amedia: Curlicue of butterflies on black background (Default)
amedia ([personal profile] amedia) wrote2011-04-09 07:59 pm

Movie: Alice in Wonderland (1999)

Oh my!

This was another movie we got with a free certificate from Amazon Video on Demand. I had videotaped this when it was originally on and never got around to watching it, so I thought it would be nice to see a clean digital copy without commercials.

I was flat out astonished when the opening credits came up and there was the name of the director: NICK WILLING! (Also known for directing Tin Man and Alice.)

It was a fun adaptation and the story wasn't hugely altered; it felt a little bit long, especially since it worked in large portions of both books. Of the many star turns, I think my favorite was Gene Wilder as the Mock Turtle. Robbie Coltrane and George Wendt were a lot of fun as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, once I stopped thinking of them as Hagrid and Norm. Whoopi Goldberg made for a great Cheshire Cat. My favorite set was one made up entirely of giant books that was used for the Caucus Race.

When I first saw Matt Frewer as the Charlie, the White Knight character in Alice, I remember thinking that he seemed to be channeling Christopher Lloyd. Well, in this adaptation, the White Knight is played by ... drumroll please ... Christopher Lloyd!
ext_26836: BEES! (Emoti: SQUEE)

[identity profile] mellifluous-ink.livejournal.com 2011-04-10 03:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Man, before Woolverton's Alice in Wonderland, this was my favourite adaptation--aside from the whole 'oooh I have to sing at the party' thing, which bothered me a bit.

[identity profile] amedia.livejournal.com 2011-04-24 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
aside from the whole 'oooh I have to sing at the party' thing

I suppose it was a way to work in the other little recitations such that a modern audience would understand - maybe he thought we wouldn't "get" the idea that Victorian adults could demand that children be able to recite their little poems at the drop of a hat? It always made perfect sense to me.

It also gave a sort of forced coherence to her experiences, since we could interpret them as her subconscious working through her stage fright - but Alice's adventures are not SUPPOSED to be coherent like that, so perhaps that was another bothersome aspect of the "have to sing" thing. (You have a knack for making me think about these things!)