First Weird Look: Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
The first official images of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland have made their way to the public, and they’re as wild and creepy as you can imagine. USA Today has the exclusive character pictures and concept art for the March 5, 2010 release, plus details about how the re-imagining will differ from the animated 1951 classic.
Much like he did with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005 (but hopefully better this time), Burton (with the help of Beauty and the Beast screenwriter Linda Woolverton) has updated Alice with his own unique style.
The “Burton-ized” version fuses CG animation, motion capture, and 3-D and features many of the familiar characters of the original. The White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), the Jabberwock (Christopher Lee), the Red Queen (Burton’s wife Helena Bonham Carter screaming “off with their heads!”), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), and the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp).
Though Burton’s story is an offbeat sequel of sorts. This time Alice (young Australian actress Mia Wasikowska) is 17 and escaping a Victorian estate party where she’s supposed to be proposed to in front of “hundreds of snooty society types.” She flees and follows a white rabbit down a hole in Wonderland, a place she doesn’t remember ten years later.
Included in the article are pictures of the iconic characters given the Burton makeover. Depp (pictured left) as the Mad Hatter looks like he should be giving nightmares to children at birthday parties. The clownish hair, the creepy gaze, and even the gigantic, off-kilter bow tie make me wish my mommy was here. In his seventh movie with Burton, Depp uses an accent that producer Richard Zanuck calls simply “indescribable.” The Red Queen picture is equally disturbing, the White Queen a pale, strong-browed beauty, and the Tweedles (voiced by Matt Lucas) are plump, male versions of The Shining twins.
