There's no denying the entire experience of watching Alice Through the Looking Glass is a feast for the eyes, but one of the truly incredible visual moments from the movie comes when viewers are allowed to enter Time's castle. It looks so real, yet so surreal, you might wonder if Time's castle in Through the Looking Glass is a real place. If you're ready to book your next vacation to Underland, you might be totally disappointed by the answer.
According to Disney's Wiki, the source of all manner of Disney trivia, the castle is in Underland and "possesses a grim, dark, uninviting aspect, which may reflect its owner personality or intentions."
And while the first Alice in Wonderland installment was shot primarily in front of a green screen, Alice Through The Looking Glass Director James Bobin wanted to take things in a slightly different direction with the sequel. So while there's no evidence that Time's castle is an actual place, there were many locations in Underland that were built in real life as movie sets, instead of just rendered in post-production by artists.
"It feels a little differently because we built a lot of sets, which we didn't on the first movie," producer Suzanne Todd said in a press release, according to Zap2It. "It's sort of subliminal, but it feels different when you watch it, It feels a little more like a real place, rather than a recreation of a place you've ever seen. It feels like a place you could visit because there's so many actual buildings, even in Underland."
Time, played by Sacha Baron Cohen, has a crew of creatures appropriately called "seconds" who run the castle. Seconds are made out of what look to be clock bits and parts like gears and bolts. The creatures also have the ability to join forces to make even bigger beings, which are called "minutes" and "hours" as they get larger.
And audiences are loving Cohen's role as Time.
Maybe Disney should go ahead and build a real life Time's castle in one of its parks. It would be a beautiful and slightly dark place people could go to learn about clock puns, or maybe even have a steam punk wedding.
Either way, the inclusion of actual 3-D construction in Through The Looking Glass has definitely made Alice's fantastical world seem far more lifelike than the original. And while you might not be able to actually visit Time's castle, it's still an incredible place to go through the magic of gorgeous film making.
