Various Alice in Wonderland Movies
On Monday I saw five Alice in Wonderland movies, three of which I had not seen before. I thought I ought to give some sort of review of each of them.
Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951):
I have always had mixed feelings about this one. The way they freely mix sections from Wonderland and Looking Glass has always driven me crazy, because they really are seperate books and must be treated as such. The whole song "Very Good Advice" bothers me because nowhere in the book is there any sentiment even remotely resembling that. They also cut the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon (blasphemy!) and their Queen of Hearts is...odd. But Kathryn Beaumont is a perfect Alice, and some sections (such as the caterpillar) are done quite wonderfully, and are near-perfect realizations of the text.
Who I'd recommend this to: Sentimentalists.
Who I wouldn't recommend this to: People who like analysis.
Hallmark Alice in Wonderland (1999):
To like this movie, you really need to like the Hallmark style, because this is it, indisputably. In quite typical fashion, Hallmark has created a whole new theme for the story. You see, in this version, Alice has stage fright about performing "Cherry Ripe" for the guests at her parents' garden party, and goes into Wonderland to hide from that, but finds herself gaining confidence after her meetings with various inhabitants of the strange land. It's odd, and doesn't really fit with the original story, but it gives us an 'inhabitants of Wonderland are performers' theme, so I don't mind much.
And this film has some of the most genius casting in the world. Martin Short as the Mad Hatter, Gene Wilder as the Mock Turtle, and, of course, the incomparable Miranda Richardson as the Queen of Hearts. If those were the only good parts of the movie, it would be worth watching, but there are also some absolutely gorgeous visual sequences, such as the White Rabbit's house coming out of a pop-up book, and the Walrus and the Carpenter taking place in a toy theater. There are weak points, such as the casting of the lackluster (in theis movie) Tina Majorino as Alice, the odd portrayal of Bill the Lizard, and the utterly random jokes about British culture. And they do mix Wonderland and Looking Glass, though the Looking Glass sections are seperated somewhat. But, on the whole, it's a good interpertation.
(Incidentally, this is also the version in which Alice's parents look like Mina and Jonathan, but that's irrelevent.)
Who I'd recommend this to: Graphic designers, Martin Short fans, Gene Wilder fans and Miranda Richardson fans.
Who I wouldn't recommend this to: People who are easily annoyed.
Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998):
This was...really odd, but not actually bad. They made the interesting choice of having Alice played by an adult actress, who seems to be the mother of a young girl who she reads the novel to. And, though, for the most part, it takes the text directly from the novel, it goes completely in an unexpected direction visually, surreal and even more dreamlike than the Alice books are normally portrayed. The flowers are beautiful, seductive young women who flirt with Alice. The Red Queen wears amazingly high-heeled shoes and red, formed fitting dress. Tweedledum and Tweedledee seem like punk rock musicians, and flirt constantly both with Alice and with each other. The Walrus and the Carpenter is done as a music video. And so on and so forth.
And yet, as a Lewis Carroll purist, I still enjoyed it. The only scene that I really had serious issues with the way it was done was the second half of "Wool and Water", but I think that's a problematic scene however you do it. I also found their decision to cut the Lion and Unicorn and to reinsert the cut chapter of the novel, "The Wasp in the Wig" very odd, but it was interesting to see that chapter done on screen. I think the White Knight scene was too long, because, while most of the scenes were rushed through rather quickly in a somewhat jolting fashion, that one was done in its entirety, including all of "A' Sitting on a Gate". I think the reason for that was that they had Ian Holm was the White Knight and wanted to show him off.
As a side note, I'm not quite sure why Alice's hairstyle changed in every scene.
People I'd recommend this to: Fan fiction writers.
People I wouldn't recommend this to: People who haven't read "Through the Looking Glass".
Alice in Wonderland (1966):
This is honestly one of the oddest movies I have ever seen. And, first, a warning: it makes Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu" look like a fast paced action movie. And it's not at all what one would expect of any adaptation of a work of Lewis Carroll's. All the characters are dressed in Victorian clothing, and there is not even a suggestion of the animal characters being animals. There is no whimsical aspect at all. The characters rarely look at one another when saying their lines, scene transitions are nonexistent, and it generally leaves you wanting to tear your hair out.
But it's unerringly beautiful, it's certainly doing something original, and it makes you feel something, which good art should do. The Mock Turtle and Gryphon scene, for example, was utterly gorgeous, with them on the beach next to a dramatic cliff.
I liked it. I'm not really sure why.
People I'd recommend this to: Minimalists.
People I wouldn't recommend this to: People with short attention spans or who don't fancy being driven insane.
Alice in Wonderland (1972):
It's good that we watched this one at midnight, because it was unbelievably awful. And unintentionally hilarious. It's a musical, with utterly terrible songs, and I'm horrified that someone could manage to turn Lewis Carroll's genius prose into such bad songs.
Even aside from that, the sets are flimsy and uninteresting looking, Fiona Fullerton is often ridiculously irritating as Alice, and I generally feel really badly for all the actors.
But it has Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit. Which is amusing.
To get the full effect, you really need to see it, so here are two videos:
The Duchess Is Waiting, I Musn't Be Late!
"The Last Word Is Mine
People I'd recommend this to: People in search of amusement.
People I wouldn't recommend this to: People who don't want to have awful songs stuck in their head for eternity.
Disney's Alice in Wonderland (1951):
I have always had mixed feelings about this one. The way they freely mix sections from Wonderland and Looking Glass has always driven me crazy, because they really are seperate books and must be treated as such. The whole song "Very Good Advice" bothers me because nowhere in the book is there any sentiment even remotely resembling that. They also cut the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon (blasphemy!) and their Queen of Hearts is...odd. But Kathryn Beaumont is a perfect Alice, and some sections (such as the caterpillar) are done quite wonderfully, and are near-perfect realizations of the text.
Who I'd recommend this to: Sentimentalists.
Who I wouldn't recommend this to: People who like analysis.
Hallmark Alice in Wonderland (1999):
To like this movie, you really need to like the Hallmark style, because this is it, indisputably. In quite typical fashion, Hallmark has created a whole new theme for the story. You see, in this version, Alice has stage fright about performing "Cherry Ripe" for the guests at her parents' garden party, and goes into Wonderland to hide from that, but finds herself gaining confidence after her meetings with various inhabitants of the strange land. It's odd, and doesn't really fit with the original story, but it gives us an 'inhabitants of Wonderland are performers' theme, so I don't mind much.
And this film has some of the most genius casting in the world. Martin Short as the Mad Hatter, Gene Wilder as the Mock Turtle, and, of course, the incomparable Miranda Richardson as the Queen of Hearts. If those were the only good parts of the movie, it would be worth watching, but there are also some absolutely gorgeous visual sequences, such as the White Rabbit's house coming out of a pop-up book, and the Walrus and the Carpenter taking place in a toy theater. There are weak points, such as the casting of the lackluster (in theis movie) Tina Majorino as Alice, the odd portrayal of Bill the Lizard, and the utterly random jokes about British culture. And they do mix Wonderland and Looking Glass, though the Looking Glass sections are seperated somewhat. But, on the whole, it's a good interpertation.
(Incidentally, this is also the version in which Alice's parents look like Mina and Jonathan, but that's irrelevent.)
Who I'd recommend this to: Graphic designers, Martin Short fans, Gene Wilder fans and Miranda Richardson fans.
Who I wouldn't recommend this to: People who are easily annoyed.
Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998):
This was...really odd, but not actually bad. They made the interesting choice of having Alice played by an adult actress, who seems to be the mother of a young girl who she reads the novel to. And, though, for the most part, it takes the text directly from the novel, it goes completely in an unexpected direction visually, surreal and even more dreamlike than the Alice books are normally portrayed. The flowers are beautiful, seductive young women who flirt with Alice. The Red Queen wears amazingly high-heeled shoes and red, formed fitting dress. Tweedledum and Tweedledee seem like punk rock musicians, and flirt constantly both with Alice and with each other. The Walrus and the Carpenter is done as a music video. And so on and so forth.
And yet, as a Lewis Carroll purist, I still enjoyed it. The only scene that I really had serious issues with the way it was done was the second half of "Wool and Water", but I think that's a problematic scene however you do it. I also found their decision to cut the Lion and Unicorn and to reinsert the cut chapter of the novel, "The Wasp in the Wig" very odd, but it was interesting to see that chapter done on screen. I think the White Knight scene was too long, because, while most of the scenes were rushed through rather quickly in a somewhat jolting fashion, that one was done in its entirety, including all of "A' Sitting on a Gate". I think the reason for that was that they had Ian Holm was the White Knight and wanted to show him off.
As a side note, I'm not quite sure why Alice's hairstyle changed in every scene.
People I'd recommend this to: Fan fiction writers.
People I wouldn't recommend this to: People who haven't read "Through the Looking Glass".
Alice in Wonderland (1966):
This is honestly one of the oddest movies I have ever seen. And, first, a warning: it makes Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu" look like a fast paced action movie. And it's not at all what one would expect of any adaptation of a work of Lewis Carroll's. All the characters are dressed in Victorian clothing, and there is not even a suggestion of the animal characters being animals. There is no whimsical aspect at all. The characters rarely look at one another when saying their lines, scene transitions are nonexistent, and it generally leaves you wanting to tear your hair out.
But it's unerringly beautiful, it's certainly doing something original, and it makes you feel something, which good art should do. The Mock Turtle and Gryphon scene, for example, was utterly gorgeous, with them on the beach next to a dramatic cliff.
I liked it. I'm not really sure why.
People I'd recommend this to: Minimalists.
People I wouldn't recommend this to: People with short attention spans or who don't fancy being driven insane.
Alice in Wonderland (1972):
It's good that we watched this one at midnight, because it was unbelievably awful. And unintentionally hilarious. It's a musical, with utterly terrible songs, and I'm horrified that someone could manage to turn Lewis Carroll's genius prose into such bad songs.
Even aside from that, the sets are flimsy and uninteresting looking, Fiona Fullerton is often ridiculously irritating as Alice, and I generally feel really badly for all the actors.
But it has Michael Crawford as the White Rabbit. Which is amusing.
To get the full effect, you really need to see it, so here are two videos:
The Duchess Is Waiting, I Musn't Be Late!
"The Last Word Is Mine
People I'd recommend this to: People in search of amusement.
People I wouldn't recommend this to: People who don't want to have awful songs stuck in their head for eternity.