Alice in Wonderland (1999)

Alice (Tina Majorino) 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?

---

Plot Keywords:

alice character | the cheshire cat character | caterpillar character | the mad hatter character | queen of hearts character | 

---

Taglines:

A Masterpiece of Imagination. . .

---

Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy

---

Certificate:

PG

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

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

---

Goofs

When Alice is enlarged from the bottle, her arm keeps changing from halfway out the window to her entire arm out the window.

---

Quotes

Mock Turtle: When Griff and I were little, we went to school in the same sea. And the master was an old turtle; we used to call him "tortoise."
Alice: Why would you call him tortoise if he wasn't one?
Mock Turtle: We called him "tortoise" because he "taught us."
The Gryphon: You ought to be ashamed of yourself! Asking a simple question like that.

---

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.

---

Connections

Version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)

---

Soundtracks

Beautiful Soup
Music by Richard Hartley
Lyrics by Lewis Carroll
Performed by Gene Wilder, Donald Sinden, and Tina Majorino

User Reviews

Curiouser and Curiouser Cried Alice !

What could have been a magic Alice using the formula of top Stars in the cameo roles as in the 1933 version, is dulled by excessive length and an unnecessary sub plot, concerning Alice's shyness in performing a song for a family gathering.

Also combining scenes from Through the Looking Glass while pleasant in themselves, extends the running time, and the pedestrian pace of the film. Sure there are some magic moments, and fortunately the designers have called upon Sir John Tenniel's illustrations for their characters, and the dialog when it is from Lewis Carroll's text is happily nonsense. It is bits that are not by Carroll that detract sadly.

It could have been much better, and even Tina Majorino doesn't make an especially attractive Alice. Perhaps re-editing it down to about 90 minutes would make it a winner, but we'll never know. A pity because some of the segments are very good indeed, with guests like Whoopy Goldberg, Martin Short, Ben Kingsley, Miranda Richardson, Peter Ustinov, and Pete Postlethwaite enjoying themselves immensely