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When searching for The Kitties, don't forget to look up.

(Illustration Friday: January 10, 2014)

Beginning

It all began with these two.

(Illustration Friday: January 17, 2014)

She's Come Undone

Hi everyone,

My friend lent me She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb's debut novel, months ago when we planned to see the author at a book-signing event for his latest effort. Of all his books, this one is her favorite, and she's read it several times. Years ago, my sister and dad also read and recommended this book to me. Even Oprah endorsed it. (Since Oprah has spoken, maybe this review isn't necessary, as I may be one of the last people to read this book.)

When I started reading She's Come Undone, my dad warned me to block off chunks of time because I won't want to put it down. I'm passing that advice on to you in case you don't belong to Oprah's Book Club and haven't yet read it. Although my friend and I never made it to Wally Lamb's book-signing event, I finished She's Come Undone just before Thanksgiving - after a few hermit-like days and very late nights.

To refresh my sister's memory of the plot of this story a few weeks ago, I said something like this: "It's about this girl whose parents split up when she's a kid, and then she gets raped by a neighbor when she's 13, and her mother's got her own problems and goes in and out of mental hospitals. So she gets depressed and eats and eats and eats and gains all this weight, and--" Before I finished my laundry list of drama, my sister sarcastically responded, "That sounds....great."

But it is! Yes, the main character Dolores Price suffers hardship that no one deserves and builds a concrete defensive wall because of it, but she defiantly makes it through to the other side, never losing her biting sense of humor. Now at peace with her past, she recalls the events of her life - parental divorce, sexual assault, bullying, secrets, lies, deaths, and rebirths - with a clarity that places you right there next to her.

Dolores's story spans nearly four decades, starting in the 1950s, as she grows from grade school to adulthood. You stick with her though her darkest times, put up with her understandable cynicism, and witness her rewarding resilience. Wally Lamb amazing storytelling captures the times with precision, from the introduction of television in the '50s to the AIDS epidemic in the '80s. He introduces a cast of unforgettable characters that are at the same time unique and recognizable no matter your background. His vivid writing places you in the moment - through the voice of a young girl who grows into a womanhood. Through Dolores's eyes, you visualize these realistic portrayals and feel their experiences: the tension of the shouting matches with her mother, the uncertainty of her grandmother on how to handle the two younger generations sharing her home, the sliminess of the neighbor who steals her innocence, the meanness of the cliquey college girls behind their sweet smiles, the convoluted complications of her relationships, and the genuine care of the mentors and therapists searching for ways to help her rise above it all.

The way she succeeds reminds me of Conrad in one of my favorite movies, Ordinary People (though I never read that book). In it, Conrad (Timothy Hutton) suffers similarly through trauma but eventually makes it through those experiences and learns how to accept himself. Rather than wallow in the sadness of these kinds of stories, I feel relieved and happy when the protagonists find ways to move their lives forward with a positive outlook. The same happened as I read Dolores's story: I was thrilled when she let her fears and deceptions fall away, having finally realized the worth, goodness, and strength she'd always possessed.

Like Ordinary People, She's Come Undone has a very satisfying ending that makes the hard journey to get there well worth taking. Just clear your schedules before you start.

Best,

Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp Film #40--The Tourist (2010)

[What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp for all the details.]

I feel I'm not getting photographed by the paparazzi enough. I figure I'll go and hang out in Venice with Brad and Angelina. - Johnny Depp, joking about why he signed on for The Tourist.







What kind of vacation is this?

When tourist Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) meets a mysterious woman, Elise (Angelina Jolie), on a train through Italy, a chain of events disrupts his travels. Drawn into a web of secrets, Frank is chased by the mob and Interpol who, assuming he's someone else, want him for different reasons. As he races to clear his name, Elise finds herself falling for Frank, and everything may not be as it appears. Based on the 1996 French thriller, Anthony Zimmer, The Tourist is a light, fun ride through Venice.

Why?
The first thing I heard about The Tourist was that Angelina Jolie was to costar with Johnny. From that moment, I dreaded seeing the movie. I think Angelina Jolie is a good actress, but I'm not on the Brangelina Bandwagon. I get tired of seeing and hearing about their every move (which I realize may be more the media's fault than theirs). I don't quite understand the fascination. 

I assumed it was because of the Angelina Factor that I ended up seeing so much about The Tourist despite my efforts to avoid the news. I was only more discouraged by what I read: When my dad surprised me with a gift from the grocery store, a tabloid covered with claims that steamy sex scenes between the stars were slated to be filmed for The Tourist, "Ewwwwww!" was my reflexive reaction. (I read it anyway and kept one of Johnny's photos. Thanks, Dad!) I don't want to see that and luckily we don't! Also, people began comparing The Tourist to Alfred Hitchcock's suspense thrillers, saying it was bound to be amazing because of the first-time pairing of the world's two biggest box office stars. I'm no publicist, but making those kinds of comparisons and grand statements before filming even starts is a recipe for disaster.   

Journalists, are you aware that all the articles you wrote that I read leading up to The Tourist's release date had the slant of what it was like when Johnny met Angelina? To be completely fair, why not explore what it was like when Angelina and Johnny met each other? Or, why not write all your articles with me in mind, and find out what it was like when Angelina met Johnny? Let's turn this around to talk about my fascination! 

I got over my reservations about The Tourist pretty quickly. If Johnny was up for it, I'd do my best to conquer my Angelina Aversion and see this movie with an objective eye. I looked forward to the story and seeing how the final product came out. The director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, was new to me, and costar Paul Bettany is always reliably good. I was hopeful. Let's go to Venice!

It's all about casting.
The Tourist seemed to get universal bad reviews. My favorite one came from my friend before the movie was even out: "Have you see the previews for Johnny Depp's new movie?" she asked me. "Did you see his hair? I don't think it's going to do well." I hadn't considered his hair, but something about him did seem different to me. I didn't realize what it was until after I saw the movie and read his interviews about it: he gained weight for the role. All this, I assumed, is how he thought his character, a math teacher from Wisconsin, should look, which was fine with me. 

Reviewers, however, thought Johnny's performance was dumb, boring, and beneath his talent. Did they not catch that his character is an innocent "average guy" caught in a mystery in a foreign land? "He's definitely an everyman who is approached by this enchantress, this unbelievably beautiful, interesting, cultured vixen, and is taken on the ride of his life," Johnny explains. "Frank leaves the country for the first time, and he goes to Venice. He's had no great highs, he's had no great lows in his life, and he's thrown into this absurd and violent horror show and has to deal with it." 

Maybe because I know Johnny never creates boring characters, I assumed when I first saw The Tourist that there were reasons behind Frank's innocent and at times dumbstruck behavior. It's true, I also think Johnny can make drinking a cup of coffee more interesting than most people, but I'm not alone! "There are certain actors who have the ability to play ordinary fascinatingly so that you have this sense of an ordinary man who is trapped in an extraordinary situation," Screenwriter Jullian Fellows says. "That, I think, is what we have in Johnny Depp." Maybe that's why his performance doesn't bother me as much as it does the rest of the world. "Johnny, I think, has always played very unique characters, and I think he always, in pretty much every film he's in, he is likable," Angelina Jolie says. "He's a nice person, and I think that kindness and that fun comes across in anything he does." 

Still, for once, I see where the critics are coming from. Even I cringed at certain moments during this movie. When bad guys are shooting at Frank through his hotel room's bathroom door, he yells into the phone to the front desk clerk (who he'd called for help) that he's "gotta go!" And, whenever flustered in his foreign surroundings, Frank attempts to communicate with Italians in Spanish too often. For me, that running joke gets old quickly. And, is the slow motion used toward the end of the movie really necessary? Usually when I watch Johnny's movies, I get so wrapped up in the story and his character that I forget it's him. But these kinds of moments pulled me out of my suspension of disbelief with thoughts that Johnny wouldn't say or do these things. 

But I forgive these few goofy moments because one of the greatest things about Johnny is that he will always go for what's funny. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck agrees. "He just has such an incredible sense of humor. Straight from the first meeting that we had, I knew that I had to write a lot of humor into the script because he's just an incredibly funny person. He just really makes everybody laugh." His love for improvisation and great sense of humor made some days long but full of giggles. While filmed, the director couldn't use any of it: "It would have made our film an instant NC-17. All of his improvisations are always completely obscene, but it was very, very funny." I guess we'll see this footage on The Tourist's Criterion Collection Edition, right? Right?

I know, I may have blown my objectivity already, but Angelina Jolie bothered me more than Johnny's corny comedy. I felt that she was miscast in the role of Elise, which has nothing to do with the dread I felt about her being in this movie. Hear me out: The movie opens with Elise walking around and pausing with a Mona Lisa smile. She knows she's being watched. She says nothing for quite a while so I focused on her look. While I loved and wanted most of her wardrobe, Angelina Jolie's makeup and hair made her look so much older than she actually is; she instantly reminded me of Dynasty-era Joan Collins. And, even though she uses a good British accent, I could not forget that I was watching Angelina Jolie. I wish they had picked a lesser-known or unknown actress rather than the most famous one in the world. Angelina Jolie is good as Elise, but the character is too cool, mysterious, and untouchable. Elise seems boring to me, yet everyone who sees her trips over themselves in her presence. Because of the huge gap between Frank's naivete and Elise's uber-sophistication, I didn't see much chemistry. After the movie, I started imagining Scarlett Johanssen or Marion Cotilliard in the role of Elise. 

Did you know that there are other interesting people in this movie? As expected, Paul Bettany is great as Inspector John Acheson. But my favorite costar is the real bad guy, mob boss Reginald Shaw, who is wonderfully played by Steven Berkoff (right). In this movie, you also might recognize Timothy Dalton and Rufus Sewell.  

You're in Venice; enjoy it!
Despite the complaints I just unloaded, I don't think The Tourist is nearly as bad as everyone said. In fact, watching it again recently for Johnny Kitties, I really liked it, Angelina Jolie and all. The Tourist is a movie you have to be in the mood for because you just have to go with it and enjoy the scenery. Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck concurs, "I really hope that, over time, this will be the film that people turn to when they feel low and just want to spend two hours soaring through the beauty that the world has to offer and when they just want to relax for two hours." 

The Tourist is only his second movie. His directorial debut was The Lives of Others, an excellent German drama about the secret police's surveillance of artists in East Berlin in 1984. It won a bunch of awards, including an Oscar for best foreign language film in 2007. No wonder critics blasted The Tourist as a sub-par follow up. "I think a lot of people, a lot of critics certainly, misunderstood this film when it came out and somehow thought I was going to make another The Lives of Others and, because it turned out to be The Tourist, it must have fallen short of that ambition," the director says. "One thing that was very important to me in this film was to have ultimate clarity at all times. I wanted this to be the kind of film where you could just lay back and know that you didn't have to think too hard or exert yourself, that you could just be enveloped in this world of clarity and luxury and beauty and, hopefully, some suspense. But I wanted it to feel easy." 

When I first saw The Tourist in the theaters, I knew immediately why it was being compared to Alfred Hitchcock's movies. They were aiming to make a glamorous mystery reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. Whether they succeeded is debatable, but I saw that spirit in it immediately. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was researching and writing a script about suicide when Angelina Jolie asked him to direct The Tourist. It was a welcome relief from the dark subject he'd been studying: "I was really looking to do something completely different after The Lives of Others, and The Tourist really seemed to fit that bill because it was really all about beauty and humor and glamour," he says. They talked about bringing old Hollywood glamour back with The Tourist. "When he spoke about the importance of just something luxurious in cinema, and something fun, and something exciting for people to watch, like those old classic movies, it seemed like a perfect match," Angelina Jolie says of her initial talks with the director. Producer Graham King adds, "What Florian wanted out of this movie was the elegance of a European movie with two great American movie stars."

I left the theater feeling like I'd been on vacation. People who don't watch as many old movies as I do may have wanted more action and explosions, but there's nothing wrong with this movie's slow pace; it gives you more time to enjoy the Italian scenery. "Florian and I really wanted the film to kind of speak to the beauty of Venice," Production Designer John Hutman says. Venice is another character in The Tourist and I loved the decadence of it all. "I had the ambition that with every picture that we made here, with every frame, to create a painting," Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck explains. "There's never an excuse in this film not to go for the maximally beautiful. Nothing is easier to create than random ugliness. You can point a camera at anything, but to create beauty, that's really very, very hard." 

Despite all the bad reviews, The Tourist was nominated for three Golden Globes - best actor for Johnny, best actress for Angelina Jolie, and even best picture. Johnny won a Teen Choice Award for favorite male action star that year too.  

Despite all the water, The Kitties can handle Venice.
How can you not appreciate a movie that has Johnny running in pajamas on the rooftops of Venice? Here, we capture some lovely Italian scenery while Elise (Ashes) recognizes someone she knows...in a precarious situation. (Yes, in the movie, that's really Johnny running across terra-cotta tile rooftops in Venice. He got bloody feet to prove it! My question is where were the safety nets?)

What else did Johnny accomplish in the 2000s?  
Johnny is a busy man. Here are a few more highlights from the decade. 

• 2002: In April, Johnny and Vanessa Paradis welcomed a son, Jack! In 2004, Johnny explained to Oprah how different it'd been raising his son compared to his daughter: "My daughter, from the first second, was just a little princess - very delicate, very girlie, and incredibly, you know, soft. My son, almost immediately, would volt himself into walls. He runs around with these plastic pirate swords swatting at everyone."

 

• 2004: Johnny partnered with producer Graham King to create a production company called Infinitum Nihil. Over the years, this company has snatched up interesting prospects, like adapting Nick Hornby's Long Way Down and Gregory David Roberts's Shantarum. These films have yet to come to fruition, but in the meantime, Infinitum Nihil has supported several of Johnny's own movies as well as Martin Scorsese's wonderful Oscar-winning film, Hugo. Rent it! 

• 2005: Johnny joined Hollywood royalty, setting his prints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre!

 

• 2006: As you might remember from Johnny's participation in The Source in 1999 and other related activities over the years, Johnny's been a lifelong fan of the Beat Generation writers. He contributed to another documentary called The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg. In this DVD re-release of the 1993 film, he shared his memories about the poet, with whom he was good friends. 

 

• 2009: Returning to his love for good music, Johnny narrated a great documentary for American Masters,  The Doors: When You're Strange.  

What's Next? Johnny kicks off 2011 as a lizard in a Spaghetti Western cartoon called Rango.   


Image copyright credits: All images from The Tourist: Sony Pictures; Johnny with Vanessa Paradis in 2002: Alex Berliner/BEI/MAXPPP; Johnny's cemented hands: Splash, Johnny with Vanessa Paradis at the ceremony: Paul Smith/Featureflash, Johnny's cement square: Reuters; The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg poster: Docurama Films; When Your Strange poster: Rhino Entertainment 

Reflect

Reflecting on last year's primary activities, Lily contemplates future strategies, objectives, and goals. Any tips on defeating the Dancing Cat Toy are welcome.

Happy new year, everyone!

(Illustration Friday: January 3, 2014)

Spirit

Hi everyone,

One of my favorite Christmas movies is Scrooge (1970), a musical version of the classic Charles Dickens tale. No one plays the old miser better than Albert Finney! 

On Christmas Eve, Jacob Marley (Alec Guinness/Gordon) pays Ebenezer Scrooge (Albert Finney/Norman) a visit to help save his soul. Overnight, Mr. Scrooge is visited by three ghosts: The Ghost of Christmas Past (Edith Evans/The Mother Kitty), The Ghost of Christmas Present (Kenneth More/B.J.), and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (Paddy Stone/Simon). Remembering his happier past and seeing his bleak future, Mr. Scrooge has a miraculous change of heart: he learns the true spirit of Christmas and that sharing his wealth and his heart brings riches far better than any amount of gold. It's a good lesson for all of us. 

Happy holidays, everyone! See you in January!

Shadow

On sunny days, Tyrone spends most of his time in the garage chasing his own shadow. I'm not sure who's winning here.

(Illustration Friday: November 22, 2013)

Pattern

Tyrone's fur pattern is unlike any other we have seen. It's up for debate what it all means. So far, researchers have traced it back to his African and Native American ancestors. Their findings could take a drastic turn at any moment, however, since the subject is not offering any clues. Tyrone is too busy climbing trees to bother explaining himself.

(Illustration Friday: December 6, 2013)

Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp Film #39--Alice in Wonderland (2010)

[What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp for all the details.

One of the reasons why Alice and Tim are such a great match is because nothing is exactly as it seems in Wonderland. Nothing is entirely good or entirely bad. - Anne Hathaway on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Where did she go?

At her surprise engagement party, Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) disappears. Chasing a white rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen) through the garden, she falls down a rabbit hole. While pleased to have escaped the boring party and the pressures of society's expectations of her, Alice is now trapped in an underground room surrounded by locked doors. The only door she can unlock is too tiny for her to fit through. Luckily, she finds a potion and some cake that help her get down to size. 

After some trial and error, she makes it through the door and discovers that the residents of this foreign land have their own expectations of her. Her strange new friends, a Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), roly-poly twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), a White Queen (Anne Hathaway), and a few animals, inform her that she is their champion. She must battle the Jabberwocky, a dragon-like creature (voiced by Christopher Lee), so that the White Queen can regain rule from her sister the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and restore peace. No pressure. Get ready for a trip in Tim Burton's dreamlike adventure, Alice in Wonderland. 

Don't worry, it's just Johnny. 

I won't lie: Seeing these giant posters of the Mad Hatter's smiling clown face on bus stops and in Metro stations around D.C. kind of freaked me out for a while. I'm not afraid of clowns, but I don't like them. (Thanks, Poltergeist.) While not a clown by any means, the Mad Hatter's look reminded me of one. It's hard to see Johnny under all that makeup and costume; I was especially disturbed that his eyes were digitally enlarged and covered with neon contact lens. But I got used to it, eventually, because if you really look at the makeup and the outfit, it's a quite beautiful mix of colors and amazing detail. 

Most fascinating to me was that when Tim Burton and Johnny, who both like to paint, created images on their own of what they thought the Mad Hatter would look like, they were very similar. It's no wonder they work so well together so often! Here are their watercolors. (Tim Burton's effort is on the left.) 

Makeup Artists Patty York and Joel Harlow referred to Johnny's paintings when working their magic on his face. Johnny requested those electric eyes, with one contact painted slightly off. "He's never really looking straight at you. He's always looking a little farther off," he explains.

For the Mad Hatter's outfit, Johnny worked with Costume Designer Colleen Atwood. "We talked about him having all the tools of his trade apparent, so they aren't just on a shelf. They're a part of his costume," she says. "He's got his thimbles, his pin cushion ring, and all these things. We just kept pushing it, and it was great fun to make him all his bits and stuff." While the original hat was finished before the painting above, it is a pretty close match, don't you think? 

That is not Johnny!

When Alice first meets the Hatter and his friends at the table, I love how vehemently he promises to "futterwacken vigorously" when the White Queen regains her rule, but I hate the celebratory dance that is included in the movie. I mean no offense to David Bernal, who created and performed the dance in the film, but I didn't expect that, during it, the Mad Hatter's head would spin around like The Exorcist at warp speed. The sudden, out-of-place music and the head spinning ruined the scene for me and made me sad. Despite his madness, crazy orange hair, makeup, and extra-large neon green eyes, I believed the Hatter to be a real person, like Alice. Is he not? Can everyone spin their head around like that in Wonderland? This must be a part of the book I don't remember. Oh, it bothers me! 

I realize, however, that maybe I'm not the audience for that level of ridiculousness; it made the little girls sitting near me in the theater laugh. Yet, whenever I watch Alice in Wonderland, I'm still taken aback and disappointed by how unbelievable and disjointed the dance scene is in this magical world that otherwise I'm lost in every time.

But let's just focus on the Hatter!

I'll get over it. Futterwacken only takes up 30 seconds of a great movie, and you can tell Johnny had a good time exploring this fascinating character. "After doing something like John Dillinger [in Public Enemies], a performance where it's so restrained because of the responsibility you have to that guy, the Mad Hatter was like being fired out of a cannon," Johnny remembers. "The Hatter was great fun and, again, it's one of those things where you're just amazed that I'm not fired. I truly am." 

Johnny's performance is wonderful! To research the role, he got clues about the character from Lewis Carroll's book and then read about real hatters who used glue with high mercury content. The glue would stain their hands and eventually the mercury would affect them. "They'd go goofy from the mercury and go nuts," Johnny says. "It did happen to people. They went mad as a hatter!" He imagined that's what happened to his character. Johnny saw the Mad Hatter as a more tragic figure than typically portrayed in other versions of Alice in Wonderland. In the 10 years since Alice has been away, he's gone through a lot: Aside from the occupational hazard of mercury poisoning, he suffers from depression caused by the Red Queen's oppressive rule over the once peaceful land. "I think he's been sitting there at that table, having the same tea with the same people in this kind of spaced-out funk for 10 years," Johnny says. "I think he's been frozen in time, waiting for Alice to come back." Now that she's returned, the Hatter has hope and is eager to fight back and free everyone from the Red Queen's domination.

My absolute favorite thing about the Hatter is his voice. I love how it changes depending on his emotional state. When not provoked, the Hatter is kind and playful, but when angry or scared, he acquires a heavy Scottish accent and a deeper register. "It's one of those things where it's hit or miss, and you just hope that it works. The accent, the switching, it's the merging into another character basically," Johnny explains. "It's the Hatter's safety mechanism kicking in when he needs to become tough, when he needs to become angry, when he needs to be protected, or when he's fearful. It's kind of like experiencing a kinder form of personality disorder in a way." 

Reflecting on how Johnny developed his Mad Hatter character, Tim Burton observes, "He likes dressing up. I think, with Alice in Wonderland characters, they've often been portrayed as just crazy without much subtext, and I think he tried to bring something, an underlying human quality to the craziness. He tried to understand it a bit more....And, he's good at sort of exploring that, I guess, because he's crazy. I don't know." It's genius!

This Alice has muchness!

I was very excited to see this version of Alice in Wonderland. I have a clipping from USA Today that was published during production and offered a preview of the film's sets. The title of the article, "Alice in Wonderland, Burtonized!" and the images accompanying it were enough to get me pacing the floors. Alice in Wonderland is a perfect kind of project for Tim Burton's imagination.

A part of me wanted this movie to be darker, but I guess it is a children's classic. This film used a mix of live actors, full animation, and a hybrid of both. "The idea was to explore the nature of dreams," Tim Burton says. "With all the cast, it was important that they felt like they were in the real and unreal world at the same time." I love how dream-like everything is, from the concepts to the visuals. The whole time, its unclear and questioned whether Alice is dreaming or not. She pinches herself to try to wake herself up. She tries to convince herself during scary moments that it's only a dream and that she can control it. Everything and everyone is strange in some way, in looks and personality, and some of the visuals are inspiring. After a long fall down the rabbit hole, for example, Alice lands upside down on a ceiling. And, when she drinks a potion that makes her shrink, she disappears into the folds of her dress's fabrics.

Alice in Wonderland's cast is fantastic, of course! Aside from the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen is easily my favorite. She is creepy and hilarious at the same time and delivers some great lines so perfectly. Anne Hathaway is a complementary opposite as the White Queen, and Crispin Glover, who appeared with Johnny in Dead Man, is wonderfully slimy in this movie as Stayne. You'll hear many familiar voices from the animated characters too, including Alan Rickman, Paul Whitehouse, Timothy Spall, Michael Gough, and Christopher Lee. "He's always had a compassion, I guess, and been drawn to outsiders," Helena Bonham Carter says of Tim Burton's view of Alice in Wonderland's characters. "I think it's quite tricky for Tim because he said they're all mad. We all have to make them mad in a different way." 

The most inspiring takeaway from this movie for me is Alice's character as she tries to prove who she is to everyone around her. She makes her own decisions and, by the end, builds up the courage to fight for what she wants. "The idea of Wonderland is kind of, in a surreal way, representative of, [in] some way, shape, or form, issues that she's dealing with in her own life," Tim Burton explains. Through her emotional journey, she becomes a really strong character. As Mia Wasikowska explains, "Her experience in Wonderland is her finding herself again and finding that she has the strength of being more self-assured." 

Where will Alice go from here?
Alice in Wonderland never made a lasting impression on me as a kid. Aside from all the famous characters and a few memorable moments, this story was relatively new to me when I saw Tim Burton's version in theaters. Now, if I read the story again, I'll probably picture it through Tim Burton's  lens, at least until May 2016. That's when, it has just been announced, Johnny will reprise his role as the Mad Hatter in a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, directed by somebody else! [Imagine dramatic music here.] I know! Details our sketchy, but as of now, the movie will be directed by James Bobin. He directed the last Muppets movie and he's a co-creator of "Flight of the Concords." I think I can live with that. Stay tuned for another two years! 

The Kitties are always up for tea.
After falling down the rabbit hole, Alice (Lily) finds her way to the Mad Hatter's dilapidated tea party. A 10-year wait is a long time. She's terribly late, but now they can start their adventure!

What's next?
Stop the presses! The world's biggest movie stars join forces as Johnny caps off the decade with Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.

Image credits: All Alice in Wonderland images © Disney; Tim Burton painting  © Tim Burton; Johnny Depp paintings  © Johnny Depp; illustration © Melissa Connolly.

Nelson Mandela

Some people make the world such a better place that all you can do is marvel at their grace and accomplishments. Nelson Mandela was one of those universally admired individuals. This great man's presence was a gift, a blessing, and a comfort to many. For more information about his extraordinary life and work, check out PBS Newshour's informative tribute. 

Below are some memorable quotes by this thoughtful leader. Let's honor Mr. Mandela's legacy by following his example and continuing what he started.

His life was a purposeful journey.

I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, 'Henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people;' instead, I simply found myself doing so and could not do otherwise.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid but he who conquers that fear.

It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.

Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.

I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.

As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.

When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace.

He understood how the world should be.  

Great anger and violence can never build a nation. We are striving to proceed in a manner toward a result, which will ensure that all our people, both black and white, emerge victors. 

Social equality is the only basis of human happiness.

We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens of any society, a life free from violence and fear.

I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than the opposite. 

And he gave great advice on how to get there. 

Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place. 

We must use time creatively, and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right. 

What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead. 

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special. 

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall.  

Tread softly, breathe peacefully, laugh hysterically.

Live life as though nobody is watching, and express yourself as though everyone is listening. 

Image credits: first image © unknown; middle images © Getty Images; last image © Yousef Karsh