Written by Kathy Nguyen

Alice in Wonderland, written by English author Lewis Carroll in 1865, became an instant hit with readers, so it isn't surprising how many film versions have been made of it. The first film that came out was silent back in 1903. Two more silent films were made following this. In 1931, the first film with speech was made patched together by a cast of amateur actors.

Most notably, Disney came out with an animated version of its own and caught the hearts of many viewers in 1951. Over the years, numerous film and television adaptations have been created, so it’s about time that an Alice In Wonderland, possibly closest to the Lewis Carroll vision, came out and who best to make this effort but enigmatic Tim Burton! Evidently, Marilyn Manson is currently creating a horror version of the film as well. Hmmm....

Alice in Wonderland can be viewed as a family friendly classic, but there are many aspects in the story that can be easily interpreted as a dark tale which targets an older audience, hence this films PG rating. For those who are not familiar with this classic tale, Alice follows the white rabbit through a hole and ends up in a mysterious world that is full of dangers and adventures.

Alice experiences potions that can shrink her to the size of a mouse or make her tall enough to put a T-rex to shame. There are animals that talk and a cat that appears out of thin air. It features the evil Queen of Hearts who likes to decapitate anyone, making people suffer for her pleasure, and plays croquet with live flamingos. The material is prime for a director such as Burton to tackle, who has previously brought Sweeney Todd, Beetlejuice, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and Sleepy Hollow to the big screen. In this sequel, 19 year old Alice will be returning to Wonderland to folllow her destiny. Hopefully.

Over time, many films have adapted the symbols presented in Alice in Wonderland and cleverly snuke into our own psyche.The Matrix quoted, “follow the white rabbit”, taking Neo (Keanu Reeves) into a completely different world from his own. The book's interpretation, with its many mind-bending and illogical moments, and so many iconic images, can be played around with to the delight of creative Directors like Burton and Actors like Johnny Depp.

So who is this Tim Burton? Burton is known to make movies that have a gothic atmosphere, dark sense of humour and likes to focus on characters that can be easily misunderstood by the realm of "normalacy". Burton likes to change our definition of what the outsider is and clearly many feel like outsiders as most of his films have been excessively successful.

Another trademark of Burton's films is his frequent collaborations with Johnny Depp. Their relationship started with the filming of Edward Scissorhands. Since then, Depp has teamed up with Burton to make Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, the remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the 3D animated Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd and now, Alice in Wonderland.

When Depp was approached by Burton to take on this role as the Mad Hatter, Depp jumped right on board the film project. Depp told the Vancouver Sun, “To be honest, he [Burton] could have said Alice and I would have done it. I would have done whatever character Tim wanted. But yes, certainly the fact that it was the Mad Hatter was a bonus – because of the great challenge.”

In Burton’s past films, Johnny Depp has always played characters that are misunderstood, as mentioned, is one of Burton's primary themes. In Edward Scissorhands, he was an outsider because he was clearly not a normal human being. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he was the anti-social Willy Wonka who drifted from his father because of his love for candy. Finally, in Sweeney Todd, he was a vengeful serial killer who fed human remains to customers with the help of Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter).

Who else can we expect to see in Burton’s Alice in Wonderland? For sure, we will see his fiancée Helena Bonham Carter, who has shown up in every single one of his movies since they met on the set of Planet of the Apes back in 2001. In this film, she will portray the Queen of Hearts. And what has been done to her head? Not decapitated of course, but it is huge! Almost heart-shaped in fact!

More familiar faces who have a tendency to show up in Burton’s movies make appearances in Alice. This includes Timothy Spall who plays Bayard, Alan Rickman as the blue caterpillar, Michael Gough as the Dodo Bird, and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky. New faces to this movie will be Anne Hathaway who will be the White Queen, the opposite of Helena’s role and Mia Wasikowska will be the one to don the blue dress of Alice.

We can look to see some other Burton trademarks, like the vibrant colourful scenery, similar to what we saw in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Will the film start with a winter scene? After all, in all of Burton’s films, it starts off with a quiet snowy scene. Again, Danny Elfman will team up with Burton for the captivating soundtrack.

Will Alice feature dead or dismembered dogs? With the big-headed Queen of Hearts who wants to behead everything, there probably will be a dismembered something lying around somewhere, as morbid as it sounds.

Depp also commented that he will provide a deeper version of the Mad Hatter, so perhaps Burton will slip in a series of flashback scenes of when the Hatter was a child or maybe some father-son problems. After all, his films tend to feature sequences and characters of this sort. We cannot expect to see all these trademarks, but they are ones to definitely keep an eye out for.

With only the trailer and movie posters to look at, it is still clear that Tim Burton continues to wear the crown for creativity and uniqueness. With a star-studded cast, mesmerizing movie sets and the magical touch of Burton himself, we can expect another imaginative, captivating, edge of your seat, amazing film. Burton fans will sure to be adding this to their list of favourites.

Alice in Wonderland will be hitting theatres on March 5th, so if you want to break away from the real world and fall down the rabbit hole, make sure you check out Burton’s latest!

Written by :

Katwoman88

 

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written by Ichiya, February 27, 2010

awesome!! glad to know depp loves what he does, cuz we love what he does. :) me likey!!

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