Comments on: Helena Bonham Carter:The Red Queen or The Queen of Hearts?

By: Richard M. Boothe

Richard M. Boothe — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:05:21 +0000

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."

By: Kareem

Kareem — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 13:10:54 +0000

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.

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:57:43 +0000

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…

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:53:36 +0000

Oh sorry, I mean "Marina of Marmoreal" and "amalgamation".^^

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:52:29 +0000

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…

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:17:00 +0000

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.

By: Gangrene

Gangrene — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:35:15 +0000

or maybe they made it like that because many people aren't even aware that there is more than 1 queen.

By: Erick

Erick — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:32:05 +0000

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.