Jack Saint
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What Tim Burton Did To Alice In Wonderland
🕑 Added 2018-09-28 17:27:02 +0000 UTCIn the heady days of the mid-2000s, Tim Burton was in high demand, and it was decided he'd head the newest adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. Tim, who admitted having "no personal connection" to the original text, decided to use the film as a ground-up reimagining of the story - a hero's journey with magical swords and ancient prophecies and a strong moral message. Ultimately we wound up with a lacking any real identity, confused in its own message, and somehow less feminist than something written in the late 1800s.
Some additional insight for Patrons:
There is one aspect to the video I definitely *wanted* to include, but every time I did it felt more and more like a personal attack that was distracting from some of my core arguments. Yeah, yeah, I say what I say in my intro, but I hope people take that in the proper context of following me taking a big forehead joke too personally. In any case, I find Burton’s own feelings towards the source text fairly telling with regards to how Alice turned out as a film - namely, that Burton had stated multiple times he felt little personal connection to the source material, and was motivated primarily by his desire to bring more “emotional grounding” to the story. The forces of capital spun such that a man who failed not only to care about but even to understand the material he was working with… was working with it. Uncommon? Of course not.
This is actually incredibly common in our current capital framework - the handing of projects over to the uninterested or the “kind of” interested, based on who does or does not generate ‘buzz’ - if you want to keep your money safe it makes sense, right? This is not to say being a fan in and of itself makes you a better creator - indeed, just the opposite at times - but I think the mess we wound up with in Alice In Wonderland 2010, serves as a perfect example of how capital can crush a creative vision. This is what happens when bottom lines decide creative endeavors - people who don’t care, working on projects they don’t care about.
Also just wanted to thank all of you again for your patience and support (even and especially you $1 chipper-inners). It’s been a rough couple of weeks, but knowing I have some folks out there invested in my content has definitely helped my head a little bit. Next video shouldn’t be nearly as delayed as this one - going to stick (hopefully) with shorter work for a bit.
As always, please like and share this around (especially on Twitter or Reddit) if you enjoy. Other than that, have a great weekend!
