Alice in Wonderland: Mad world of Lewis Carroll comes to life in Burton's unique vision

Assembled in a grand ballroom, sitting beneath a picture of themselves having afternoon tea, the cast of Alice in Wonderland look suitably surreal.

Tim Burton's 3D reimagining of Lewis Carroll's adventure has been much-hyped. And on the morning of its royal world premiere, the director, Tim Burton, his partner, Helena Bonham-Carter, Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway and the star of the film, newcomer Mia Wasikowska, are in an ebullient mood.

At the centre of the group is Johnny Depp, dressed in a black shirt and waistcoat, with his eyes covered by signature blue-lensed shades and hat.

The actor, who has worked with Burton six times since Edward Scissorhands 20 years ago, has carved out a career playing oddball characters. None more so than the Mad Hatter, although he insists the character's bizarre appearance is grounded in fact – Depp, it seems, has been busy researching "hatter's disease" – a common health problem for 19th-century hat makers.

"Hatters used this very toxic substance to glue the hats together. It contained a lot of mercury, and this poison would manifest in different ways," he explains, self-consciously stroking his moustache and goatee.

"Some were Tourettes-like syndromes, some were personality disorders, some were even darker and weirder and there was an orange tint to the actual stuff, so that's where all the orange bits came from."

Helena Bonham-Carter, meanwhile, turned to her, and Burton's two-year-old daughter, Nell, for inspiration for her role as the big-headed, angry Red Queen.

"She chops off other people's heads because she feels jealous of their normal-sized heads, so I thought, 'she's a toddler', because she's got the big head, and she's a tyrant.

"Toddlers are tyrants, they've got no sympathy for any living creature. That's our toddler, in fact, she just bosses us around, no 'pleases'. No 'thank yous'. 'Mummy, come here', 'Mummy carry me', 'Watch telly', and it's all about her; she never considers us."

Alice in Wonderland was an obvious story choice for Burton. Known for his dark, quirky retellings of classics like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the director does not disappoint.

It's packed full of oddball characters, all voiced by English actors, from the balloon-shaped Tweedles, both played by Matt Lucas, to the blue Cheshire cat (Stephen Fry) and the smoking caterpillar, Absolem (Alan Rickman).

"The thing that intrigued me was the opportunity to do 3D with Alice in Wonderland because it seemed like the perfect mix of the material and the medium. A few years ago, I don't know if I would have been as intrigued about it," says the director, who's only just made the finishing touches to the film. "The trippiness of that world and the tool were a good mix.

"The characters and the images and the iconic way they infiltrated culture was so strong, I just thought it was an interesting challenge."

Unsurprisingly, Burton didn't worry about disappointing fans of the book and, after working together regularly over the last 20 years, Depp and his director have a rare relationship in the often fickle world of film.

"The fact that Tim cast me in Edward Scissorhands was a miracle, total luck, and once you know someone for that length of time, you do get close," says Depp.

"But in terms of the process, it hasn't changed one second since Edward Scissorhands; there was always a kind of shorthand. Tim would turn his head a certain way or squint his eye and I'd go 'Yeah, yeah, I get it'.

"One thing that has evolved for both of us... when grown men start changing nappies and stuff, you discuss it. And one of the things that I'm proudest to say is that I was the first person to give Tim the DVD set of The Wiggles."

"Truly, he is a mad person on some level, but it's a madness that works for him.

"At the risk of embarrassing him, I've always admired Tim for his commitment to his vision, the impossibility of compromise and for doing exactly what he wanted in his own unique way. As far as I'm concerned, he's one of the only true artists working in cinema, a real auteur."

WONDERLAND

The opening sequence, an engagement party for Alice that she knows nothing about, is set at Antony House, a country manor in Cornwall. The rest of the film was shot in a green screen studio in Los Angeles.

Crispin Glover, who plays the seven-foot Knave of Hearts, had to act in a green all-in-one suit and walk around the set on stilts,

so his head could be

added to a computer-generated body.

The film also stars Yorkshire actress Eleanor Tomlinson, who plays

Fiona Chattaway.