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Alice in Wonderland (1999)
"The story has been reshaped but not for better; the acting is exaggerated, the humour strained; the whole thing arises from stress and the moral is utilitarian: you have to perform, you can’t query the demands made on you, but the show must go on." - Markus Lång
Introduction
Nick Willing’s 1999 version of Alice in Wonderland features an all-star cast and multiple musical numbers in a very colorful trip to Wonderland. By this time the visual effects capabilities of the film industry were starting to catch up to Carroll’s imagination and the special effects are certainly a highlight of the film. However, most critics agree that the movie is just too ambitious. As Ray Richmond writes,
At times wildly entertaining and even poignant, "Alice" ultimately winds up being a trifle too much -- too lengthy, too broad, too unwieldy. Even the impressive visual elements are so multitudinous as to almost detract from any overall magical effect. Indeed, for all of this production's tricks, Alice's journey through Wonderland suffers passages of sheer tedium. (Variety Movie Reviews)
Willing’s effort, including elements from both Wonderland and Looking Glass, tries rather unsuccessfully to tie itself together by giving Alice a concrete reason for being there. Her Wonderland seems to be “a kind of symbolic counseling session, a role-play constructed by her unconscious to enable her to conquer her shyness” (Brooker 219). Most of the characters she meets, especially the Mock Turtle, seem created to help her gain enough confidence to sing at a garden party, which does add a certain arc to the film, but certainly destroys Carroll’s intentional purposelessness and nonsense in his original. Below you can watch three clips from the film, Alice and the Caterpillar/Alice and the Footmen, the Duchess' Kitchen/Alice and the Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Tea Party, as well as the trailer.
Clips
Part of the Mad Tea Party Scene
Credits
Directed by: Nick Willing
Produced by: Dyson Lovell
Screenplay by: Peter Barnes
Based on: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Starring: Tina Majorino, Miranda Richardson, Martin Short, Whoopi Goldberg, Simon Russell Beale, Robbie Coltrane, Ken Dodd, Gene Wilder, George Wendt, Christopher Lloyd, Peter Ustinov, Ben Kingsley, Elizabeth Spriggs
Music by: Richard Hartley
Cinematography: Stefan Lange, Giles Nuttgens
Country: United States
Release date: February 28, 1999
Running time: 129 minutes
Links
The Duchess' Kitchen / Cheshire Cat - Clip from YouTube
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