Posted by Kent in Actress, General News | 8 comments
Helena Bonham Carter:The Red Queen or The Queen of Hearts?
Recently photos of several characters from the new Time Burton directed “Alice in Wonderland” surfaced. Thank to a tweet by Latino Review’s El Quapo I noticed that Helena Bonham Carter had been cast as “The Red Queen” in the new Alice in Wonderland film. This struck me as odd because The Red Queen is a character in “Through the Looking Glass” which is the sequel to first book. The character many people are familiar with is actually The Queen of Hearts, which Carter’s character looks to be inspired after. It wasn’t until I saw the next casting choice that I realized they either wanted to mash the two characters together or they got them completely confused.
In Alice in Wonderland, Alice meets The Queen of Hearts, a foul tempered ruler who is often sentencing people to death by screaming “off with their head.” The inspiration for The Queen of Hearts was of course a deck of cards and is referred to as such by Alice in the book. There’s actually a gag involving Alice lying down on the ground face down and the queen not being able to recognize her because all playing cards look the same on the back. The Red Queen however is very very different.
The Red Queen is a more well tempered character, with the ideas of chess inspiring her creation. She can move swiftly and has a discussion with Alice about how even a lowly pawn can become Queen if it reaches the end of the board. She doesn’t go around screaming “off with their heads” and is much more maniacal of a character. This is the first time that I know of where they actually go as far is bringing in The White Queen, who is the sister to The Red Queen. Again it’s a chess reference.
Here we have two characters, both very different, but for some reason often confused. Many people’s only experience with Alice in Wonderland is the 1951 Disney classic which also combined the two characters and confused fans of the books even more. The two characters work on their own merritts and provide dynamically different types of villains for Alice to face, and combining them robs the sequel of a great villain. The addition of the sister, The White Queen, will only further mix the two characters together and give us a completely new character.
Now the real question is, is this intentional or did the screen writer, Linda Woolverton get them confused? In the press releases it clearly states that Helena Bohnam Carter is playing The Red Queen and the little make up heart on her lip and heart shaped scepter would further the idea that she’s the queen of hearts, not to mention the confirmation by producer Richard Zanuck that she will be saying “Off with their head.” The answer is up for grabs at this point, but I for one, would like an answer from Burton, Carter, or Woolverton as to why they combined them. Until then it’s a mystery, and a total shame that the sequel will be lacking such a great and diverse character… that is… if there is a sequel.
Tim Burton has only done one sequel in his career as a director and that was Batman Returns. I'm sure they combined the two characters to make a more complex one that would be a great villain for this movie. I doubt there will be a sequel.
or maybe they made it like that because many people aren't even aware that there is more than 1 queen.
Both "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" have been combined for this film. Helena will be playing a character that consists of both The Red Queen and The Queen of Hearts.
No, this movie will be a sequel to the books. Helena Bonham will play Queen Iracebeth of Crims; Anne Hathaway plays her sister Queen Marina of Maromoreal. Queen Iracebeth is an amalamation of the Queen of Hearts (playing card) from the first book and the Red Queen (Chess) from the second book. Her character is similar to "Queen Redd" from the "Looking Glass Wars" Books, she exhibits the Queen of Hearts' anger, bloodlust and fondness for decapitation and the Red Queen's arrogance.
She is very jealous, because her sister is so beauty that every man of the world could fell in love with her. She have a very big head, and she fell in love with Ivolosovic Stayn, the Knave of Hearts, a Red Knight. (Played by Crispin Clover) She use animals as servants an sclaves; not only at croquet, also in her grotesque castle and whole kingdom. She have Footfrogs as butlers. Also there's one scene where she is sitting on spider monkeys. But just wait until March 2010, than you can see it, three-dimensional and visually stunning. It's a film by Tim Burton, you know…
Oh sorry, I mean "Marina of Marmoreal" and "amalgamation".^^
Indeed, Carroll, in his lifetime, made the distinction of the two Queens by saying: "I pictured to myself the Queen of Hearts as a sort of embodiment of ungovernable passion – a blind and aimless Fury. The Red Queen I pictured as a Fury, but of another type; her passion must be cold and calm – she must be formal and strict, yet not unkindly; pedantic to the 10th degree, the concentrated essence of all governesses!"
But in the disney cartoon, the Queen of Hearts said many lines of the Red Queen, and in other film versions, the Red Chess Queen played with flamingos and so on…
So this is a sequel to the Disney cartoon, yes? And the Red Queen is meant to be the same character as the Queen Of Hearts from the cartoon?
Confusing.
I hope this doesn't end up being a Superman Returns, in that it's exactly the same as the first film but everyone keeps adding "you're back!" or "again!" to every line.
I don't like Burton and his writers conflating The Queen of Heats with the Red Queen. I'm a purist who cheers when a film closely matches the book it is based on (my nominee for Best Adaptation is/was "The Maltase Falcon," even if Humphrey Bogart didn't have a blond widow's peak). As has been pointed out by others, the two Queens have quite different characters. And Carroll's White Queen, as I recall, was a sort of good-natured, scatterbrained fuddy-duddy, always loosing her shawl, not at all like the sweetly sinister character I've seen in the trailers.
Like Kareem, I fear this is a sequel to the Disney animated cartoon, rather than to anything penned by Lewis Carroll himself.
Others have commented on the books' (and movie's) dark tone. The "Alice" books were dark, alright, but not in the way the film's trailers imply. Virtually no one in the books, save for the White Knight, treats Alice decently. Most of the Wonderland denizens berate her, correct her language or deportment, or badger her with questions. Nonsensical questions ("What's the French for 'fiddle-dee-de?'"). Humpty Dumpty, asked how one can leave off growing older, tells Alice one can't, but two can (meaning, suicide is out, but murder isn't). Or they give with one hand and take away with the other. So the evident delight of some of Wonderland's denizens at Alice's return, in the movie trailer, is out of character for the books's characters.
I suppose I'll see the movie, but I'll enter the theater telling myself, "This is a third-generation derivative having almost nothing to do with Lewis Carroll's works except some of the charters look vaguely like his and have the same names." That whirring noise in the background is the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's body turning over in his grave at 300 RPM.
One wonders what the Lewis Carroll Society of North America makes of this? I used to belong, but I quit when, in my view, they lost their collective sense of humor and started taking themselves, and Carroll, too seriously.
The Lewis Carroll work I'd like to see Tim Burton tackle is, "The Hunting of the Snark."