Alice in Wonderland (1999 film)

1999 television film by Nick Willing

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 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. In common with most adaptations of the book, it includes scenes and characters from Through the Looking Glass. The film won four Emmy Awards in the categories of costume design, makeup, music composition and visual effects. The film was re released as a special edition DVD on March 2, 2010, no special features were included, however the film was restored to its original speed as prior releases suffered from PAL speed up. A rare behind the scenes documentary of the film was released to YouTube in 2019, the 20th anniversary of the film's release.

Alice is unwillingly preparing a presentation of the song "Cherry Ripe" for a garden party. Nagged by her governess (Dilys Laye) and facing stage fright, an audience of strangers and a song she dislikes, Alice runs out of the house and hides in the woods. As clouds fill the sky, an apple falls from the tree and hovers in her face. She then sees the White Rabbit (voiced by Richard Coombs) and follows him down the rabbit hole, landing in Wonderland. In an attempt to enter a small door and hide in a beautiful garden, Alice shrinks and grows into a giant, floods a room with tears and shrinks to the size of a mouse. She meets Mr Mouse (Ken Dodd) and his avian friends who attend his boring history lecture and participate in a Caucus Race. Alice again encounters the White Rabbit, who directs her to his house. Alice finds a bottle of liquid which makes her grow and traps her in the house. The White Rabbit and his gardeners Pat (Jason Byrne) and Bill (Paddy Joyce) attempt to remove Alice but she shrinks to a tiny size. Wandering in long grass, she meets Major Caterpillar (Ben Kingsley), who tells her not to be afraid when performing. After he transforms into many butterflies, Alice returns to normal size by eating part of his 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 but turns into a pig and she lets him go. The Cheshire Cat advises Alice to visit the Mad Hatter and his friend the March Hare. Meeting the two and their Dormouse friend at a tea party, Alice is given advice on the fun of performing and 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 wicked Queen of Hearts. Alice leaves when the Mad Hatter and March Hare start to cause havoc and stuff the Dormouse in a teapot. Alice once again finds the small door and this time manages to enter the garden, which unfortunately turns out to be a labyrinth maze belonging to the Queen of Hearts (Miranda Richardson). The Queen invites her to a bizarre game of croquet, but her love for beheading people annoys Alice. The Cheshire Cat's face appears in the air and is ordered to be executed, but Alice's logic stays the order and everyone applauds her. Alice escapes the croquet game and meets the Gryphon (voiced by Donald Sinden) and Mock Turtle (Gene Wilder). The two sing with Alice, encouraging her and teaching her the Lobster Quadrille dance. Alice then wanders away and opens a colossal book and walks into an illustration of the woods, making her in the woods. She meets the White Knight (Christopher Lloyd) who fights against a Red Knight, who encourages her to be brave when she goes home. Alice meets some talking flowers: a Tiger Lily (voiced by Joanna Lumley), the most sensible of all, some roses, who are rude and not too bothered about Alice being lost, and some daisies, who are rascals. Having the flowers help her, Alice walks off and meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Robbie Coltrane and George Wendt), who have some antics with her such as telling the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter before getting into a fight. Alice is then chased by clouds and taken by a pair of card soldiers to the royal court, where the Knave of Hearts (Jason Flemyng) is put on trial for apparently stealing the Queen's tarts. Alice is then called to the stand, but she uses some mushroom to grow to great heights. Upon seeing the tarts have been untouched and the trial is pointless, she openly criticises the Queen and King Cedric. The White Rabbit, who is present at the court, reveals he lured Alice into Wonderland to conquer her fears and asks her if she has self confidence. Upon Alice answering yes, he states, "then you don't need us anymore." She is then sent back home by the same hovering apple and clouds that brought her there. Awakening back home seconds after the apple fell, Alice courageously sings in front of her parents and their guests (who all resemble the Wonderland characters), but instead of singing "Cherry Ripe", she sings the Lobster Quadrille. The audience, to Alice's delight, all enjoy her performance. Alice spots her cat Dinah in the audience, who is really the Cheshire Cat who grins at her in congratulations.

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 (then known as Odyssey Network) 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.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on 6 critical reviews. David Zurawik gave the film a positive review in The Baltimore Sun, calling it a "grand and magical production" and praising the cast's performances, particularly Majorino and Wilder. Rating the film 2 out of 5 stars, David Parkinson of Radio Times praised the "wondrous Jim Henson puppetry" and the performances of Richardson and Wilder; however, he found the film "still falls short of the cherished images taken from those first readings of Lewis Carroll's classic tales."