The film opens with rebellious 19-year-old heroine (Wasikowska) faced with a most unexpected marriage proposal from bumbling twit Hamish Ascot (Bill).

Fleeing the public proposal to clear her head, Alice chases a White Rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen) down a hole, and reunites with old friends the Mad Hatter (Depp), Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Lucas), Absolem the Caterpillar (voiced by Alan Rickman), The Dormouse (Barbara Windsor) and The Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), whom she cannot remember from her earlier visit to Wonderland.

Alice learns she is destined to slay the fearsome Jabberwocky (Christopher Lee), owned by the decapitation-happy Red Queen (Bonham Carter).

Alice In Wonderland screens in 3-D in selected cinemas and the technology works best at the beginning of the film, when Alice tumbles down the hole and objects fly at the screen, compelling us to duck and dive.

Burton’s vision loses very little in traditional 2-D. The visuals are stunning, as you would expect, but characterisation is weak, and Depp’s turn as the Mad Hatter is one bout of lunacy too far.

Armed with various strange accents, his mad milliner is unintelligible in places.

Bonham Carter is an absolute delight as the maniacal monarch with the unnaturally large noggin, who employs swine as footstools: “I love a warm pig belly for my aching feet!”The framing device of the marriage proposal robs the film of any sense of urgency or danger - how can Alice be harmed when she has to return to the world above to give Hamish her answer? - as we search in vain for the substance behind the style. NO SWEARING NO SEX VIOLENCE RATING: 6.5/10