Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ already scares the crap out of me
I recall the story of Alice as being a quirky children’s tale about a young girl who falls asleep and dreams of a place where rabbits tell time, caterpillars smoke weed hookah pipes, and a lot of stock is placed in one’s ability to memorize poems.
Tim Burton clearly got a lot more out of it. Images from his film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland have made their way to the web, and unlike Disney’s first delightful adaptation that gave birth to two delightful rides at Disneyland featuring delightful singing flowers and whimsical spinning teacups, this one features what might be a killer clown and Anne Hathaway. (Sorry, that was redundant.)
Take a peek at some photos of the cast:
Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter (or, Madonna and Carrot Top’s love child, apparently)
Anne Hathaway as the White Queen (whom I don’t recall at all from the book)
Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen
Matt Lucas as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum
Knowing Burton’s ability to create fantastical, fantasy-like worlds, this should be interesting, at the very least. And by interesting, I mean “just a little terrifying.” Right?
Responses to "Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ already scares the crap out of me"
I am such a fan of twisted fairy tales.
The White Queen was actually from the second book, Through The Looking Glass. As much as I love Anne Hathaway, I’m not digging the white hair and the dark eyebrows.
And I’m not sure what creeps me out more. Depp or Bonham Carter’s character. Nothing like some good ol fashion nightmare fuel.
She’s the Queen of Hearts. Yr making stuff up again H. (good to see you at the Patrick Contreras gig!)
Michael is correct — the White Queen appears in “Through the Looking Glass.” But so does a character called the Red Queen. Of course, we all remember the Queen of Hearts from “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”
The IMDb page for Burton’s movie refers to Helena Bonham Carter’s character as the Red Queen.
Is the Queen of Hearts and the Red Queen the same character? Does anyone remember? I have both books here, but am probably not going to read them today.
If you click the movie’s wikipedia page for the Red Queen, it directs you to the character’s page and says she is a character in Through The Looking Glass. The Queen of Hearts is a totally different character.
this is complicated. i’m more comfortable talking about bacon.
Aha. You’re right. Here is the info.
glad to know i’m not the only one confused.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_(Through_the_Looking_Glass)
Great minds … etc.
While we’re talking Wonderland trivia: Tweedles Dee and Dum were actually only in Through the Looking Glass (Book 2) too, but due to their inclusion in the Disney version, many misremember them in Adventures in Wonderland (Book 1).
The more you know…
Honestly I thought it was the Queen of Hearts too. Only when you brought up the point did I go look.
I guess he’s merging both books into one? Though I’m a bit confused since Crispin Glover is going to play the Knave of Hearts and he was part of the Queen of Hearts court wasn’t he?
Flipping through “Through the Looking Glass,” I just noticed “The Walrus and the Carpenter” is from that book, as well.
I guess it matters if one wants to be a purist, but it seems like we’ve all (Tim Burton included) kind of agreed to just call the whole collection “Alice in Wonderland,” probably because of that first Disney movie (Burton’s movie will be distributed by Disney, as well), as you pointed out, Conlan.
Who do you think likes bacon more? The Red or White Queen?
I gather from other websites that Tim Burton and his writer(s) definitely conflated the Red Queen (chess piece) from “Through the Looking Glass” with the Queen of Hearts (playing card) from “Wonderland.” Although it doesn’t look a bit like the Disney animated cartoon, from what little I’ve gathered of the plot of Burton’s film, it appears to be a sequel to that Disney cartoon, which also had the Queen of Hearts speaking lines belonging to the Red Queen, and dragging in Tweedledum and -dee from “Looking Glass,” to boot. By the way, the White Queen in Carroll’s “Looking Glass” was a scatterbrained fuddy-duddy, always losing her shawl, not at all like the sweetly sinister apparition in the Burton”s “Alice” previews I’ve viewed.
I don’t like that. I’m a purist who says the closer the movie to the book, the better. (My favorite file adaptation was “The Maltese Falcon,” even if Humphrey Bogart didn’t have Sam Spade’s blond widows peak). I’ll probably go see this, but I’ll tell myself as I enter the theater, “This is a third-generation adaptation in which very little of the plot relates to Lewis Carroll’s works, although some characters have a vague resemblance to his, and similar or identical names.”