Alice in Wonderland
About the Film
Nineteen-year-old Alice Kingsleigh, cornered at a garden party by an unwanted marriage proposal, chases a waistcoated white rabbit down a hole and tumbles back into Underland — the strange realm she visited as a child but remembers only as a dream. The land now groans under the tyranny of the tantrum-prone Red Queen, and an ancient scroll foretells that Alice is the one destined to slay the Jabberwocky and restore the gentle White Queen to the throne.
Reluctant and unsure she is even the “right” Alice, she is taken in hand by old friends — chief among them the loyal, half-mad Hatter, who helps her rediscover her courage. On the appointed Frabjous Day, Alice takes up the vorpal sword, faces the Jabberwocky in single combat and breaks the Red Queen’s reign. Returning to the real world, a changed and emboldened Alice turns down the proposal and sets out to build a life and a trading venture on her own terms.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp plays Tarrant Hightopp, the Mad Hatter — a friend and champion to Alice whose moods shift as visibly as a “mood ring.” His flaming orange hair and mercury-bright complexion nod to the real hatters of history, poisoned by the chemicals of their trade, and Depp lets the character swing between a soft, whimsical warmth and a fierce, near-broken intensity. For the darker, more defiant moments he adopted a rolling Glaswegian burr, softening into an English lilt closer to Lewis Carroll himself when the Hatter’s tenderness shows through.
Cast & Crew
Cast
Alice KingsleighMia Wasikowska
The Mad HatterJohnny Depp
Iracebeth, the Red QueenHelena Bonham Carter
Mirana, the White QueenAnne Hathaway
Ilosovic Stayne, Knave of HeartsCrispin Glover
Tweedledum & TweedledeeMatt Lucas
The White Rabbit (voice)Michael Sheen
Absolem the Caterpillar (voice)Alan Rickman
The Cheshire Cat (voice)Stephen Fry
Crew
DirectorTim Burton
ScreenplayLinda Woolverton
Based on the works ofLewis Carroll
MusicDanny Elfman
CinematographyDariusz Wolski
ProducersRichard D. Zanuck, Joe Roth, Suzanne Todd, Jennifer Todd
StudioWalt Disney Pictures
“Have I gone mad? … You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret: all the best people are.”
— The Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland
Filming Locations
- Antony House, Torpoint, Cornwall, England
- Charlestown, Cornwall, England
- Plymouth, Devon, England
- Sony Pictures Studios and Culver Studios, Culver City, California
Glossary of Terms
- Bandersnatch — a creature under the control of the Red Queen
- Brillig — 4 o’clock in the afternoon the time you begin broiling things for dinner
- Crims — the central land of Underland
- Downal wyth Bluddy Behg Hid — “Down with the Red Queen” the slogan of the Resistance
- ezel — high, go up
- fairfarren — farewell, “May you travel far underfair skies”
- Frabjous day — the day Alice slays the Jabberwocky and frees Underland from the oppression of the Red Queen
- frumious — filthywith a very bad smell
- Futterwacken — a dance of unbridled joy
- gallymoggers — crazy
- Gribling — the day Alice will return to Underland
- gudd]er’s scut — thief’s ass
- Gummer Slough — a dangerous swamp of thick viscous mud
- Horunvendush Day — the day the Red Queen took control of Underland
- Jabberwocky — a deadly creature, the Red Queen’s ultimate weapon
- Jubjub Bird — a flying creature under the control of the Red Queen
- kiotchyn — heads up, pay attention
- naught for usal — it’s no use trying
- noge — go low down
- nunz — don’t go – not now.
- Oraculum — a Calender of all the days of tlnderland, each day having its own title and illustration.
- orgal — to the left
- Outlands — an untamed land to the west of Witzend
- Outlandish — an old language spoken only in the Outlands adopted by the tinderland underground resistance as a secret code in the revolution against the Red Queen.
- Pishsalver — potion that makes one shrink
- Queast — a land to the east, but not in the least
- Quillian — the following day after Alice returns
- saganistute — a wise person of poetry and vision
- Salazen Grum — a port city where the Red Queen lives
- shukrn — excrement
- sloth — slowly
- stang — right
- slurvish — selfish, self-centered
- Snud — southern tlnderland
- Tulgey Wood — a thick wood where Alice meets the Jabberwocky
- Underland — the real name for the place Alice calls Wonderland
- Upelkuchen — cake that makes one grow
- slurking urpal slackush scrum — dirtywords of the most foul meaning.
- Witzend — a western land where the Mad Hatter and March Hare were born.
- yadder — far away – way yadder beyong the Crossling in Snud.
- zounder — behind you!
More about this film
Trivia
- The Hatter’s orange hair and pallid skin allude to the mercury poisoning that historically afflicted hat-makers — the origin of the phrase “mad as a hatter.”
- Helena Bonham Carter’s head was digitally enlarged to about three times its real size; she based the Red Queen on her toddler daughter — “a big head and a tyrant.”
- Roughly 90% of the film was shot against green screen in about 40 days; the flat green surroundings made some of the cast queasy, and Burton wore lavender-tinted glasses on set to cope.
- It was the final film role of Michael Gough (Elder Gutknecht), a Burton regular, who died the year after its release.
Awards
- 2011 Academy Award — Best Art Direction Won
- 2011 Academy Award — Best Costume Design (Colleen Atwood) Won
- 2011 Academy Award — Best Visual Effects, nominated
- 2011 Golden Globe — Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy, nominated
