Have you thought that Alice in Wonderland is frightening?

As our household gets excited for the upcoming release of the new Alice in Wonderland film, some people weAnne Hathaway as the White Queen in Alice in Wonderland, holding the Dormouse know or read in forums are admitting that Lewis Carroll's original book was rather frightening to them.  It's hard to pinpoint what some people found frightening, but others specify the oddness of the characters, the way Alice seems to loose control, the original John Tenniel illustrations, or other illustrations or films. 

After talking to a few critics who've seen the film and after watching many of the previews, I'm beKristen Stewart brooding in Twilightginning to think that Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland is going to focus on a  darker interpretation  of the book as well as heightened  conflicts.  Each generation re-interprets classics and it seems that the times are right for an Alice that's not intimidated but finds the world of Wonderland in chaos.  She's a powerful teen-age girl who's ready to fight for what's right, or what seems right anyway. This would dovetail with how Disney is marketing this Alice to tweens and teens enamored with the darkness of the vampires in the Twilight series as well as the brainy, but klutzy, teen-age girl trying to find her way in a confusing, dark world filled with unusual, surreal characters.  By the way, it's worth hanging out at your local mall's Hot Topic store just to see how this linking of Twilight and Alice comes together at the tween/teen hangout. Angst and confusion and Day-Glo stripes, cute Johnny Depp and sweet Anne Hathaway (famed modern Cinderella of Princess Diaries). While you're there, pick up a Cheshire Cat hoodie with key zipper so you can look cool.

Alice Preview: An ADD Alice?

"It's not like the book," is how the 10-year-old described the 3-d preview of the upcoming Alice film.  It Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter in the upcoming Alice filmseemed dark -- like peering into a rabbit hole the entire time.  Everyone is rushing around, especially Johnny Depp as The Mad Hatter (slighty crossed with a White Rabbit) -- the constant activity made me think this is an Alice for our frenetic times, an ADD Alice with a Wonderland like a hive of busy bees. Of course, that was true with Lewis Carroll's original, particularly the White Rabbit who's constantly late.  Maybe that's one of the reasons the book still resonates in modern times -- we're all running around to get somewhere that the getting becomes more important than the being.

It's also so hard not to think of Willy Wonka when you see Depp. Then again, it's always been befuddling to me why Roald Dahl is one of the most popular children's authors in England, eclipsed only recently by the popularity of J.K. Rowling.  He doesn't have that huge popularity in the U.S. 

We saw the preview for Alice when we saw Avatar in 3-D.  While wearing the new black 3-D glasses, we thought the Alice preview often used the new technology almost better than some of Avatar.  That film is beautiful and stunning, but because of the stilted dialogue and the lack of a really extraordinary new idea for the film, it will not probably linger in the same way that Star Wars, another film with bad dialogue, does.  Star Wars has details and back stories that you want to learn about.  Avatar's characters just weren't as involving to me.  What did interest me was the stunning world and particularly the bird/dinosaur like creatures flying through the floating mountains.  Part of me thought the trees where all the people lived was a riff on Swiss Family Robinson.