This is a movie that I am not sure if I have seen before. When I just watched it, it feels familiar. I have a vague memory of watching the beginning of an Alice in Wonderland adaptation and someone pointing out that all the actors we were seeing in England would play someone in Wonderland.

Before I go on to the review, I would like to tell everyone that for the next two weeks, I will be looking at Song of Achilles and Circe by Madeline Miller.

“The 1999 Alice in Wonderland is a made-for-television film that adapts Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, featuring Tina Majorino as Alice. The story follows a terrified Alice who runs away from singing at a garden party, following a White Rabbit into a surreal, often nightmarish, Wonderland.”

I quite enjoyed this movie; it is chock full of great actors and they are all giving their best. The special effects are quite good.

For this movie, I have four thoughts.

Firstly, I would like to talk about the thought point that is added to this adaptation. In the beginning, it starts with Alice being expected to sing, something she is scared to do. Throughout the movie, Alice tells people that she is scared to be called upon to perform. Almost everyone in Wonderland brushes off her fears, with the one exception of the Mock Turtle, who encourages her to sing with him. It only makes sense that after she gains her courage, she chooses to sing his song. After I watched this, I learned that this was one of the last performances from Gene Wilder. He was so sweet, and he will be missed.

Also, about the idea that Alice’s trip to Wonderland is there to help Alice be less scared, this does remind me of another Alice adaptation that I am not reviewing because I do not believe I would be able to do it justice. This is American McGee’s Alice, a video game where underlining the game, Alice is stuck in her head dealing with her survivor’s guilt. In both of these examples of wonderland, Alice’s trip is a healing one.

Secondly, I would like to talk about the changes from the movie to Alice’s costume in the original book. The illustrations of Alice are all black and white. In fact, some of the old book covers show Alice in a white dress. It was Mr. Disney who decided to make her dress blue, and this has been copied throughout time. But this adaptation decided not to follow this plan because why not?

Thirdly, the Through the Looking Glass parts. Alice travels through a book. We see three different parts of Through the Looking Glass: the white and red knights, which side note, I love the fact that Christopher Lloyd played the white knight because the main thing I know him from is playing Doc Brown. Here he plays a knight that keeps coming up with inventions. We also have the talking flowers and a complete Twiddle-Dum and Twiddle-Dee by which I mean we get them retelling the Walrus and the Carpenter as well as them fighting over a broken rattle before the guards bring Alice back for the trial.

Fourthly, I would like to talk about the special effects. Specifically, in two different ways, firstly, the way that it shows Alice growing and shrinking. Whenever this happens, we get a shot of Alice suddenly getting bigger first, then the rest of her grows. This both look weird, but it makes a certain level of dream logic. Secondly is the animatronics with the white rabbit and the March Hare’s head. Something that sometimes gets forgotten is that the best way to make a thing feel like it is really there is to use a practical effect. They both look so seamless that they effortlessly hold the experience.

Thank you for joining me for this trip to Wonderland and until next week in Greece.

Happy reading to all and to all a good night.