In an interview with MTV, Alice in Wonderland director Tim Burton explains why he chose to update his version of the classic fantasy story — earlier adaptations of the story were too disjointed and episodic, he'd concluded. So in his version, Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now 17, is revisiting a Wonderland that she has forgotten:
We tried to take the Alice mythology and characters and make a story out of it and be true to the spirit of what Alice is about. The other versions for me suffer because there's no movement to it. It's just one weird event after another. We're trying to ground it a little a bit.
As a result, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) is going to play a bigger role:
With him, we are always trying to find a subtext and layer to it, so it's rooted in humanity to some degree — something deeper than just being nuts.
And it's not just a complex plot Burton has to assemble. Working with a mix of animation, live-action, and motion-capture has proved to be a "mysterious puzzle that's frightening and exciting at the same time." So, what he has to show this Thursday at Comic Con will not involve a lot of footage. It will be a kind of "semi-trailer." If it comes anywhere close to the promise of the pictures and concept art that have been released so far though, it will be well worth watching.