By Beth Deitchman
Have you gone “through the looking glass” yet to see Disney’s newest adventure for Alice, the Mad Hatter, and Underland’s other colorful denizens—the Red Queen, the White Queen, and a full spectrum of quirky characters?
Alice Through the Looking Glass, now playing at a theater near you, again stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice Kingsleigh, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, and Sacha Baron Cohen as Time himself! In this outing, Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) has spent the past three years sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland. Reuniting with her friends the White Rabbit, Absolem, the White Queen, and the Cheshire Cat, Alice must save the Hatter and Underland itself, before time runs out. We took a little time recently at the movie’s Hollywood premiere and at press conferences for the film to talk to some of the cast and filmmakers about what’s new in Underland, about how their characters have evolved, and even about Walt Disney World roller coasters! Disney fans are in store for a true unbirthday treat!
Mia Wasikowska (Alice) on her other favorite Disney character of all time:
“I really like The Lion King, so I like all the characters in that.”
Wasikowska on how Alice has changed since we last saw her in Alice in Wonderland:
“She has a really strong sense of who she is in this film. I think she’s just spent two years as the captain of a ship so she very much knows who she is and she doesn’t let anybody question that for her.”
Director James Bobin on being “the new kid on the block” with the returning cast:
“It was great because they knew the characters. It was a new story, but we talked about what that meant for those characters. And often the story was explaining how they were before, which was very interesting for them—it was backstory, which was great. They were always incredibly welcoming—such fun to work with and very collaborative, and that’s what I love about movie-making. It was a huge team effort.”
Bobin on what’s different about Underland this time around:
“When I grew up I used to read Lewis Carroll and I remember the world being pretty much designed by a guy called John Tenniel, who was the original illustrator of the books. And I loved that world and wanted to bring more of that to this world—staying within Tim’s world that he created for that movie, but also trying to make it somewhat more historical and more Victorian in some way.”
Actress Anne Hathaway—the film’s White Queen—on how Colleen Atwood’s spectacular costume design helped her get into character:
“I thought that Colleen’s costume probably created my character. I had certain, kind of inchoate ideas about who she was, and then as soon as I put on that dress, I said, ‘Oh, she’s air.’ Then I started to think about the relationship between her and Helena [Bonham Carter, who portrays her character’s sister, the Red Queen] and I thought that if you have a family member who has a large personality and has a lot of emotions, you compensate by taking up less space. And so I thought, here’s somebody who’s literally turning herself into almost weightlessness—and yet it’s still so ornamented. So I just thought it was just very rich and very airy. And that’s how I kind of came up with my um, airhead.” [LAUGHS]
Owain Rhys Davies, who voices the Delivery Frog in the film, on the research that went into playing Disney’s newest film frog:
“I love Toad from Toad Hall [in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]… The Princess and the Frog—I’ve watched it repeatedly. I’m an adult man—a grown man!—but I love Disney movies. Just being a part of this is an absolute joy and a pleasure. It’s a bit of a dream.”
Screenwriter Linda Woolverton on what’s been happening for Alice before she sails into action in Through the Looking Glass:
“I did a lot of research on China and trading in that period, and the rivers—I researched all the rivers, and I researched the pink dolphins. I researched a lot of the stuff that didn’t make it [into the final script]. So I know all the places she’s been and all the people she’s visited, so that was really fun for me.”
Woolverton’s “Fab 5” Disney heroines:
“I love Aurora. I love Belle. I love Nala. I love Maleficent—she’s a heroine! And I love Cinderella. I think they’re all so different—there’s no singular aspect about each of them. What’s wonderful about Disney is they never abandon the princess—they’re always exploring facets of ‘princessness’ through time. So the princesses that were created in the ’50s and early ’60s were symbols of the perfect woman for their time and that’s wonderful. And then because time moved on, women have different facets and Disney has explored those different eras and parts of us all through time.”
The film is—literally—about time. We asked one of the film’s producers, Suzanne Todd—a devoted Disney fan—what would she do if she only had more time?
“Of course I would go to Disney World—I’m crazy like that. But other things? I’d spend more time with my family and—oh, wait—I could take my family to Walt Disney World, so I’m sticking with Walt Disney World! I’d love to spend more time in the parks, because I work too much and I don’t spend enough time in the parks.”
Todd is such a fan of the Walt Disney World Resort that we asked for her “Fab 5” attractions from the resort! Here’s what she told us:
“In Florida we love the mountains, because I’m a roller coaster girl. I love Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. I love Space Mountain—which is different [at Walt Disney World] than it is in Anaheim. I love Expedition Everest. I love a little Big Thunder Mountain. Which one am I missing? Splash Mountain—but that’s not a roller coaster. If we’re really doing five roller coasters from Florida, I’m going Crush ‘n’ Gusher [at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park], because we don’t have Crush ‘n’ Gusher in Anaheim. I believe it’s the only water roller coaster in the world and it is an awesome, awesome ride that should not be missed when you visit Florida!”
