Why Tim Burton’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Will Be Epic
I just finished reading this interview with Tim Burton about his upcoming film Alice in Wonderland, and I am really excited. I knew that this film was in the works, but I had somehow missed the fact that Johnny Depp is playing the Mad Hatter. With these two together, I cannot possibly imagine this film not kicking serious ass.
The reason I’m so pumped about the Burton/Depp combination is primarily based on the great work they did with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. To fully explain how much I like this movie, a bit of background is in order. As a child, I absolutely adored Roald Dahl. I read and re-read almost every children’s book and short story he had written (my favorite was definitely James and the Giant Peach). My parents were not completely comfortable with this, and in general I would imagine that a lot of adults would find most of Roald Dahl’s children’s literature at least somewhat disturbing. This is for the same reason that it resonates so very well with kids: it portrays the world as an unfair, messed-up place, and a lot of the adults are downright despicable people. His stories generally involve children who are completely unsheltered from the cruelty of life. There is a definite touch of cruel humor to almost all of Dahl’s work and, as a child, I loved it.
When I eventually watched the first film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the one that’s not actually titled ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’), I was thoroughly disappointed. It told a wonderful, magical tale with a happy ending, a nice, pro-family moral, and catchy music. But it didn’t convey the real spirit of Roald Dahl. It just wasn’t there. When Burton’s adaptation came out, I was expecting it to be the same, only weirder. In fact, I didn’t even watch it until one night when I was really bored more than a year after its release. When I did see it, though, I was completely floored. It was exactly spot-on to the image of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that I’d had in my mind all those years. It was like a piece of my childhood had suddenly been restored. Burton’s touch for dark humor made the movie an absolute masterpiece. Johnny Depp, who I wasn’t all that familiar with at the time, was a flawless pick for Willy Wonka. He fully realized the erratic, unforgiving, and wildly eccentric character given to us by Dahl so many years ago. After watching it, I realized that the 2005 movie is better than its 1971 counterpart by every standard I could think of (and I’m including the music; Danny Elfman’s score is compelling and impeccable).
The slightly odd thing is that I’ve found very few people who share my view. I find that most people who have seen both of the film adaptations for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prefer the older one. I’m not quite sure why this is; I think that one reason is that a lot of people were more familiar with the film than the book as children, and thus didn’t identify with Burton’s version like I did.
This was supposed to be about Alice in Wonderland, though. Let me explain why this movie is going to rock: every quality of Roald Dahl’s Charlie that Burton and Depp did so well is even more core to Alice in Wonderland. This book is so much more bizarre, more unpredictable, more whimsical. It feels scarier and twists the reader’s expectations more. It is dark, capricious, and infinitely original. Drugs were definitely involved. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton aren’t just going to do it well, they are the best people in Hollywood right now to turn Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece into pure awesome on the silver screen. I can’t wait.
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