Trailer Tuesday: Alice in Wonderland

The Net was abuzz last week when the teaser trailer for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland leaked online. But as fast as Disney yanked the pixelated trailer from websites, it would pop up somewhere else. Eventually though, once the Alice in Wonderland discussion panel had been held at the San Diego Comic Con, Disney was content to unleash the high definition trailer on the world - despite the fact that everyone had seen it by then. Ha!

For safety's sake, though, if the trailer above doesn't work, you can also head here to watch it in high quality.

Anyway, I've already commented quite extensively (here and here) on this new movie adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic nonsense tales. Although, to be clear, this new Alice isn't a straight, or even hybrid, adaptation of the original books. Rather, it's a whole new tale, with a strong "coming of age/personal discovery" focus:

Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now 19 years old, attends a party at a Victorian estate only to find she is about to be proposed to in front of hundreds of snooty society types. She runs off, following the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) into a hole and ending up in Wonderland, a place she visited 10 years before, yet doesn't remember. Wonderland was a peaceful kingdom until the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) overthrew her sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). The creatures of Wonderland, such as the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas) and the March Hare (Noah Taylor), ready to revolt, wait for Alice to help them. The White Queen, Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and the Caterpillar (Alan Rickman), are also keen to help Alice remember her previous visit to Wonderland.


For me the trailer hits all the right notes, with the exception of one thing: Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter. As much as I enjoy Depp as an actor, I'm actually tired now of this kind of zany performance which has become his trademark. I sincerely hope that the Alice trailer is misleading in terms of the Mad Hatter's prominence in the story. And I sincerely hope that Tim Burton has actually reigned Depp in a bit - I don't think I can endure such an irritating character for long stretches of screen time.

Speaking of Depp's Mad Hatter though, I do feel compelled to share this little piece of Photoshop work from The Film Experience, where Nat and his film-loving buddies have highlighted the striking similarity in appearance between Depp's Mad Hatter and pop star Madonna... creating the Mad(onna) Hatter.


I think as long as the Mad Hatter isn't seen pushing himself through hours-long daily gym routines, and the the dormouse isn't a dimple-cheeked orphan from Malawi, I think we'll be fine. However, I can't help but wonder if the Madonna similarity isn't intentional? After all, Depp's Jack Sparrow was very Keith Richards, and his Willy Wonka was heavily infused with Michael Jackson weirdness. Perhaps Depp is deliberately using music icons as his character models?

While you ponder this amazingly significant pop culture concern, I leave you with a few promotional pics of the other Wonderland inhabitants - The Red Queen, the White Queen and Tweedledum & Tweedledee:




For more images and some beautiful concept art, click here and here.

Alice in Wonderland releases in North America on 5 March 2010. I'm expecting it to open in South Africa around much the same time. It will be screening in traditional format, 3D and... ooooh... IMAX 3D!