Alice in Wonderland is a 1999 made-for-television film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871). It was the last production to adapt the original stories (as Tim Burton's 2010 film was written as a sequel) and was first broadcast on NBC and then shown on British television on Channel 4.
Tina Majorino played the lead role of Alice and a number of well-known performers portrayed the eccentric characters whom Alice meets during the course of the story, including Ben Kingsley, Martin Short, Whoopi Goldberg, Peter Ustinov, Christopher Lloyd, Gene Wilder, George Wendt, Robbie Coltrane and Miranda Richardson.
The film won four Emmy Awards in the categories of costume design, makeup, music composition and visual effects.
Plot:
In common with most adaptations of the book, it includes scenes and characters from Through the Looking-Glass. The film begins with Alice unwillingly preparing a presentation of the song "Cherry Ripe" for a garden party. Nagged by her governess (Dilys Laye), Alice runs out of the house and hides herself in the woods until the party has ended. An apple floats down from the tree and hovers in Alice's face. She then encounters the White Rabbit (voiced by Richard Coombs) and falls down the rabbit hole.
In Wonderland, Alice grows to the size of a giant, floods a room with tears and shrinks to mouse size. She meets Mr. Mouse (Ken Dodd) and his avian friends who participate in a Caucus Race, where everyone wins. Alice again encounters the White Rabbit, who directs her to his house. Alice comes across a bottle of liquid which makes her grow and leaves her trapped in the house. The White Rabbit and his gardeners Pat (Jason Byrne) and Bill (Paddy Joyce) attempt to remove Alice by going down the chimney, but Alice shrinks again.
Wandering in a forest, she meets Major Caterpillar (Ben Kingsley), who transforms into a butterfly. Alice returns to normal size by eating part of a mushroom. In a nearby manor house she meets the musical Duchess (Elizabeth Spriggs), her baby, her pepper-obsessed, plate-throwing cook (Sheila Hancock) and the Cheshire Cat (Whoopi Goldberg). The baby is left in Alice's care. It turns into a pig and is released. The Cheshire Cat advises Alice to visit the Mad Hatter and his friends the March Hare and Dormouse.
Meeting the trio at a tea party, Alice is given advice on how to get around stage fright. The Mad Hatter (Martin Short) leaps onto the table to perform as he previously had at a concert of the Queen of Hearts. Alice leaves when the Mad Hatter and March Hare start to cause havoc and bully the Dormouse.
Alice comes across the small door and using her wits, gets through it into a garden, which is actually the labyrinth maze belonging to the Queen. The Queen of Hearts (Miranda Richardson) invites her to a bizarre game of croquet, but her love for decapitating people annoys Alice. The Cheshire Cat's head appears in the sky and is ordered to be executed, but Alice's logic stays the order. Alice leaves the croquet game and meets the Gryphon (voiced by Donald Sinden) and the Mock Turtle (Gene Wilder). The two sing with Alice, encourage her and teach her the Lobster Quadrille. Alice then wanders away and meets the White Knight (Christopher Lloyd), who encourages her to be brave.
Alice meets some talking flowers: a Tiger-Lily (voiced by Joanna Lumley), who is the most sensible out of all of them, some Roses, who are not too bothered about Alice being lost, and some Daisies, who are rascals. Having the flowers helping her, Alice walks off. Alice then meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Robbie Coltrane and George Wendt), who have some antics with her before getting into a fight. Alice is then captured by a pair of card soldiers and taken to the royal court, where the Knave of Hearts (Jason Flemyng) is put on trial for apparently stealing the Queen's jam tarts. Alice is then called to the stand, but she uses some mushroom pieces to grow to great heights. She sees the jam tarts have been untouched and the trial is pointless. She openly criticizes the Queen, King Cedric and the people of Wonderland. The White Rabbit, who is present at the court, reveals he had lured Alice into Wonderland to conquer her fears. He asks Alice if she has self-confidence. Upon Alice answering yes, he states, "then you don't need us anymore." He then sends her back home using the same hovering apple that brought her there in the first place.
Awakening back home, Alice courageously sings in front of her parents and their guests (who look like the Wonderland characters), but instead of singing "Cherry Ripe", she sings the Lobster Quadrille. The audience, to Alice's delight, enjoy her performance. Alice spots the Cheshire Cat in the audience, who smiles at her in congratulations.
Production {Honestly a part of me isn't surprised that there isn't much research on the movie, oh well here's what I could find that is very interesting}:
The film utilized both puppetry and live-action footage. The puppet designs were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
In all, 875 special digital effects were created for the film. An example is Martin Short's head; it was enlarged to three times its size to resemble the Hatter in Tenniel's illustrations.
In December 2018, composer Richard Hartley was interviewed for Tammy Tuckey's "Rattling the Stars" podcast about his work on the film for the 20th anniversary, providing never-before-heard stories.
In 2019, a behind the scenes documentary of the film was released on YouTube, which had originally been broadcast on the Hallmark Channel in 1999 and had not been included on any VHS, DVD, or digital releases of the film.
The original NBC airing averaged a 14.8 household rating and a 22 percent audience share and was watched by 25.34 million viewers, ranking as the 6th highest rated program that week in terms of households and the most watched program that week in terms of total viewers.
My Review:
This is the absolute best version/movie adaptation of Alice In Wonderland, and the most truest to the original book by Lewis Carrol. I loves this movie they have added multiple details from the book, that other movies had not put in their movies. It's different and that's what makes it stand out from all the other Alice in Wonderland movies. Must become a cult jewel. Totally underrated and barely known with a huge, excellent first line casting.
Tina Majorino did a good job playing Alice with this being her especially with this being one of her first acting roles.
Most of the other cast did great making the character their ow too; Martin Short as Mad Hatter is on point casting - he was born to play this role! Whoopi Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat was good too, however the make-up/prosthetics looked a little strange, but hey at least they were better than Cats (2019).
Anyway, I recommend you give this film a watch if you haven't seen it before; I rate this movie a 8/10.
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