By: Stephanie Turaj
Posted In: Entertainment
Photo credit: Courtesy Disney Enterprises, Inc./MCT
Mia Wasikowska stars in “Alice in Wonderland.”
Don’t be late for an important date- On Friday, Mar. 5, 2010, Tim Burton provides a new twist to “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” originally published by Lewis Carroll in 1865.
Most of us are familiar with the 1951 animated Disney version, where a girl named Alice ventures into Wonderland. This time, however, Alice, played by newcomer Mia Wasikowska, will be taking a 3D adventure down the rabbit hole into “Underland,” not Wonderland. But Burton’s changes to the film keep getting “curiouser” and “curiouser.” Alice has grown up into 19-year-old teenager being forced into an engagement by her mother. The new Alice drinks blood and beheads a dragon- far from the original polite Alice. Alice revisits her childhood fantasy world in order to save Underland from the rule of the Red Queen and restore rule to the White Queen, played by Anne Hathaway. Helena Bonham Carter appears as the Red Queen with an abnormally oversized head in proportion to her animated body. And of course, it wouldn’t be a Tim Burton film without Johnny Depp, who portrays the Mad Hatter. The Hatter’s wardrobe and makeup act as human mood ring by changing with his moods, which only increases the Hatter’s madness. Alice also encounters a myriad of other characters such as dragons and gargoyles, the Chesire Cat as a floating and grinning face and a hookah smoking caterpillar. While the characters remain reminiscent of their original portrayals, they are all given a bit more depth of personality typical of Burton. Burton isn’t the only one who is changing things up. Disney is creating a buzz with its plan to release “Alice in Wonderland” on DVD just three months after it opens in theaters. Theaters are worried that this plan will hurt box office sales, since this will encourage people to wait for the DVD to come out instead of seeing the film in theaters. Some theaters will stop showing the movie as soon as the DVD is released, all the more reason to not be late and miss the 3D theater wonderland adventure. Hopefully Burtons’s changes will provide the film with a new and imaginative appeal, and not just simply be mad as a hatter.
