First Glance: Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland…Is On Acid, Shrooms & PCP

What else would you expect? Director Tim Burton has created some of the weirdest, trippiest, bizarre and visually- stunning worlds in cinematic history, but it looks like his newest film is going to take the cake.  It’s been in the making for some time, but USA Today finally has our first glance at Burton’s interpretation of Alice In Wonderland. The featured concept art photo above is of Alice, played by relative newcomer Mia Wasikowska (Defiance), standing in a garden of talking flowers, at the entrance of a giant mushroom forest. After countless film adaptations of the historic Lewis Carroll novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, it appears as if Burton’s adaptation will be the strangest yet. As if that even seemed possible.

The next concept art photo is of Alice and the famous pair of Tweedledee and Tweedledum. In the photo below, the Tweedle twins are about to take Alice to see the Mad Hatter, played of course by Burton’s muse, Johnny Depp. Now again this is not an actual set photo, but finalized concept art conveying Burton’s vision. The Tweedle twins are among the first to greet Alice in the film and will be created through motion-capture technology. The Tweedles will be played by British comic Matt Lucas, from Comedy Central’s Krod Mandoon and The Flaming Sword of Fire. Check it out.

Probably the most-bizarre image that has been revealed, which more concretely displays Burton’s strange vision are the images of the main characters. Below is an image of three of the first promo banners for Alice In Wonderland. One is of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, one is of Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen and the last is of Anne Hathaway as the White Queen. These banners will start popping up in theaters across the country during the next couple weeks. Check it.

Now that is some crazy shit. It would appear to be a walk in the park role for Depp. If he throws in a pinch of Willie Wonka, a dash of Hunter S. Thompson and a smidgon of Jack Sparrow, he could no doubt create a unique and memorable interpretation of the Mad Hatter. Depp looks creepy as fuck. And is it just me or does he king of look like a cross between, Madonna, The Joker and Carrot Top? Either way I am eagerly anticipating the meticulous physical quirks and voice inflection that he has created for this character. The middle banner is of Burton’s female muse, Helena Bonham Carter as the evil Red Queen, who has a bobble-head thing going on, which is pretty cool. She does a fantastic job at playing bizarre, creepy, evil fantasy villains, as she’s displayed over the last few years as Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter films. She’ll bring that same intensity to the Red Queen. Finally we have the beautiful and sublime Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, who will no doubt bring her aggressive tenderness to the character.

With this bizarre and beautiful vision, the crazy concept art photos and these insane character banners, you’d think that nothing else could be done to this film to make it more appealing or…well… INSANE! Right? Well, I forgot to mention that the movie is being filmed for IMAX 3D. Yeah. Say what you will about the “over-use” of 3D recently, but to see this film in 3D of any kind, makes it not only a must-see movie experience, it makes it a drug.

What Do You Think? Discuss.