Rating: 
Summary: ah, another great alice film!
Review: as an a.i.w. buff, I loved this film! though, I wish they would have added more elements from both wonderland and through the looking glass, I still enjoied the actors and many scenes not seen in disney's version. by far, this is my favorite version available. now if only hallmark will make hunting of the snark...
Rating:
Summary: "Everyone Here is Mad!"
Review: Alice in Wonderland takes us on a star studded trip down the rabbit hole for another classic interpritation of the land with zany locations and completly zany inhabitants.
Alice (Tina Majorino) is dreading her part in her parents tea party. She has to sing in front of everybody! "How do they expect me to sing in front of all these strangers?". Alice decides to hide in the back garden until the party ends. Just then, as an apple slowly falls from a nearby tree, Alice's spots a white rabbit running along yelling "Oh I'm so very LATE!". She pursues him all the way down his rabbit hole full of strange objects defying gravity, until she lands in an underground world known as Wonderland. She sets out to find a beautiful garden (She couldn't get to it because she was to big to fit through the door leading to it). She keeps changing sizes going up to 10 feet high then down to ten inches high. As she wonders through the land she meets the strangest people including: Major Catapillar (Ben Kingsley) who tends to smoke his hooka, and, to Alice's annoyance, talks in very short sentences; the Duchess (Elizebeth Spriggs) who manages to ignore the air in her house filled thick with pepper; the Chesire Cat (Whoopi Goldberg) who seems to be the sainest creature around; the Mad Hatter (Martain Short) who has a tendency to break into song when unexpected; the Queen of Hearts (Miranda Richardson) who owns the garden and has hobbys of playing Crouquet and screeching "Off with her head!"; the Mock Turtle (Gene Wilder) who sings, tells storys, and burst into tears regularly; the White Knight (Christopher Lloyd) who loves riding his horse even if he can't stay on it for long; and Tweedle Dee (George Wendt) and his brother Tweedle Dum (Robbie Coltrane) who love reciting poetry. All these characters and more help Alice to ultimatley gain confidence to sing her song, but now the question is, how will she escape this upsidown world?
This version of Alice is a magnificent feast for the eyes and ears. Originaly made as a three hour special for NBC in 1999, the transfer to DVD is magnificent, even if much can't be said for the special features. There are a few behind the scenes things to read over, cast bios, original drawings from the Lewis Carrol book, and a trailer for the video. That's really it though.
The effects in the movie, are however, amazing. Many of the odd creatures were created by the Jim Henson Creature Shop and they have used their talent to do an amazing job. Dyson Lovell, Robert Halmi, Sr., and Rober Halmi Jr. have done a wonderful job bringing the story to life with its chaotic yet storybook like settings and zany character looks.
Even though this version combines elements from both of Carrol's books (Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There), and even though it strays a little from the original plot (Well, doesn't every version?) it is still a wonderful work of imagination and wonder and I would put it up there along with the Disney version.
So get you copy of Alice in Wonderland and enjoy your trip down the rabbit hole and through the looking-glass!
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful movie!
Review: This movie is the best so far I had seen of Hallmark production, it even better then Snow White The Farest Of Them All and Snow Queen. The atmosphere in this movie is great, very magical, very good special effect. Great performance of Miranda Richardson, I thought she was very good in Snow White and Merlin but in this one her acting performance is the best. I love her scary Queen look and her weird creepy voice, it give me chill. Martin Short is very good as the Mad Hatter. The one who play Alice is okay, usually we saw Alice with blonde hair but the real Alice of Lewis Caroll got brown hair too. This was one of the best movie I saw, very magical, beautiful Fairy Tail!
Rating:
Summary: Review by GuT
Review: Was a very good movie for how cheap it is...I bought off the market place sellers and was very impressed with how fast the shipment was....Any fan of Alice will like......A must have DVD for your collection.....
Rating:
Summary: DVD Better Than The Original
Review: I must say when I first saw this in its orginal CBS Broacast I wasn't too impressed with the execution, but now watching it without commercail interuption this is really a good movie.There's a lot of visuals and visual effects throught the film and some really stand-out performance by Martin Short, Ben Kingsley and the most delightful turtle played by Gene Wilder. One of the big downfalls is there are not a lot of extras on this DVD. WOuld have loved to see more behind the scenes of the making of it. Alice herself is a newcomer and og English descent. Appropriate for Lewis Carrols novel and true to its spirit. Thick with stars and celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg, this coloful and imaginative version. Good for the entire family. (There is some trickles of adult humor that the parents will enjoy to in relation to how we all deal with children. Fun!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful soup
Review: I loved this version... for the first time, i felt the true "wonder" of Alice in Wonderland. Christopher Lloyd as the professor was wonderful. Mad Hatter, Caterpillar, mouse, cheshire, queen, every-everything was just what it always should have been.
Rating:
Summary: Throughly Enjoyable
Review: I enjoy this movie so much, ever since I recieved as a gift I watch it all the time! I recommend this movie to families, kids and adults everywhere!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Family Movie in Years!
Review: I give this movie 10 stars! A few lovely little songs, an extraordinary cast, a delightful little girl, and even a few bizarre scenes just like the book! We love this and the kids watch it over and over. Also a very good suplement to a homeschool theme unit on the author or book itself. Highly recommended by all four of us!
Rating: 
Summary: Simply Awful
Review: The latest movie version of Lewis Caroll's Alice books is a great example of what happens when someone makes a movie of a book which they obviously didn't understand. Calling this film anything less than butchery is a travesty. NBC's Alice in Wonderland manages to turn Caroll's story into the very thing that it mocked. The Alice books were meant to poke fun at authority and morals. They were imaginative and surreal adventures that mocked authoritarian morals. The first book asked the question "who am I?" while the second asked "do I exist?" But if you are looking for any of the spirit or physcology of the books, you will be sorely disapointed. NBC's Alice in Wonderland opens with young Alice afraid to sing in front of her parents guests. She then has a dream of wonderland which gives her the courage to sing at the part. That's about it. All the mystery and magic of the books have been dumbed down into some simplistic quest to build the courage to sing at a tea party. The Alice books joyfully mocked such idiotic moralls. It's obvious that the writers of NBC's Alice in Wonderland never understood the books and by adding such a simplistic meaning to them they have destroyed everthing that they stood for. The production NBC's Alice in Wonderland are both excellent and terrible. It's obvious alot of work and money went into this film so it's amazing that it falls so flat. One would think that with so much money the makers could actually make all the animal characters look like animals. Unfortunatly, the vast majority of the creatures in this film are just actors in cheap animal suits. It brings to mind the awful British versions of the story. The Walruse is just a fat guy with a mustache shaped like tusks. The cards are just guys in cheap card suits. With such a large budget there is simply no excuse for this. The sets for the most part are beautiful and very well put together. It comes as a suprise then that most of the scenes are not the least bit surreal. Most tend to drag out and are fairly boring. NBC should really hire a director who translate the dreamy atmosphere of the books. Tim Burton anyone? Finally we get to the cast. It's amazing how many talented individuals deliver such mediocre performances. With the exception of Mirandra Richardson as the queen of hearts, the entire cast is simply awful in their respective roles. Worst is Alice who is very placid and un-engaging.
After seeing this new version I have made a resolution never to critisize the Disney version again. Sure it was simplistic are cartoony but at least it kept some of the spirit of the books and didn't denegrate them as this version has done. It also managed to keep much of the surreal atmosphere of the origional. NBC's Alice in Wonderland is simply a travesty that should only be viewed for people wanting to see just how wrong an adaptation can go.
Rating:
Summary: ALICE IN WONDERLAND!
Review: After having great success with lavish productions of "Merlin" and "The Odyssey," NBC followed up with this ambitious adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic! Tina Majorino stars as Alice with one of those star-studded casts we have come to expect when Hollywood visits Wonderland (remember Gary Cooper as the White Knight or the Smothers Brothers as Tweedledum and Tweedledee?)! This time around we have Whoppi Goldberg as the Chesire Cat, Martin Short as the Mad Hatter, Christopher Lloyd as the White Knight, Ben Kingsley as the Caterpiller and Miranda Richardson as the Red Queen! This is a fairly faithful adaptation of the beloved book and the framing device is simply a chance to give the cast a curtain call! Nothing wrong with that! They can remake "Alice in Wonderland" every decade as far as I am concerned!
|
