It helps that Tom Waits reminds me of Ron Perlman. And the music had a vaguely French quality.
I thought it was Ron Perlman for half the flick, kind of…
I think the other Gilliam film that does as well capturing his Python days, was Time Bandits, probably one of my most warmly remembered movies of all time.
Finally saw this today and really liked it, although it probably could have had 15-30 minutes cut from it without missing it at all. I agree with Omniscia that the art direction was very Python-esque in the fantasy sequences. Those trees in the scene with Jude Law on the very tall stilts? They looked like something straight out of one of Gilliam’s cartoons on the old MP TV show.
I had avoided spoilers, so I wasn’t sure how they were going to deal with Ledger’s absence and switching in the other actors. It worked. (There were a couple of scenes with Depp when I wasn’t 100% sure whether I was looking at him or Ledger.)
I thought this was excellent. It further cements my opionion that Tim Burton is the poor man’s Terry Gillingham. Lily Cole is dreamy.
As for the Ledger stand-ins I thought they worked well as long as they were confined to the imaginarium. There is a scene towards the end where they show Depp looking down from the wagon which I thought was really jarring.