Book Review: Alice in Wonderland: A Visual Companion

This book is truly wonderful.

It's 256 pages thick and loaded with beautiful pictures throughout, from set photographs, film stills, sculptures and art. Every picture is in high resolution and printed satisfying big, showing off the intricate lavish details on the set, costumes, makeup, portraits and creature designs. There are just so many things to see and take in.

The writeup is mainly on the characters, Alice, Red Queen, White Queen, Mad Hatter and the various characters that appear. There's also an in-depth look at how this movie was produced using the green screen technology. It's all interesting to read.

I'm really impressed at all the character designs, specifically at how Helena Bonham Carter was transformed into the Red Queen. There are step by step photos showing how the makeup artists stitch the red head on. It's so flawless it's like magic except it's not because the whole process took 3 hours. There's also a picture at the back which is really fun. It shows the Tim Burton and the Red Queen chilling out on the set, playing with huge plastic toy guns.

Although there aren't any art book for this movie, it's difficult to see how each of the pictures in this book isn't art. There are a few stunning pieces of concept art included though. The White Queen's castle illustration by Steven Messing is my favourite. It's just magical. The other talented artists who contributed are Dylan Cole, Michael Kutsche, Dermot Power, Bobby Chiu and even Tim Burton himself.

This is a book even the Red Queen will be pleased with.

Highly recommended.

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By the way, there's another book on the movie as well, called Alice in Wonderland: The Visual Guide which I didn't buy. It's 72 pages and published by the DK Children. Don't get the wrong book unless you're getting both.

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