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A Script Review For Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND Is Online...
SPOILER ALERT !!
Merrick here...
Earlier this week, we got a sense of what Tim Burton's ALICE IN WONDERLAND project would look like (HERE).
Now we have a feel for how the film's story will unfold, courtesy of a script "review"/synopsis over at CC2K.
Written by Linda Woolverton, who also co-wrote The Lion King, and had a part in Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and the Teen Wolf cartoon, the script isn’t exactly an adaptation of the original story by Lewis Carroll, as it is an extension of it. Alice went to Wonderland as a child, and she’s now almost grown. She’s 17, and she’s back for more, but doesn’t remember her times there earlier. She’s about to be engaged, maybe. A rich suitor wants to marry her, and the opening scenes of the movie are of her engagement party. But she, of course, gets distracted by a white rabbit.
...says the SPOILERish write-up of the project's screenplay, which can be found HERE.
Written by Linda Woolverton, who also co-wrote The Lion King, and had a part in Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, and the Teen Wolf cartoon, the script isn’t exactly an adaptation of the original story by Lewis Carroll, as it is an extension of it. Alice went to Wonderland as a child, and she’s now almost grown. She’s 17, and she’s back for more, but doesn’t remember her times there earlier. She’s about to be engaged, maybe. A rich suitor wants to marry her, and the opening scenes of the movie are of her engagement party. But she, of course, gets distracted by a white rabbit.
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Wackiness will ensue. Who needs a script?
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now i wont feel as bad watching and........watching.
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Sure to be a classic.I kid, I kid. I'm looking forward to this a lot more than I did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Weird Homosexual Man-Child Willie Wonka. Seriously, did Tim Burton go find Gene Wilder and spit on him, just to make it complete?
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amen brother.
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Everything there was in the USA today article. BUT latino review has some new stills: http://snurl.com/kpzpb
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I'm willing to bet Burton will blow this one the way he always blows it. By taking his source material and making it way too convoluted, self-referential and off-topic.
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younger, not smaller. Or smaller and younger.
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seriously, just leave well enough alone. a remake would've been just fine.
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shes only 17!! what a slut! Inside her vage must be where wonderland is.
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How do I not remember this from my childhood, yet MC Hammer's cartoon sticks out like a sore thumb?
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did someone have to mention Burton AGAIN?! Now we have to put up with all the sad haters who click on a link about someone they don't like just to post negative crap. How about not clicking on it and looking for attention elsewhere?
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Aside from Alice not remembering Wonderland (which they're going to have to explain because it sounds like bullshit), I don't mind the arranged marriage or Alice being 17.
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Hook was good. There. I said it.
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Were her guts backwards and her body chemistry reversed, causing horrible pains and eventual death? Alan Moore thought so...
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You Yanks crack me up! "I don't mind the arranged marriage or Alice being 17" from kolchak, or "shes only 17!! what a slut! Inside her vage must be where wonderland is" from Cronkit. My understanding is, this is set close to the time of the original novel (late 19th century) so THIS WAS COMMONPLACE BACK THEN. It's entirely in keeping with the times!!! Jesus, read a book somebody, please!
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What does it matter?
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Jun 23, 2009 11:21:59 AM CDT
Never trust a guy, who says that "Charlie and the chocolate fact
by long_jay_bee
That's what my granma used to say. Seems this one can be pretty cool.
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Hey moron, I was talking about the fact that it's a departure from the original story.
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thanks though.
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Thats all I can think about when it comes to this story.
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Not terribly difficult to find for those that want it.
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watch for a nod to the acid apple scene.
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Just about all his movies are lacking. The recent ones are just awful when you think about it....go on.....have a think.
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What babe? the babe with the power. What power? Power of voodoo Who do? You do! Do what? Remind me of the babe!
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Totally unrelated to anything, and I don't know if anyone cares but there you go. He died this morning.
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He gets good production design, but makes bad movies.
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NUFF SAID
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It's been downhill since Mars Attacks! Beetlejuice is still his best film.
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Because after the ridiculously over-the-top clusterfuck of a HateBack about the "Alice" project yesterday, it really, truly needs to be said. You people are the death of creativity.
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...will be better.
Seriously. -
Like I know it was said before, but seriously.
Went there as a child: Pan/Alice
Doesn't remember their time there: Pan/Alice
Are brought back by small iconic Disney character: Pan/Alice
British Accents: Pan/Alice
I'm still going to see it of course.
Who wouldn't want to see Hook directed by Tim Burton? -
This could either turn out really great or really terrible. On one hand we've all seen the March Hare/Mad Hatter/sleeping doormouse in the tea scene ad nauseum so what were we really going to get out of Depp screaming, "No room! No room!" that we haven't seen a thousand times before? On the otherhand, this premise sort of gives Burton an opportunity to lose himself within his own vision again at the expense characters you care about and a story that is involving a la CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.
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... people who overuse the word haters to describe people who are restating popular critical consensus on the dreck Burton's produced in the last decade. And I do love being lectured on the death of creativity from somebody defending a director who seems to be trafficking in remakes about half to two-thirds of the time.
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Burton's become a parody of himself. He's just making Hot Topic porn these days.
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More and more of this garbage sounds as if it was directly stolen from McGee's Alice and changed for the worse, slime bag primadonna Depp being the worst part of it all.
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Script-Girl had that WEEKS ago!
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Jun 23, 2009 11:58:27 AM CDT
"There’s also an odd love story that develops between Alice and
by fuck_you_george_lucas
uh oh.
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...a terrible controlling effete snob. I'm not sure we've ever seen that before...I love these pointless Hollywood backstories.
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To McGee's "Alice"? With Sarah Michelle Gellar attached to star? Because you know if Fox made it they'd fuck it up.
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What is with all of the re-imagining shit. Take a perfectly good story like Alice in Wonderland and then try to change it into some artsy, modern bullshit.
I think this is going to suck. -
Two questions straight away: Who is Linda Woolverton? And, what credentials does she have for handling Lewis Carroll's genius? That should give everyone pause.
Now... Onto the review:
The White Rabbit returns to tell Alice of an omen that she is to slay the Jabberwocky??? Seriously? There were no 'omens' in the Alice stories. Secondly, 'slay' the Jabberwocky? If memory serves me, the Jabberwocky was slain by the boy with the vorpal sword. Does the Jabberwocky have regenerative powers that we don't know of? Not to mention that the Jabberwocky is a non-sense poem told by Humpty Dumpty to Alice. I guess in Woolverton's vision of Alice none of this matters, and it's reasonable to have the Jobberwocky guarding the Red Queen.
How does Alice have no knowledge of past events? What sort of plot device has Woolverton concocted to explain this?
Alice is trying to find the vorpal sword to slay the Jabberwocky? Excuse me while I chuckle to myself.
Apparently, in this script, Alice falls in love with the Mad Hatter. I guess once you've made decisions like the ones above, then anything truly is possible. -
If we said every film was great, there would be no real push to do any better.
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And this inclusion of an omen sounds a bit like Narnia to me, but Alice is in Wonderland, not Narnia, folks.
And back to the Jabberwocky... the Jabberwocky is a f*ckin' non-sense poem! (My favorite, of course, as I've been known to recite it aloud while drunk.) The point of the Jabberwocky is lost without the poem. Rendered meaningless. It's built-in satire evaporates.
And more on Alice's lack of remembrance of past events... I've been doing a little thinking about what sort of plot device Burton and Woolverton concocted to explain this? And, why? I suppose because they wanted a full grown human being to play Alice. And if Alice is now an adult, and meeting the same characters she already met years ago, there would be too much familiarity--not enough wonderment. Solution? Make her forget. (Sounds like Hook to me, but it also sounds like a load of bullsh*t.) -
There's the books and the films. I think you just have to appreciate each for what it is. I love the story of Beowulf, but I didn't mind the major story changes there.
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There are many cases when a book isn't going to translate onto film very well. In those cases, it's necessary to make changes. IE: what if Spielberg went with the book ending in JAWS? It would have been a shit sandwich. In the case of Alice, I think the straightforward story has been done to death. So I'll readily admit that this may be a great way to introduce a new generation to the old tales like Hook did the the Peter Pan stories. Still, this might just be terrible.
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A new generation could find the book in the library or at your local bookstore (or B&N), and enjoy Carroll and Tenniel that way...
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That's what SHOULD happen. But let's be honest: it doesn't happen that much anymore. But it should be noted that this isn't the same story. So in that sense it's much more of a homage to whimsy, like the aforementioned HOOK. Whether it will be a good one or a bad one I can't say. I suppose I give Burton such a wide berth because I hold such nostalgia in his earlier films.
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You grew up in the early 80s, you know the lyrics to this classic cartoon. Don't hate.
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Kolchak... People still read the Alice books, just not as many. I work at an indie bookstore here in Los Angeles, and people still buy the book.
But I agree that things have changed. Teachers and parents emphasize other books these days, and ignore the classics.
And what ends up happening is they're going to have Tim Burton imagining Wonderland for them, instead of imagining it themselves.
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I assumed that was a working title to be changed later. But if they're actually releasing it as "Alice in Wonderland" that's not right. I suppose they were in a bit of a bind because "Alice" is taken and "Return to wonderland" would give off a "Return to Oz" vibe. If it's not adapting the book it shouldn't share the title.
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I think you've hit on one of the largest problems in adapting literature to the screen. It used to be that "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" or "Frankenstein" could be filmed and everyone would know the source material. Today, kids are becoming more and more largely disinterested in reading as a whole. I empathize with you wanting kids to experience the stories for themselves. Books are absolutely a magical medium. And I find myself more and more telling people "why don't you read the book" when horrible film adaptations are mentioned.
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Sorry. Sometimes it's hard to tell with writing.
But if not, it was written by Ian Fleming (in his pre-James Bond days) for his kids. -
I'm just concerned with the children's potential for imagining... Maybe I'm a bit of a Luddite at heart.
I'm starting to believe what Tarkovsky said about filmmaking (I'm paraphrasing): it needs to be its own medium, and separated from the tendency to tie it to literature and theater.
But, Tarkovsky did adapt Solaris to great effect. Though he made it his. Which I suppose is what Burton is doing with Alice. Whereas the former interests me, the latter really doesn't. -
Jun 23, 2009 1:23:00 PM CDT
That old Alice movie looks like something from THE RING
by yotzvonfrelnik
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Indubitably. Although, I can't bring myself to sneer at this just yet. I'm disheartened by the casting but that production art blows my mind. As for Frankenstein, I'm confident Shelley's work stands on its own for most people separate from images of Karloff. At least I'd like to think so. After all, it's the original science fiction novel.
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is becoming more widely known in pop culture. At least some of the iconic images of Schreck. Vampyr hasn't reached that level yet. But the reaper ringing that bell still scares the shit out of me.
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If Burton screws this up, I'm officially done with him.
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Here we go again... It's like: "I think what Lewis Carroll meant to say was..." They have to make her older because a child Alice won't appeal to the kind of market they want. They want to use the imagery from the original book so a feeble storyline about forgetting she's been there before as a child, and totally ignore any of the subtleties because they want the money shot and not the essence. This stinks of marketing pure and simple. Make the book(s)! guys, with all the wonder of special effects the world can now offer, not some bowdlerised egotistical extension of self. C'mon Tim I expect, nay, hope for better of you. Don't make this style over substance! And the adult Alice has already been done, very well! Kate Beckinsale did it in 'Through the Looking Glass' as an adult Alice.
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just meh. Chocolate Factory made me want to see both Depp and Burton kneed in the groin by Gene Wilder.
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Is like being excited for 'The cat in the hat'. It's just a bad idea to have high expectations for a 15 page children's book turned feature film. But I hope I'm proven wrong.
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one of alice : http://tinyurl.com/burtonalice1
and one of the dums: http://tinyurl.com/burtonalice2 -
As long as they're able to turn it into something meaningful. And the trailer did look touching.
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... after all, the original story hinted that it may have just been a dream, and I don't remember too many of my dreams. I do think it would be more believable if bits of her memory return to her over the course of the movie.
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I loved Tim Burton's stuff when I was 14... in 1993. But he just keeps dishing out the same plate of chum, and it's obvious he's become a brand rather than an artist. "Ed Wood" suggested his potential as a dramatic director. Wasted ever since.
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Notice that nobody shits on George Lucas for doing 6 science fiction movies, but Tim Burton does a wide variety of films with a darker tone and gets pummeled. Every director has a preferred style. I don't fault Tarantino for including feet in every movie either.
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Don't they?
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So, I'm mostly a big Tim Burton fan (planet of the apes and chocolate factory sucked, but most everything else I like), but this sounds like a REALLY bad idea. What frustrates me is how most people try to force Carroll's story into standard "hero's quest" parameters when the whole reason children and adults love it is because it DOESN'T FIT. The Red Queen is not evil. At most, she's a bit of a prig. The White Queen is not good. She's a distracted old biddy. The Jabberwock is just a fucking poem! This sort of thing drives me mad. What made me love the book as a child was the glorious, random, non-moralistic nature of it that you still can't find in any other kids' book. Mess with that, and you're undercutting the whole intent of the story.
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Bit pointless.
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When are they going to show what he looks like? Stephen Fry is perfect voice casting if they can just get the look down right.
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Best Burton film after Ed Wood.
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for the prequel trilogy and his ruining Indy IV. Burton is a better writer AND director.
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Just askin'
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I have to agree.
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That movie confirmed to me that Burton was once good, but was now shit.
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...1985 movie about an adult Alice revisiting the novel in her old age.
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was genius.
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http://tinyurl. com/ lu77yo
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