	3/13/09	PG	52	7.0	$24.4M	$67.2M
AVERAGES:			53.4	6.3	$23.5M	$90.0M

* Still in theaters
All scores are from March 5, 2010. Limited releases are excluded.