Tim Burton’s latest offering features Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland

Mar 5 2010 Liverpool Daily Post

COMBINING a unique aesthetic, conjured from his twisted imagination, with dark humour and heartfelt emotion, Tim Burton has remained a visionary in a sea of profit-driven conformity.

His opening two chapters of the Batman franchise pushed boundaries in mainstream box office fare, leading to the introduction of the 12A certificate in the UK.

Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow plumbed the grimy depths of the human condition, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, while, more recently, Burton put his distinctive spin on Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Sweeney Todd.

Johnny Depp has been a regular collaborator during the past two decades, and the Oscar-nominated actor gets top billing in this wild re-imagining of the books of Lewis Carroll.

Based on a screenplay by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King), Burton’s descent down the rabbit hole is a characteristically eye- catching and quixotic journey of self-discovery in a world where anything can, and probably will, happen.

Fans of the director’s earlier work will recognise his thumbprints on the grotesque character design, and the colourful sets, many of which are rendered digitally.

However, the action-oriented narrative owes rather a lot to The Golden Compass and the Narnia films in terms of the imagery and plot developments.

Curiouser and curiouser . .