No, but seriously. Like Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter is completely expected but altogether great. And although she's never been in a Burton film, perpetual princess Hathaway is also no surprise. Again, no complaints -- after all, you don't necessarily look to a Tim Burton cast list to be surprising; you look to a Tim Burton movie to be surprising. [Although, in one awesomely unexpected bit of casting, Little Britain's Matt Lucas will play Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Joy! - Zach]

Of course, the movie itself is already getting a little surprising. The Red Queen and White Queen appear in Lewis Carroll's Alice follow-up, Through the Looking-Glass, so Burton's take seems to be a combination of both novellas. That in itself isn't new -- most adaptations combine elements from both of Carroll's works -- but he seems to be changing their roles. The HR article refers to the Red Queen as having a penchant for ordering people's heads lopped off, it's the Queen of Hearts in the first story who does this. The Red Queen is actually not unkindly and is helpful to Alice in the text, but in Burton's tale she'll be responsible for deposing and banishing Hathaway's queen.

The report describes the White Queen as "a benevolent monach" who sets Alice on a task to kill the Bandersnatch -- another departure from tradition, as it's a creature that appears in Carroll's poems, but not in the two Alice stories. But how benevolent could she really be? The poor kid's already been subjected to eating freaky cakes and magic mushrooms, and you send her off to kill stuff? Her aim is going to be terrible.