#50. Alice in Wonderland
Director: Tim Burton
Writer(s): Linda Woolverton
Producers: Joe Roth, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd, Richard D. Zanuck and Burton
Distributor: Disney
The Gist: Based on Lewis Carroll’s beloved “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865) and “Through the Looking-Glass” (1871), this sees Depp star as the Mad Hatter and Mia Wasikowska play 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror.….(more)
Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Timothy Spall, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Matt Lucas and Barbara Windsor.
Why is it on the list?: Burton has set the standard for mixing macabre, the highly imaginative and eye candy spectacle but I don’t think “big-budget” and grandiose have served Burton well in the recent past. From what has been shown so far, I don’t think we’ll need to go into this chemically challenged route – let’s hope that this strikes the right balance: with an emphasis on the performances.
Release Date/Status?: A wide release on March 5th.