When James Bobin took over the director's chair from Tim Burton for the 2016 sequel, he inherited a bit of a lightning-in-a-bottle situation. The cast of Alice Through the Looking Glass wasn't just a collection of big names; it was a bizarre, brilliant collision of British theatrical royalty and Hollywood eccentricism. You’ve got Johnny Depp at the height of his "makeup-heavy" era, Helena Bonham Carter doing her best "angry toddler in a queen’s body" impression, and the late, great Alan Rickman lending his voice to a film one last time. It’s a lot to process.
Looking back, the movie serves as a weirdly beautiful time capsule. Honestly, the 2016 landscape was shifting, and while the film didn't hit the billion-dollar highs of its 2010 predecessor, the ensemble stayed remarkably committed to the bit. They had to. If you’re playing a character named Time who wears a giant clock as a hat, you can't exactly phone it in.
The Return of the Heavy Hitters
Mia Wasikowska returned as Alice Kingsleigh, and she basically anchors the whole fever dream. In this one, she’s a sea captain. It’s a bold choice that moves her away from the "lost girl" trope of the first film and into something more proactive. Wasikowska has this specific, understated energy that balances out the screaming madness surrounding her. She’s the straight man in a room full of clowns.
Then there’s Johnny Depp. His Tarrant Hightopp—the Mad Hatter—is... well, he's a lot. In this sequel, we see a more vulnerable, depressed version of the character. Depp plays him with a heavy lisp and eyes that seem to change color based on his mood swings. Critics were split on whether it was too much, but you can't deny the commitment. He spent hours in the makeup chair every single day, and that physical transformation really dictates how he moves on screen. It’s jerky, nervous, and fundamentally broken.
- Mia Wasikowska: Alice (The grounded protagonist)
- Johnny Depp: The Mad Hatter (The emotional core)
- Anne Hathaway: Mirana / The White Queen (The "good" sister with some dark undertones)
- Helena Bonham Carter: Iracebeth / The Red Queen (The villain you secretly kind of feel for)
Helena Bonham Carter is particularly fascinating here. In Through the Looking Glass, we get the backstory. We find out why her head is so big. It’s actually kind of tragic? She plays the Red Queen with this raw, screechy insecurity that makes her more than just a cartoon villain. And Anne Hathaway’s White Queen—Mirana—is subtly terrifying. She glides around with her hands held high like she’s constantly afraid of touching something dirty. There’s a "fake nice" quality to her performance that makes the sibling rivalry feel genuinely uncomfortable.
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Sacha Baron Cohen as Time: The Addition We Needed
If there’s one person who stole the show, it was Sacha Baron Cohen. He plays Time. Not a clockmaker, but the literal personification of Time. He’s part human, part clockwork, and entirely ridiculous. Cohen brought a sort of Werner Herzog-inspired accent to the role that shouldn't work but somehow does.
He’s the foil to the Hatter and the reluctant ally/antagonist to Alice. His performance is full of physical comedy—the way he marches, the way his mechanical parts click. It was a risky casting choice because Cohen is known for being such a chameleon, but he managed to fit into the Burton-esque aesthetic without losing his own weird edge. He and James Bobin had worked together before on Da Ali G Show, so there was a shorthand there that allowed for a lot of improvisation.
The Voices in the Shadows
We have to talk about the voice cast because it is legendary. This was Alan Rickman’s final film role. He voiced Absolem, the Blue Caterpillar (now a butterfly). Hearing that distinct, gravelly baritone one last time gives the movie a weight it might not have otherwise had. It’s a brief performance, but it’s haunting.
Stephen Fry returned as the Cheshire Cat. Michael Sheen was the White Rabbit. Timothy Spall was Bayard the Bloodhound. It’s like a "who’s who" of British actors who usually headline their own prestige dramas, all gathered together to voice digital animals.
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- Alan Rickman as Absolem
- Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat
- Michael Sheen as Nivins McTwisp (The White Rabbit)
- Timothy Spall as Bayard
- Barbara Windsor as Mallymkun (The Dormouse)
- Matt Lucas as Tweedledum and Tweedledee
The Tweedle brothers are a technical marvel, too. Matt Lucas played both, which involved some pretty intense motion-capture work and a lot of digital stitching. He brings a specific vaudevillian humor to the roles that breaks up the more "epic" fantasy beats of the plot.
Why This Ensemble Worked (And Where It Didn't)
The cast of Alice Through the Looking Glass had a massive job: they had to make a CGI-heavy world feel inhabited. When you’re acting against a green screen for 90% of your day, it’s easy to look bored. You can tell these actors didn't. Whether it’s Rhys Ifans playing the Hatter’s father, Zanik Hightopp, or Matt Vogel taking over some of the puppetry work, there's a sense of play.
Rhys Ifans is an underrated MVP here. He plays a stern, traditionalist father who doesn't understand his whimsical son. It adds a layer of "real world" family trauma to a movie about chronospheres and talking vegetables.
However, the sheer size of the cast meant some people got lost. Andrew Scott (of Sherlock and Fleabag fame) has a tiny role as Dr. Addison. It’s almost a "blink and you’ll miss it" moment. When you have talent like that on set and they only get two minutes of screen time, it feels like a bit of a missed opportunity. But that’s the nature of these massive blockbusters. Sometimes you’re just there to add a bit of texture to the background.
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The Legacy of the Performers
Looking at the cast of Alice Through the Looking Glass today, it feels like the end of an era for this specific kind of big-budget, weird-for-the-sake-of-weird fantasy. Shortly after this, Disney shifted more toward "live-action" remakes that stayed closer to the original source material. The Alice films were their own beast. They were sequels to books that were already nonsensical, meaning the actors had to invent a lot of the logic as they went along.
The film serves as a reminder of how much a movie depends on the chemistry of its leads. Even when the plot gets convoluted—and let’s be real, time travel plots are always a headache—the relationship between Alice and the Hatter feels grounded. Wasikowska and Depp have a genuine screen friendship that carries the emotional weight.
Actionable Takeaways for Film Fans
If you're revisiting the movie or diving into the lore for the first time, keep these things in mind to appreciate the performances more:
- Watch the background: In scenes with Sacha Baron Cohen, look at how the smaller "Seconds" (his mechanical minions) mirror his movements. It’s a choreographed mess.
- Listen for the final bow: Pay close attention to Absolem’s lines. Knowing it was Rickman’s final contribution to cinema adds a layer of poignancy to the character's wisdom.
- Notice the siblings: Watch the body language between Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham Carter. They play it like two people who have been arguing for eighty years, which, in the timeline of the movie, they basically have.
- Check out the costumes: Colleen Atwood designed the outfits. The cast had to learn to move in clothes that were often heavy, restrictive, or physically impossible. Depp’s various "Hatter" stages are reflected entirely in his wardrobe changes.
The film is a visual overload, but the heartbeat is the people. The cast of Alice Through the Looking Glass took a chaotic script and turned it into a character study about regret, family, and the literal passage of time. It’s messy, it’s loud, and it’s occasionally brilliant.
To really get the most out of the experience, try watching the 2010 original and the 2016 sequel back-to-back. You’ll see the subtle ways the actors aged their characters—not just physically, but emotionally. Alice goes from a girl unsure of her place to a woman who literally commands the seas, and Wasikowska’s posture reflects that shift perfectly. That’s the mark of a cast that actually cared about the source material, even when things got "curiouser and curiouser."