Welcome to Wonderland, Alice - new Tim Burton film shots revealed
Got to love Tim Burton - especially for his imagining of Alice in Wonderland. New interactive shots released today over on USAToday.com show a dark and mysterious world, created with Burton’s trademark love for the unusual and the macabre:
It has been Burton-ized” is how producer Richard Zanuck describes the director’s vision of the Lewis Carroll classic. Many elements are familiar, from the enigmatic Caterpillar (Alan Rickman) to the fierce Jabberwock (Christopher Lee). But none has been presented in this sort of visually surreal fashion. “We finished shooting in December after only 40 days,” Zanuck says. Now the live action is being merged with CG animation and motion-capture creatures, and then transferred into 3-D.
Let’s start with the White Rabbit:
The rabbit, voiced by Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon) is looking quite unlike his disney predecessor while Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is waiting expectantly.
Burton has said of choosing Wasikowska, 19, to play Alice, “We met a lot of people, but she just had that certain kind of emotional toughness, standing her ground in a way that makes her kind of an older person with a younger person’s mentality.”
Take a closer look at the garden carefully over here - are they Edward Scissorhands designed topiaries?
The garden:
Have a look at it closer over here - there’s obviously talking roses just before what appears to be a forest of giant mushrooms. That’s where she meets the caterpillar (Rickman), isn’t it?
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
I’m quite excited about these two characters, voiced by Matt Lucas (Little Britain). Apparently both characters created with motion-capture technology. Have a closer look over yonder.
And then we have the main characters…
The Red Queen:
Wonderland was a peaceful kingdom until the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) took power. “The creatures are ready to revolt and waiting for Alice to help them,” says Zanuck. Bonham Carter has a digitally enhanced swelled head to play the domineering crimson ruler, who likes nothing better than to scream “Off with their heads!”
The White Queen:
The White Queen (Anne Hathaway), who was overthrown by her sister, “is beautiful but over the top. She doesn’t walk. She floats. She’s very eccentric,” Zanuck says.
And of course, the Mad Hatter:
“Off his rocker”: Johnny Depp concocts another memorably trippy character as the Mad Hatter. Besides his Carrot Top mop, Depp undergoes a transformation with the addition of enlarged eyes tinted yellow. “He is so much fun and so nutty, I can’t imagine anyone else doing it,” says producer Richard Zanuck. The actor also employs an accent that Zanuck can only describe as indescribable.
Doesn’t it look very very cool? When asked if he’s worried about the darkness, Zanuck said “This is for little people and people who read it when they were little 50 years ago.” A bit like me so. Must go digging out my copy…
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darraghdoyle Blogger, event addict and fan of street and performance art. You can contact me directly at darraghdoyle[at]gmail[dot]com or @darraghdoyle on twitter.
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Wow! I only read Alice in Wonderland for the first time last year (I know, I know!) but I really loved it. I think it is supposed to dark and strange and weird, all the things Tim Burton seems to love in a movie. I love the photos of the characters, they look amazing…can’t to see this!
Not bad - the half-lighty landscaping is spot on, engravings under tissue paper or whatever the poet said.
Proof of the tweedles will be in the eating, though. They look a bit too much like the tumbling Cyrillic woodlice from Antz, too grey too. Not the right kind of scary, maybe.
This book really brings back memories, was a kinda freaked out by it all reading it as a small boyeen over 20 years ago. Really looking forward to this.
Some of these are really freaky looking, but then again Helena Bonham-Carter looks like a mentaller in everything. Maybe someone should cast SuBo in it.
I read Alice about once every three years. It’s still one of my all time favourite novels. Wonderfully crazy. When I heard Burton was making the film, I knew it would be in safe hands and these shots are going a long way to proving that.
These look wonderful, magical, scary and way through the looking glass. Dying to see it. Still love Tenniel though
This only makes me want to go to the Burton exhibition at MOMA later in the year even more so…
Hi everyone! It’s the crazy-mad writer here! If you like Alice in Wonderland, try looking at a little story that I wrote about Alice, ‘Alice on Top of the World.’ It’s a follow on tale to the first two. You can see it on my website http://www.crazymadwriter.com
Well, that’s it for now from the crazy-mad writer - arrgh!