Alice Through the Looking Glass is a 2016 American live-action/animated fantasy adventure film directed by James Bobin, written by Linda Woolverton and produced by Tim Burton, Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd, and Jennifer Todd. It is based on the characters created by Lewis Carroll and it is the sequel to Disney's 2010 live-action feature film Alice in Wonderland. Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Matt Lucas, Mia Wasikowska, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Barbara Windsor, Timothy Spall, Paul Whitehouse, Lindsay Duncan, Geraldine James, and Leo Bill reprise their roles from the previous film with Rhys Ifans and Sacha Baron Cohen joining the cast. It also features Rickman, Windsor, and Andrew Sachs in their final film roles prior to their deaths. In the film, a now 22-year-old Alice comes across a magical looking glass that takes her back to Wonderland, where she finds that the Mad Hatter is acting madder than usual and wants to discover the truth about his family. Alice then travels through time (with the "Chronosphere"), comes across friends and enemies at different points of their lives, and embarks on a race to save the Hatter before time runs out.
The film premiered in London on May 10, 2016, and was theatrically released on May 27, 2016, by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, who praised its visuals but criticized its story. It was also a box-office bomb, grossing roughly $299.5 million against a production budget of $170 million.
Plot
Alice Kingsleigh has spent the past three years following her father's footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London from China, she learns that her ex-fiancé, Hamish Ascot, has taken over his deceased father's company and plans to have Alice sign over her father's ship in exchange for her family home. Alice follows a butterfly she recognizes as Absolem, who was previously a caterpillar, and returns to Wonderland through a mirror. Alice is greeted by the White Queen, the White Rabbit, the Tweedles, the Dormouse, the March Hare, the Bloodhound and the Cheshire Cat. They inform her that the Mad Hatter is acting madder than usual because his family is missing.
Alice tries to console him, but he remains certain that his family survived the attack of the Jabberwocky. The White Queen, believing that finding the Hatter's family is the only way to restore his health, sends Alice to consult Time and convince him to save the Hatter's family in the past. The White Queen warns Alice that history will be destroyed if a person's past and present selves meet. Upon entering the Castle of Eternity, Alice finds the Chronosphere, an object that controls all of time in Wonderland. After Time tells Alice that altering the past is impossible, she steals the Chronosphere and travels back in time, shortly after finding the exiled Red Queen in Time's care. The Red Queen orders Time to pursue Alice, who accidentally travels to the Red Queen's coronation. There, a younger Mad Hatter mocks the Red Queen when the royal crown does not fit her abnormal head. When her crown breaks, the Red Queen throws a tantrum that causes her head to swell. Her father deems her unfit to rule and passes the title of queen to her younger sister, the White Queen.
Alice learns of an event in both the Queens' pasts that causes friction between the two, and she travels back in time again, hoping to change the Red Queen's character and stop the Jabberwocky from killing the Hatter's family. The young White Queen steals a tart from her mother and leaves the crumbs by her red sister's bed. When confronted by their mother, she lies and lets her sister take the blame, causing the red princess to run out of the castle. Alice sees her about to run into a clock being carried across the square; believing this to be the event that changes her head, she shoves the clock out of the way, but the red princess still falls and hits her head. Alice is confronted by a weakened Time, who berates her for putting all of time in danger. She runs into a nearby mirror back into the real world, where she wakes up in a mental hospital, diagnosed with female hysteria. With the help of her mother, she returns to Wonderland, where she travels to the Jabberwocky attack and discovers that the Hatter's family did not die, but were captured by the Red Queen's Red Knights.