Alice in Wonderland (1999)

Alice falls down a rabbit hole, and finds herself in Wonderland, a fantasy land of strange characters and ideas.

Director:

Nick Willing

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (novel), Peter Barnes (teleplay)

Stars:

Tina Majorino, Whoopi Goldberg, Robbie Coltrane

Won 4 Primetime Emmys. Another 8 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robbie Coltrane	...	Ned Tweedledum
Whoopi Goldberg	...	Cheshire Cat
Ben Kingsley	...	Major Caterpillar
Christopher Lloyd	...	White Knight
Pete Postlethwaite	...	Carpenter
Miranda Richardson	...	Queen of Hearts / Society Woman
Martin Short	...	Mad Hatter / Chinless Idiot
Peter Ustinov	...	Walrus
George Wendt	...	Fred Tweedledee
Gene Wilder	...	Mock Turtle
Tina Majorino	...	Alice
Ken Dodd	...	Mr Mouse
Jason Flemyng	...	Sir Jack, the Knave of Hearts / Cad
Sheila Hancock	...	Cook
Simon Russell Beale	...	King Cedric of Hearts / Society Man

Storyline

Alice (Tina Majorino) follows a white rabbit (Kiran Shah) down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat (Whoopi Goldberg), the clumsy White Knight (Christopher Lloyd), the rude Major Caterpillar (Sir Ben Kingsley), and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts (Miranda Richardson), and can grow ten feet tall, or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?

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Plot Keywords:

alice character | alice in wonderland | caterpillar character | the mad hatter character | queen of hearts character | 

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Taglines:

A Masterpiece of Imagination. . .

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

Peter Eyre (The Frogface Footman) previously played the Knave of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland (1966).

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Goofs

In Alice's final singing scene, in between shots her hair changes from being behind her shoulders on both sides to being in front on one side.

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Quotes

Alice: I don't want to meet mad people...
Cheshire Cat: But you can't help it. Everyone here is mad. I'm mad. You're mad. It's only by chance n' careful planning if you're not!
Alice: How do you know I'M mad?
Cheshire Cat: [disappearing] Because you're here, and everyone here is mad!

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Alternate Versions

In subsequent reruns, this film has been trimmed to 100 minutes so that it can be shown in two hours instead of three.

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Connections

Version of Alice in Wonderland (1955)

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Soundtracks

Will You Won't You Join The Dance
Music by Richard Hartley
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll
Performed by Tina Majorino

User Reviews

Best-done version of a well-loved story

I, like most of the rest of you, grew up with the story of Alice In Wonderland- but what I knew was from the Disney story. I never really liked it, but after seeing Hallmark's representation, I decided that Disney completely ruined the book.

Hallmark's costume designer apparently took a look at the sketches that are commonly associated with the story. In fact, the book of Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass that I have from England has these sketches in them, and comparing the costumes to the actual drawings shows very little difference minus color, movement, and the addition of the third dimension. Being a person who tends to favor pretty over plot in movies, the animatronic puppets (such as the griffin, the flowers, and the flamingo-croquet) and other visuals made a very fun and entertaining veiwing

experience.

As for the acting, it is obvious that there is a rather star-studded cast. Martin Short is probably the best I've ever seen him as the Mad Hatter. Sure, he is insane- but he's called a "mad" hatter for a reason. It is very interesting to see the man known for playing ghandi in a large caterpillar suit playing what is commonly known to be the trippiest character in the book. Also, frankly, the queen of hearts in the disney version terrified me as a girl (as well as tweedle dee and tweedle dum), but here they seem less harmful- but they still embody the insanity which basically prevails in the story. Personally I think the "bratty little girl" version of hte queen is a much better take on that character. It makes Alice's maturity over the course of the story more reasonable.

Speaking of story, nobody ever said that Carroll's stories made THAT much sense. So that can't exactly be argued.

Over all- I think its a must see if you've ever enjoyed the stories of Alice.

Details

Country:

UK Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 February 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alice in Wonderland

Filming Locations:

Burnham Beeches, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$21,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Babelsberg International Film Produktion, Hallmark Entertainment, NBC Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

65 min (2 episodes) 129 min (video) 131 min (TV) (2 parts)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1