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Director Tim Burton took the stage at Comic Con yesterday to talk about his new approach to Lewis Carroll’s Alice stories and his experience shooting Alice in Wonderland in 3D. “I haven’t been here since I was a student, when it was a few people and a slide show,” Burton joked; now Hall H was packed to the rafters and the Alice trailer was being shown in 3D. The new film follows an older Alice as she returns to Wonderland, but it is based on elements in the Lewis Carroll works. Burton wanted to “try and make Alice feel more like a story as opposed to a series of events” and to try to give the viewer “an emotional connection” to Alice, rather than just one surprising visual after another.

“Seeing other movie versions of it, I never felt an emotional connection to it,” Burton said. “It was always a girl wandering around from one crazy character to another, and I never really felt any real emotional connection. So it’s an attempt to really try to give [Alice in Wonderland] some framework of emotional grounding that has never been in any version before. So that’s the challenge to me.”

Burton called Johnny Depp’s Mad Hatter “an iconic character” and noted that JD sought to find that “emotional grounding” for the Mad Hatter–“something that you feel, as opposed to just being mad,” Burton said. “In a lot of versions it’s a very one-note kind of character. [. . . H]is goal was to try and bring out a human side to the strangeness of the character. Any time I work with him, that’s something he tries to do, so that’s no exception.”

Burton also said that he felt 3D was the right choice for Alice in Wonderland because of the nature of the story: “with the Alice material, the growing and shrinking and the weird kind of spaces and places you’re in, it just kind of helps with the experience,” he explained. “I’m personally not out to make it a gimmick. I think it puts you in this world more.”

The Zone thanks Emma for several news articles on Tim Burton’s appearance at Comic Con; you can read them on the “All Things Alice” thread on the Zone’s News & Views forum. To see a larger version of the photo of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp sharing a microphone on the Comic Con stage, CLICK HERE. –Part-Time Poet

The first trailer for Tim Burton’s version of Alice in Wonderland was shown–twice–to the audience at Comic Con today, and then released on Facebook to the Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter. Come watch Alice (Mia Wasikowska) as she falls down the rabbit hole and finds herself in Wonderland:

We don’t hear Alice speak in the trailer, but we do hear the Mad Hatter–and it’s another new voice from the always-surprising Johnny Depp: “There is a place like no place on Earth. Some say, to survive it, you need to be mad as a hatter–which, luckily, I am.”

The Zone thanks Serendipity, Christie, and Theresa for sharing the trailer. Thanks also to Emma for many news articles discussing the trailer; you can read more on the Zone’s News & Views forum. –Part-Time Poet