Love the book, love Tim Burton. Im very excited.
I think Tim Burton excels at really driving up the surreal atmosphere in a story, so Alice is perfect for it. Which, although it was intended to be weird, dark and magical, was never really the nightmarish dreamland that Burton’s art design does best.
I think you would need to get Guillermo del Toro or Peter Jackson to commit to making a series of all the Oz books into movies to get me more excited.
That would be hot.
And I though Depp’s Willie Wonka was creepy…
Never really liked the original Wonka, I think it freaked me out as a kid. Depp was crazy good in that role. Sometimes I just think he has to be one really fucked up dude or is brilliant, but most likely both.
With Burton’s past successes in mind and the surreal presentation he has a knack for, I think he would have to almost go into a coma to mess this up.
Ok, I was definitely firmly committed to “fuck this movie,” but I have to admit that Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat sounds awesome.
I’m of two minds.
I haven’t really enjoyed Burton in a while. I even kinda hated Sweeney Todd. Willy Wonka was alright, and I felt Big Fish played it a little too sentimental, even though I appreciated Burton moving away from the dark and warped for dark and warped sake.
That being said, he is so born to make Alice in Wonderland and that cast list sounds awesome.
Looks like a great cast - and heck, the Mad Hatter is supposed to be mad (as in handling mercury one too many times) after all.
I have always thought of Through the Looking Glass as darker (and better) than Alice in Wonderland - adaptations or inspirations always tend to blur the two books together (make up your mind, cards or chess!).
Good be great, could be a disaster. I loved Sleepy Hollow.
This just looks fantastic.
always thought a wizard of oz remake with burton behind the helm would be interesting
Burton would really do better to adapt one of the many Oz sequels. Some of those get into really horrifyingly strange territory.
I’ve never seen the original Alice in Wonderland :O Still, this looks like it could be good… but I HATED his Willy Wonka. Everything else Tim Burton is great though! Especially Tim Burton + Danny Elfman (Is there any other way?). I want another musical like Nightmare Before Christmas :)
I loved Wonka, really good translation of the book IMO. I don’t understand how anyone interested to the franchise wouldn’t like it, unless the Gene Wilder version was their only knowledge of it.
I enjoyed Willy Wonka - Johnny Depp’s Wonka was like the white® Michael Jackson who went into candy-making rather than music. Never read the book nor seen the Gene Wilder version, so nothing to compare it to, apart from other Burton / Depp films. Sleepy Hollow, OTOH, was kinda so-so: liked the Burton aesthetic, but most of the characters - including Christina Ricci, which surprised me, as post-Wednesday I would’ve thought she was born for that sort of goth role - just didn’t click for me.
Anyway, I like those AiW shots, though I hope Alice herself isn’t dwarfed - physically or otherwise - by the rest of the film.
Watch the Gene Wilder version. Even if you end up liking Burton’s version better there’s a reason why it’s called the “Gene Wilder” version an not whoever the hell directed it (Mel Stuart).
The tone is still very consistently Tim Burton, which is too bad, because the book had a wonderful ever-shifting logic and reality that really evokes a dream, and being reminded of Edward Scissorhands in every shot is going to take away from that a little bit.
I like Tim Burton’s crooked doorways and weird misshapen critters and creepy goth kids, but what I always loved about Alice in Wonderland was that it gives you that feeling of not knowing your own mind, of the completely arbitrary and only obscurely related scenes that appear and mutate and subside in our minds when we sleep.
I just hope he’s got a little more visual imagination than his past several movies have displayed. I know that he can make any given frame look fantastic, I want to see him use that skill to actually carry a movie and not just serve as wallpaper.
. . . and be sure to wait it out until they get to the factory. The first 40 minutes or so are a Dickensian musical that is pretty hard on the eyes.
H.
You mean “Cheer Up Charlie” doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat?
Heh, the original is very painful to watch now because of the lead up to the factory, but Gene Wilder will always be the Wonka. Probably because I saw it first, as a kid, and it is that whole nostalgia thing. But the real reason…
GOOD DAY, SIR.
Am I the only person who is sick to death of Tim Burton?
Yeah, everything after (and including Sleepy Hollow) seems mostly meh.