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healygIn honor of the 150th Anniversary of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I will be recommending one Alice-related thing each Saturday, starting July 4th, continuing on into November, or whenever I get tired of it.
The 1999 TV movie version of Alice in Wonderland (produced by Hallmark) is, strictly speaking, not my favorite version of Alice by a longshot. It's far too treacly in parts, filled with all these insistent references to performing, not losing your nerve, etc., etc. It's a bit like having your favorite album be periodically interrupted by snippets from an inspirational speaker. Too many of the performers are just hamming it up, as well. (Witness Martin Short's turn as the Mad Hatter)
But the special effects are nearly worth the cost of admission by themselves. It was made in a transitional era between CGI and practical effects, so there's lots of puppetry mixed in with the CG. The White Rabbit in particular still looks very good. The sets are all well done as, too (my favorite is the White Rabbit's house, which is a pop-up illustration that comes to life), although some of these are brought down by lighting issues. And some of the singing is quite good.
Overall, should you watch this movie? It's still not very good, but if you enjoy spectacles, and can get it for cheap, I say you should.
Availability: The DVD is on Amazon for about 10-20 bucks, and it's also available on Youtube. I'm not too sure about its streaming status, but you can probably look that up online.
The 1999 TV movie version of Alice in Wonderland (produced by Hallmark) is, strictly speaking, not my favorite version of Alice by a longshot. It's far too treacly in parts, filled with all these insistent references to performing, not losing your nerve, etc., etc. It's a bit like having your favorite album be periodically interrupted by snippets from an inspirational speaker. Too many of the performers are just hamming it up, as well. (Witness Martin Short's turn as the Mad Hatter)
But the special effects are nearly worth the cost of admission by themselves. It was made in a transitional era between CGI and practical effects, so there's lots of puppetry mixed in with the CG. The White Rabbit in particular still looks very good. The sets are all well done as, too (my favorite is the White Rabbit's house, which is a pop-up illustration that comes to life), although some of these are brought down by lighting issues. And some of the singing is quite good.
Overall, should you watch this movie? It's still not very good, but if you enjoy spectacles, and can get it for cheap, I say you should.
Availability: The DVD is on Amazon for about 10-20 bucks, and it's also available on Youtube. I'm not too sure about its streaming status, but you can probably look that up online.
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