'Alice in Wonderland' is a wonderful visual feast.

Who wouldn’t want to fall down the rabbit hole if it holds the promise of endless possibilities and boundless dreams?

Tim Burton’s adaptation of the beloved story only hints at the curious temptation with some 3-D helpings.

Let purists be warned: This is not a faithful big screen translation of Lewis Caroll’s classic books “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass.”

Burton's "Alice" jumps 13 years later when our heroine is already 19 years old. While she has lost some of her “much-ness”—as the Mad Hatter later on described her—Alice (played by Australian actress Mia Wasikowska) still has her childhood spunk, her penchant for the extraordinary, and her excessive dislike to be told what to do (say, marry a redhead royal prig just because her family insists).

Beloved characters in the books were brought to life to join the crazy tea party: the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), Dormouse (Barbara Windsor), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), Tweedleedee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), and the March Hare (Paul Whitehouse).

The royalties are also present, such as the Knave of Hearts (Crispin Glover), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), and of course, the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), although popular character Humpty Dumpty is missing in action—perhaps he fell off a wall?

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton (“Beauty and the Beast”) made one cohesive story about the triumph of good vs. evil and where interaction among the characters was evident, unlike in the book where it seemed they were all just colorful cut-outs meant to fill Alice's world. In the film, the characters are finally allowed to develop.

In Burton's version, Alice is seen returning to "Underland" (which she used to call “Wonderland”) to find it barren and almost hopeless. She reunites with her long-time friends who tell her she needs to fulfill her destiny of slaying the Red Queen’s “pet,” the Jabberwocky, on Frabjous Day, so the White Queen will regain her crown.

Burton’s 108-minute film is a visual feast all throughout, made so sumptuous with his trademark dreamy, melancholic imagery.

Production design is so consistent that there is not a wasted space in a single frame. Take for instance the castle of the Red Queen: everything from the execution stage to the Knave’s eye patch are all heart-shaped. Tim’s eye for detail goes a long way in successfully transporting the audience to a different world.

Even the costumes, hair, and make-up are striking in an edgy yet sophisticated way, from the Red Queen’s bulbous head times three and Mad Hatter’s zesty orange hair, to Alice’s it’s-not-obvious-it’s-made-out-of-curtains-and-rags dress. Cheers to costume designer Colleen Atwood.

Tim reunites once again with his perennial teammates Johnny Depp and partner in real life Helena Bonham Carter for this one.

Johnny is, as usual, very amusing. As the Mad Hatter, who he has seemingly given more "heart," he’s not just some nutty entertainer who seldom asks, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”

But it is really Helena who stands out: she’s the Red Queen incarnate, a bratty royalty whose shrill voice will get in one’s nerves that one would almost want to scream, “off with her head!”

Mia, meanwhile, has both the spunk and the innocence of Alice that her own portrayal of the character will grow on you. She is at her empowering best during her duel with the Jabberwocky.

The film has its merits, though loyal followers of the books will probably wonder how the film would have turned out if only Tim opted to re-tell the story faithfully. (And with the movie’s rich visuals, witty, comic dialogues, and powerhouse cast, it is an experience in itself even sans 3-D.)

In spite of the drastic differences, and the strange fact that Alice has (initially) forgotten a place as wonderful as Wonderland, the film still carries the same message that the books had stamped in the hearts of kids and adults since their publication in the late 1800’s: people may grow older, but they should not lose their sense of wonder. "Be curiouser and curiouser."

And it doesn’t matter what’s real or what’s imaginary (“which dreamed it,” anyway?); what’s important is, whether you are in the real or in the imagined world, you never lose your sense of self.

“Walt Disney Pictures’ Alice in Wonderland” opens in cinemas March 4.