Tim Burton @ MindSay

Tim Burton turned 51 today. He is a film director and producer, a writer, an artist, and I must say, quite a brilliant and highly imaginative fellow. Some of my favorite films of his are Sweeney Todd, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, and Corpse Bride, his short films Vincent and Frankenweenie, and his series about the character Stain Boy. He is responsible for pretty much turning my life around and being the reason that I want to become a film director today. I love his movies because they are strange and funny in a dark sort of way, and I can always relate and connect emotionally to them. He also brought the strange to the mainstream in his filmmaking, as his films are very popular and have many devoted fans such as myself. The things that I particularly admire about him as a director are his attention to detail and quality, and his personal attachment to the movies he makes. He always makes movies that mean something to him, and he approaches them as art, not just a way to make money. (Though he makes plenty of that.) He is a role model and idol to me. I owe him a lot. Thank you, Tim. And Happy Birthday.

You can find it on YouTube or johnnydepp-zone.com.

In the trailer you get to hear the Mad Hatter's voice, which is very strange, as you can imagine.

I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was not that bad, although the book is obviously better. They kept in several details from the book, and I cried a bit near the end. The critics seemed a bit spiteful of the movie, but the thing is, I don't like the Harry Potter movies because I think they're amazing works of art, and I don't think they're intended to be. I just enjoy watching them because I'm a huge fan of the books and it's exciting to see them "brought to life" on the screen. I also saw the movie Away We Go, which was quite clever. At the movie theater I saw the Mad Hatter poster for Alice In Wonderland, which is weird since it's not coming out until March.

I've been doing some drawings and I'm trying to continue a story I was writing. I went raspberry picking today with my family and also went to Target and got Corpse Bride for only $5.00. Timburton.com, which formally was quite bare, now has a gallery of Tim Burton's artwork. Both his artwork and the way in which you view it are rather unusual. If you give them your email address they send you updates. 

I'm finally back from my rather lovely time in Great Britain. I did an amazing amount of stuff every day there, so it's nice to be able to relax. On my trip I got to finally make my pilgrimage to the site of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett's shops on Fleet Street. 

More very exciting news! (For me, anyway.) The first official pictures are here of Tim Burton's upcoming 3D movie Alice in Wonderland!!!!!!!!!!! From what I have heard of the story, it is not the same as the book, and concerns Alice returning to Wonderland when she is older. The movie stars many of my favorite actors (Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham Carter). Also, Burton and Bonham Carter's two young children, who are very cute, will make a cameo. The film already looks brilliant, and I look forward to the seventh collaboration of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. Better yet, the film will open March 5, 2010, just six days before my birthday, and 20 years since the two of them began working together. Therefore, I plan for my party to be a movie marathon of their films which will commence in going to see Alice in Wonderland. So, here are two pictures of characters from the movie. 

This is (obviously) Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Isn't he scary? Isn't he awesome? He sort of looks like a handsome, yet deranged clown. I especially like his orange hair and yellow eyes. 

And here is the lovely Ms. Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. She also looks quite bizarre in a really cool away. Her head is digitally enlarged. And apparently, her character is evil.

Tell me what you think of these pictures! Personally, I think the way these characters look is genius.

I'm also going to see Public Enemies pretty soon, so I'll tell you guys how Depp did.