Tim Burton at SDCC

One of the biggest joys of San Diego Comic Con 2009 was getting contacted by Disney for an interview with the great Tim Burton. To add to perfection, he was there to talk to us about his upcoming film Alice in Wonderland. I entered the room and took my seat right in front of the table where Mr. Burton was going to sit. Due to my lack of experience with covering movies, I had no idea what a madhouse it was going to be! The room was super full with people sitting on the floor and standing along the wall. It was absolutely hilarious to see the table fill with voice recorders. I placed my GA button on mine because all the voice recorders looked the same. No way was I going to lose interviews I had already done. (Three people ended up losing their voice recorders after the interview.) Listening to Tim talk about Alice in Wonderland was amazing and here is what he said:

Q: This seems to be a perfect marriage for Lewis Carrol and Tim Burton. What is it about this particular book that you felt appealed to your unique sensibilities as a filmmaker?

A: It wasn’t only the books, it was growing up and hearing the imagry and songs. Something about the imagry that he created that throughout different generations it still plays in peoples minds. Any kindof thing that has strong dreamlike imagry that stays with you is important to your subconscious and thinking and creative mind. I felt like trying to do it in a different way. I have never really seen any movie version that I really liked. The attempt was to take that imagry and try to make it into a movie.

Q: We can all imagine how this story suits you visually, but what is your emotional connection?

A: Emotional connection is from the fact that I never felt an emotional connection to it. It’s a series of a girl wondering around from one crazy character to another and I never really felt any real emotional connection. It was an attempt to really try and give it some framework and emotional grounding that I have never seen in any version before. The real attempt was to try and make Alice feel more like a story than a series of events.

Q: What does Alice mean to you as you were growing up?

A: It’s a fairly universal concept of these kind of stories with Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland, it’s an internal journey. These characters represent things inside the human psyche. That’s what every child does, try to work out their problems as you go on, same things as an adult. Some people get therapy, some people get to make movies. There are different ways to get things worked out.

Q: What is your opinion about Comic Con and how did you arrange for Johnny Depp to stop by the panel? (Johnny made an appearance to the panel in Hall H but not the press interview)

A: He just happened to be in the neighborhood. We saw him wondering around outside dressed as Jack Sparrow. [laughs] He came to support the movie.

I came to Comic Con when I was a student and it was a few people in a room with bad slide show. It’s a whole amazing different thing. One thing that is always true is people with a passion for this kind of stuff. Always fun to see people dressed up, Halloween is my favorite time of year.

Tim Burton

A: It’s an iconic character. With Johnny he tries to find a grounding to the character something that you feel as opposed to just being mad. In alot of versions it’s a one note character and his goal is to bring out more of a human side to the strangeness of the character.

Q: Did you read the book?

A: When I was about 8 or 10. But I have a weird connection I live and work out of Arthur Rackham’s studio. In 1905 did some amazing versions of Alice in Wonderland and Sleepy Hallow and other things I have been involved with. I felt like there was a weird connection to me and the material and that always helps somehow.

Alice from Wikipedia

Q: What was the technology you wanted to use for the effects?

A: As you can see here today, there are so many different techniques. There is pure mo-cap, animation, live-action mixture of them and for my personal reasons I didn’t want to do the mo-cap thing. I’m not personally so much into that. I went with pure animation and live action. But then sort of warp the live action to fit into the world. All the techniques have been done before but this is a new mixture that way. [chuckles] Still working on it so it remains to be seen how it all turns out. The goal is when we have actors is to use them and not put green dots all over them. All these mediums are valid. There is not one that is better than the other. You try to do whatever you think works for that project.

Q: Is this more of a sequel or a re-imagine?

A: I wouldn’t call it a sequel because there are so many stories in Alice in Wonderland. The goal was to take elements of the book and make it’s own story. Alot of it is based on the Jabberwocky poem in one of the stories and that’s not a big part of the story.

Q: After Edward Scissorhands have you thought about doing another original?

A: Oh yeah. Those are always inside. I’ve got a few lying around and try to sneak them in somewhere. Yes, but nothing right at this moment.

Q: Do you enjoy dressing up for Halloween and if so, what would you dress up as?

A: It’s the one time of year where you can actually learn more about yourself in a costume. There is something about being hidden, there is a certain sense of artistic freedom that comes from that. I’m all for that whenever is possible, not just Halloween.

Q: How do you think 3D enhanced the story?

A: Gone are the days where you walk out of the theater with a splitting headache. That’s no longer the case it’s a much more pleasant experience. The gimmick elements are falling by the wayside and it’s more about an experience that puts you in it more. With Nightmare in 3D, I felt it was the way it should have been because you felt the texture of the puppets more. You felt things that you felt on the set.

Q: Can you talk about the relationship between Alice and the Madhatter? I’ve heard it’s almost like a love story?

A: No I wouldn’t say. She’s just a young girl please. [laughs]

Q: Can you talk about the choice of Mia for Alice and Helena?

A: With Mia, I wanted someone with a gravity to her. Someone you can look at and see the wheels turning. A simple kind of power to her that I really liked. Helena.. I don’t know, she has a big head, seemed to fit the Red Queen. [laughs]

At SDCC Disney also set up the touring exhibit for Alice in Wonderland, look at the pics of props from the movie here.

Here is a short clip of video from the press conference. Notice how much Tim Burton gestures and how many voice recorders are on the table.