Mad as a Hatter

[puppetmaker]

You know one of the reasons that Hatters went a little mad is the same reason that Roman Emperors went crazy, that would be mercury in their system. The Emperors and other Royalty drank liquid mercury (quicksilver) to balance the humors. For the hatters it was the mercury solution that was used to make felt from fur. To exacerbate the problem, this was done in poorly ventilated conditions in the workshops. For years mercury poisoning was know as “Mad Hatter’s disease”.

Yeah, I’m still thinking about the movie I saw yesterday. There were a couple of plot points that reminded me of the Looking Glass War but not that much and they are so general that I think any movie would be safe from being accused of copying it. There have been many takes on the tale of Alice and her adventures in Wonderland and what happened to her afterwards. From American McGee’s rather gothic take to Frank Beddor to the Burton Film.

I have also been thinking about some ideas for dolls for Art Shows. Not Alice based but still they have been floating around in my head for a while. I’ll have two or three done before Lunacon that rest ready for the other shows I do. Some of it will be a little darker than I have done before but they are inter-connected.

Today I plan to spend some time finishing up the bodies for the Alice puppets for the school now that I have all the materials. Then onto the next project.

I am grateful that Caroline is fever-free and feeling much better this morning.

Comments

[reddheart.livejournal.com]

There was a discussion on the LGW forums about Burton's movie versus what would have been planned. Most folks agreed that there would probably be some crossover that can't be helped in plot, but I know several were more peturbed about the similarity between what went on screen visually for Burton's stuff against some of what was in the books. There was an especially high reaction to one of the scenes in the trailer and a piece of art done for the Valley of Mushrooms in LGW and their uncanny resemblance.

I think, as I might have mentioned, Beddor's answer to all of this is to dodge it as much as he can. He has a whole other "franchise" as it were with the Hatter M graphic novels, afterall. By the time that all the work would come and go from making that a movie, the hype from this would likely wear down enough to where he can move forward with his own plan, complete with plenty of time to redo a few visuals so that they look less like what Burton did..that way people can't say that Beddor is copying Burton's look.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Honestly I think the card design for LGW is so different from the Burton version that even the battles are going to look way different.

Hatter M very well might be the way to go rather than yet another Alice film. Less to compare to but I feel sorry for the actor who plays Madigan because there will be comparisons to Depp.