Having recently watched the new movies ‘Sherlock Holmes’ (with Robert Downey Jr) and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ from Tim Burton, I conclude that the purpose of existence for Victorian writers was to provide fodder for modern action-adventure films.
Hollywood does a brilliant job of expensively cheapening.
Of the two, I would say that ‘Alice’ fared better, in spite of the fact that Lewis Carroll was about as opposite in personality from Burton as could possibly exist, lighthearted and academic rather than dark, gloomy, and psychological. Oddly though, it was a sort of relief from the original Disney images to see “Alice” opening with a full moon against a dark sky swirling with moody clouds. And the music was classic Burton, dark but not too scary.
It begs the question: how could all of these old writers ever have come up with compelling stories when hardly any of them featured giant lizards? I am glad to see this has been set right at last.
April 18, 2010 at 7:41 am |
I think that Lewis Carroll DID have giant lizards, only they were disguised as crumpets at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. A bit of butter is always quite comforting with a serving of Godzilla.