New ‘Wonderland’ Stills, Mad Hatter Featurette

Published by Jeff Leins on: January 20th, 2010

Walt Disney Pictures is stepping up its promotion for Tim Burton’s dark re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland with a slew of new pictures and a Mad Hatter featurette from the incomparable Johnny Depp.  While the Burton film shares the same name as Disney’s 1951 classic, it’s actually a sequel that thrusts a now 19-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) back into the “wonderland” she visited as a child.

Screenwriter Linda Woolverton calls the place “Underland,” a part of the earth far below us accessible only through a rabbit hole.  Alice has no memory of the inhabitants that include a swashbuckling dormouse (voiced by Barbara Windsor), a caterpillar called Absolem (Alan Rickman), a grinning Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), and of course the Mad Hatter.  The creatures of Underland need Alice to restore balance after the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) took over the throne.

There are a few high-resolution still frames below, but first there’s a “making of the Cheshire Cat” article over at /Film in case you’re interested.  It shows the progression of how a 3D model is rendered to become the iconic smiling feline.  This is part of a “Wonderland Wednesday” post Disney will be sponsoring between now and the March 5, 2010 release.

Also out today is a short (less than a minute) featurette where Depp talks about the eccentric Mad Hatter character.  What he neglects to mention is that he wields a sword in the movie (see the first photo below).  Maybe my memory is fuzzy on the animated original, but I don’t remember the Mad Hatter tossing down his top hat and picking up a scabbard in the midst of a — what in the hell is that behind him?  Is that a spotted yeti?  You get a better look at that massive creature in the video, but this is clearly different take from Burton.

Here are four images I promised (courtesy of Yahoo). I can’t wait.