In the film Alice in Wonderland the theme of good versus evil is explored. Throughout the film Tim Burton explores good versus evil within Alice’s journey through the use of mise en scene and cinematography. He does this by giving both the Red and White Queens distinct characteristics and uses colours that the audience can easily associate with good and evil. Furthermore, Burton manipulated camera angles to view these two characters in a way that emphasises the theme.
To emphasise the theme of Good versus Evil, Burton focuses on mise en scene in the comparison of the characteristics of the Red and White Queens. He shaped the Red Queen to be a character with a temperamental anger and one which uses intimidation and manipulation to control others.
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In the scene where the Red Queen plays croquet, she is shot using a low angle, wide shot and she is standing in front of a distanced crowd with her nose high in the air. The scene where the White Queen makes a shrinking potion for Alice, she is shot on a slight low angle. The very low angle shot on the Red Queen is effective as it shows the audience how she dominates over everyone. She is the biggest in the picture. This angle also makes the audience feel as though they are looking up at the Red Queen, further emphasising her negative dominance over the people of Wonderland, thus increasing her sense of evil. The wide angle shot shows how her subjects are distanced from her, which emphasises her ‘stuck up’ attitude. This causes the audience to dislike her even further, which intensifies the sense of evil found within the Red Queen as a character. The White Queen, however, is much more involved with her followers and treats them with dignity. The slight low angle she is shot at gives the impression that she is still at the top of the Wonderland hierarchy, but that she is respected and seen as a friend. The fact that she is more involved with her subjects makes her better liked by the audience. This presents her as good, compared to the Red