Heart no Kuni no Alice: Wonderful Wonder World

We all know the original story: Alice falls into a bunny hole and finds herself in Wonderland...
There are hundreds of stories based on 'Alice in Wonderland', but from what I've seen, Heart no Kuni no Alice (together with Pandora Hearts) is one of the better ones. That was what I thought while reading the manga. I was pretty exited when I found out that they're making an movie. But perhaps my enthusiasm caused my disappointment.

Let me say this: if you didn't read the manga or didn't play the game you're not going to understand the movie. There's almost no story at all in it. ... You don't get to see how Alice got to Wonderland and her relationships with other characters isn't shown. And if you didn't read the manga it is hard to get where this movie is going

That is really a shame....
Because the characters are actually pretty awesome! But most of them hardly have any lines! For example Boris, Elliot and the Bloody Twins. In the manga they make me laugh all the time, but in the anime you're lucky if you see them just twice. This is really a shame. I really missed a plot in this movie.

Then why is my rating still 7?
Well...I loved to see these characters animated, especially Blood Dupre. The art was just beautiful! The music was also pretty nice.
And actually I did enjoy this anime (even thought it was pretty chaotic). But don't expect too much from it and please read the manga before you watch the anime.

Heart no Kuni no Alice... Where do I start.

So, techniquely we have.. Alice, this Kingdom of hearts (whatever it's called –her dream world), absurdity (a lot of it) and yes a bunch of handsome men and rabbits surrounding the girl. Pretty funny for start.
Funny and crazy.. There is, I think, ONE phrase in the film that probably describes it perfectly. "This is a circus", a faceless says. A circus indeed.
If you are already familiar with the concept of Alice in Wonderland, then you already know that the story Lewis Carol fantasized, is quite ABSURD. Having read the original script and seen the ... animated and live-action films featuring his story I have to admit there was not even one as close to craziness as this one..

And I thought I've seen quite a few in the anime world already.. I was probably wrong. :P
As soon as the film started I found myself wondering what the hell was going on and at the same time laughing my ass off. I was lost. xD Admittedly, the story is a lot different from the original Alice in Wonderland, staying close only to the visual novel and manga (as I learned after some research), creating a whole new story and maintaining only the Therefore, we have: Alice who seems to be perfectly sane (in comparison to the original Alice whose imagination runs wilder that it should xD), the Hatter named Bloody Dupre who is more mysterious than mad (and very hot I have to confess), the Chesire cat Boris Airey who is like a visual kei singer, quite absurd (as he has to be) and quite fond of guns. On his first appearance we see him shine and admire his Kalashnikov automatic AK- 47.
Oookay.. Imagine a little girl having to deal with that. Thank God, our Alice is not a little girl. She is old enough to deal with him. She is actually old enough to have an impact on men. What can I say... White Rabbit, Peter White, is to blame for everything. She didn't actually follow him into a hole and fell. He is the one that dragged her in?! He has an obvious likeness towards her. The moment she enters this crazy world he confesses his love for her and kisses her. (Go Usagi-san)
Following them, a bunch of other characters appear. Nightmare Gottshalk who is based on the Caterpillar and is quite the devil's advocate, the Queen of this world named Vivaldi, a beautiful woman that also has a habit of ordering the beheading of others for ridiculous reasons and Julius Monrey a clockmaker and a very charming but cynical man who is supposed to represent Time. We also have the March Hare on the game, Elliot March, the Knave of Hearts, Ace as well as Tweedle Dee and Dum who suddenly grow up at some point and then return to being youngsters. (WTF xD :P)

In general the film is pretty interesting. It gradually builds up the story and the background while the biggest question one may have is not why everything is so absurd, but who the bad guy is. Vivaldi seems to be kind deep inside since she cares for her little brother. Ace drops out of the game when he realizes he plays the ‘bad guy’ act. So.. who is the bad guy?

This answer was given to me quite unexpectedly. Who would have imagined? And what exactly does it mean? It’s probably up to us to interpret it. Following the heart. Following the mind. What path should one choose? Decide between dream and reality. A huge decision. Gottshalk sarcastically says that it’s only a choice that will determine whether Alice lives or dies. Monrey, on the other hand, advises her not to rush it, because even if she doesn’t decide on her own, life will. No matter what the real answer is, Alice is attached to a vial… Her vial. Throughout the film this seems to be an important item. An item that will help her decide if she stays or not. In the end she loses it… Or not?

What path should one choose?
What does your heart say?

I never read the manga and according to other reviews it was better, but I have to say I really liked it. It's a twist on the actual Alice in wonderland, they use guns here : ) and at the end make sure you watch after the credits there's an important scene after the end theme
The story moves really fast but as long as you're closely paying attention, it gets explained so you know what's going on but it's easy to miss something if you don't watch during the whole thing
Overall it was a great movie and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Alice ... in wonderland, or even if you don't it's still a good action mystery brain twister

I really enjoy a good romance and magical factors so when i read the Manga (Still searching for more) i'm really enjoyed it and then i came across this i got really exited.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND READING MANGA BEFORE GOING NEAR THIS FILM.
I find it's really well done but the plot isn't easy to follow for it like's skipping between time zones and also there are some scenes that tend to drag on for a long time but Overall i really enjoyed it

The overall storyline was good, but I believe that it could had more to it than it did. Even though it kept true, to the manga series, I feel like this could have done better as an anime. That way, it would provide more in depth story telling, and expand more on each of the characters, such as Blood and Boris. Overall, I enjoyed it but like already mentioned, it could have been much more. Unlike the manga, it skips too much in between each scene. One minute you find Alice with Peter Rabbit, the next minute she's with Blood or someone else. It has ... so much more of a potential, to do better, if it was split into series, like the manga did. None the less, if you're a fan of the Alice series, it's still worth watching.