Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND 3-D

[PS3-Playb3yond]

Meh, not really looking forward for this one.

[SquidPuppet]

Originally Posted by Beta Man

not so sure about how I feel about Johnny Depp being the Mad Hatter, but we'll see what happens.

Beta Bro WHO could be better??????

This has all kinds of deliriously crazy awesome written all over it....IF it happens.

[quexos]

I hope Alice in Wonderland in CGI will be made and released. I love CG Animation
as for the 3-D I have to see if it's pleasant to watch cause I remember those movies in 3-D where you need to wear blue/green plastic glasses, hmm not good

[Bluoholic]

Originally Posted by jkwest

I heard the McGee version was looking at Sara Michelle Geller as Alice..taking place right after The Looking Glass...Alice stuck in a Sanitarium...gawd that would have been awesome....

Yep, that was what I last heard about it. It would be awesome, it's a long shot but I think Del Toro would be suited perfectly to direct it.

As someone said, I also love Depp but in all seriousness it's starting to get annoying him taking on freak roles with Burton all the time. Great actor and really really good visionary director but Depp do something normal for a change.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by SquidPuppet

Beta Bro WHO could be better??????

This has all kinds of deliriously crazy awesome written all over it....IF it happens.

don't know..... I know everyone was creaming their shorts over Depp to "one up" Wilder's Wonka, and if anything thinks that is the case, they're crazy..... it's just one of those things where they will try to make the Mad Hatter have a bigger role than necessary, and it'll just ruin the movie...... I say leave well-enough alone..... get some no-name in there, and go in with low expectations, and hope for a sleeper

[Teazle]

Film will be cool, however why does Burton have to cast Depp in so many of his films?

Scissorhands
Sleepy Hollow
Sweeney Todd
Corpse Bride
Ed Wood
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

and now Alice? Come on, bring in some fresh talent. Young actors need a break too.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Teazle

Film will be cool, however why does Burton have to cast Depp in so many of his films?

Because he HAS to cast the exact same actors over and over--It's easier than directing.

(Which leaves question about which role Christopher Lee will undoubtedly be auto-cast playing...The King of Hearts maybe??)

[M]

This is going to be dark and amazing.

[EricJ]

Uh, yeah, that's the trouble...

60's-cliche' Jefferson Airplane songs (and, in Burton's case, desperately wannabe Goth wishful-thinking) aside, Lewis Carroll isn't supposed to be "dark"--
It's supposed to be a Victorian math-nut's hobby attempt to indulge in the Edward Lear "nonsense" craze at the time (from a part-time author who happened to be arguably good at it), mixing various episodic improv-storytime sessions out of his own babysitting experience with his own personal hobby for nasty-silly Weird-Al parodies of the annoying Victorian poems of his day...And okay, so he wasn't so experienced yet at stringing the episodes together into a coherent A-B plotline, or wrapping it up with a solidified ending, so freakin' sue him.

(Remember back in high school, we had to read Carroll as part of a block of fantasy novels--
And with an entire class of teenagers, half of whom had never actually sat down and read the darn text in the last twelve years, looming revisionist-cliche' discussions about magic mushrooms and delusional insanity were neatly and pre-emptively thwarted back to literary thoughts by one incisive test question: "Identify any five puns in the Mock Turtle's story".
We called him "tortoise" because he taught us...)

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Uh, yeah, that's the trouble...

60's-cliche' Jefferson Airplane songs (and, in Burton's case, desperately wannabe Goth wishful-thinking) aside, Lewis Carroll isn't supposed to be "dark"--
...

The "dark" interpretation of Alice probably begins with the famous 1982 edition featuring wood engravings by Barry Moser. Here's his Mad Hatter:

http://www.rmichelson.com/Artist_Pag...d%20Hatter.htm

Not at all endearing; a frightening, insane-looking guy. Quite a departure from Tenniel.

Years ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with a copy of this edition for an hour. Burton, if he does go for a darker, crazier Alice, is in good company.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Teazle

The "dark" interpretation of Alice probably begins with the famous 1982 edition featuring wood engravings by Barry Moser. Here's his Mad Hatter:

Actually, also dates back to Walt Disney disgruntedly disowning his animated version because of its disappointing box-office returns in 1951 (mostly due to purist complaints, and the stylistic cartoon liberties being a bit...odd for first time audiences)--

As a result, being one of Disney's, quote-fingers, "flops", it was frequently pawned off on cheap independent theatrical-runs and kiddie matinees...
Where it was discovered by college students (and Jefferson Airplane songwriters) in the 60's, who went there to giggle "Huhuh--'Mushrooms', get it?...Hey, look, like the bug-guy's smokin' a bong, that's funny... ", and it spent the next twenty theatrical years being sold to the same "trip" college/grindhouse revival theaters with fellow Walt-disowned "flop" Fantasia--
Disney's Alice stayed in the cheap public-domain ghetto all the way through the 80's and up into the mid-90's--When all of a sudden, the fact that it'd been one of the only Disney movies available on VHS had raised a new generation of kids on the "safe" version of the story, and the DVD-edition purity of Ms. A's reputation was saved by corporate marketing.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by Josh

Agree about McGee... wasn't that in the pipe-line for a movie?

Burton really screwed the pooch on Willy Wonka, so I'm not too sure about Alice in Wonderland fairing any better. He is a brilliant director, but he went too far with that film.

Well, that's an opinion
Personally, I thought Burton's version of Charlie & The Chocolate factory was not only truer to the book, but even simply better than Wilder's version.
My opinion

And tim Burton's version of Alice? Sign me up!

[Teazle]

Originally Posted by EricJ

Actually, also dates back to Walt Disney disgruntedly disowning his animated version because of its disappointing box-office returns in 1951 (mostly due to purist complaints, and the stylistic cartoon liberties being a bit...odd for first time audiences)--

As a result, being one of Disney's, quote-fingers, "flops", it was frequently pawned off on cheap independent theatrical-runs and kiddie matinees...
Where it was discovered by college students (and Jefferson Airplane songwriters) in the 60's, who went there to giggle "Huhuh--'Mushrooms', get it?...Hey, look, like the bug-guy's smokin' a bong, that's funny... ", and it spent the next twenty theatrical years being sold to the same "trip" college/grindhouse revival theaters with fellow Walt-disowned "flop" Fantasia--
Disney's Alice stayed in the cheap public-domain ghetto all the way through the 80's and up into the mid-90's--When all of a sudden, the fact that it'd been one of the only Disney movies available on VHS had raised a new generation of kids on the "safe" version of the story, and the DVD-edition purity of Ms. A's reputation was saved by corporate marketing.

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that version. Sounds like a travesty alright.

[SGRSBSKIER]

Sci-fi is doing a six hour mini series for Alice in Wonderland, called Alice this year, it is being produced by the same people that did Tin Man. I would have thought they would have waited to gage the interest in Alice in Wonderland before casting or even announcing a new movie.

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by SGRSBSKIER

Sci-fi is doing a six hour mini series for Alice in Wonderland, called Alice this year, it is being produced by the same people that did Tin Man. I would have thought they would have waited to gage the interest in Alice in Wonderland before casting or even announcing a new movie.

I don't think Sci Fi has done anything that I would remotely call good. This is going to be another stinker from them.

As for the Burton version, I don't think it will necessarily be dark. I don't think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was dark. His version wasn't any creepier than Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Teazle

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that version. Sounds like a travesty alright.

The Disney movie itself wasn't bad (one of two best translations of the story, IMO), it just couldn't get no respect for thirty-five years...

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by Elandyll

Well, that's an opinion
Personally, I thought Burton's version of Charlie & The Chocolate factory was not only truer to the book, but even simply better than Wilder's version.
My opinion

And tim Burton's version of Alice? Sign me up!

that's an opinion as well..... a blasphemous opinion at that

[Blu-Ray Buckeye]

Responding to numerous ideas in the thread:

1 - To argue that Alice In Wonderland is NOT ripe for a dark interpretation is nuts. Many of the relationships and characters are disturbing. Much of the behavior is questionable. Many of the episodes are odd to put it kindly.

2 - Depp is perfect for the role, and yet that's why it's kind of boring at this point. Newsflash - Burton casts Depp in wacky role! zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. They both need to move on.

3 - The Wilder version is better but Depp & Burton did a very good job as well. Wilder's character is more real and thus more sinister at the core. Depp's Wonka just seems to enjoy being odd, but the deep contempt isn't there.

[Josh]

After watching Invader Zim's Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom, I have no doubt in my mind that a combination of Tim Burton, American McGee, and Jhonen Vasquez would provide the ultimate dark Alice interpretation.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by Blu-Ray Buckeye

Responding to numerous ideas in the thread:

1 - To argue that Alice In Wonderland is ripe for a dark interpretation is nuts. Many of the relationships and characters are disturbing. Much of the behavior is questionable. Many of the episodes are odd to put it kindly.

It helps to know that the occasional inscrutable line may in fact be Carroll's parody of Victorian society and English history--
When the White Queen in "Looking Glass" claims to "believe six impossible things before breakfast", for example, it's actually a parody on Elizabeth I's famous claim to have "danced six galliards before breakfast".
(And speaking of Elizabeth I parodies, off with their heads!)