Print this article E-mail this article More articles by this author

Rating: Country: USA Release Date: August 1, 2006 Distributor: Sony Pictures Director: · Harry Harris Cast: · Natalie Gregory · Scott Baio · Red Buttons · Sid Caesar · Sammy Davis, Jr. · Arte Johnson · Roddy McDowall · Telly savalas · Ringo Starr · Ann Jillian · Steve Allen · Ernest Borgnine · Beau Bridges · Lloyd Bridges · Patrick Duffy · Merv Griffin · Harvey Korman · Karl Malden · Donna Mills · Pat Morita · John Stamos · Sally Struthers · Jack Warden · Jonathan Winters Related Sites: · IMDb: Alice in Wonderland (1985) Grade: B-

Like Lewis Carroll, I have a certain small fondness for little girls named Alice -- particularly when they find themselves caught up in a phantasmagorical adventure. Over the years, the pair of Alice books Carroll produced have been transmuted and transmogrified through a number of permutations to bring it to a life off the page, both on stage and on screen.

This particular incarnation is the product of Irwin Allen ("The Poseidon Adventure", The Time Tunnel), and one of his last works. Done in 1985 as a television miniseries, Alice in Wonderland is a tour-de-force of the stars of the day (and the day before), boasting an enormous marquee of credits. And to be sure, many of them pull off their roles remarkably: Imogene Coca looks as if she stepped right out of John Tenniel's artwork of the cook in the "Pig and Pepper" chapter, and Patrick Duffy is downright unrecognizable in his goat guise.

Unfortunately, as is often the case when everyone is a star, the production overall ends up with none. While some of the costumes are extremely well done, rivalling the best of "Cats" in places, many are far less than that, and the performances are played as though the characters were doing a skit on Sesame Street or a walk-in in the Land of Make-Believe often seen on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. It's a mixed bag of "Well done!" and "Oh, no."

 

Alice confronts Cook while the Duchess watches on. L-R: Imogene Coca, Natalie Gregory, Martha Raye

As has happened with nearly every visual interpretation of Alice in Wonderland, this movie often deviates from the source material. Lost are the scenes where the Caterpillar (Sammy Davis, Jr.) tells Alice about the two sides of the mushroom. Added scenes include a confrontation between Alice and the dreaded Jabberwock, with the end of the Wonderland adventure bleeding directly into Through the Looking Glass -- obviously very different from the source material. The Owl (Jack Warden) tells Alice that the Jabberwock appears because of her inner fears, and that she cannot return home until she has conquered those fears.

Natalie Gregory plays our heroine, and she certainly looks the role of the traditional visage of Alice (the drawings of Tenniel, at least -- the real Alice, Alice Liddell, was a pageboy-sporting brunette.) While she's no Shirley Temple, she does evoke the child actress in some scenes -- a dance routine done with Sammy Davis, Jr. for instance, or her amusing conversations with the Red Queen (Ann Jillian) and the White Queen (Carol Channing). At times you can tell that she's carefully watching her step and remembering her lines, but overall she performs the role quite well.

 

The White Knight greets Alice. L-R: Lloyd Bridges, Natalie Gregory

Padding out the story are several musical numbers, written by Steve Allen (who also appears as a character on the train in Looking-Glass Land) and performed by some actors who really shouldn't sing -- Sherman Hemsley does a number as the Mouse in "The Pool of Tears" scene, although that particular bit of lyricism is not the expected "Mouse's Tale", but a new song; and Telly Savalas -- who portrays the Cheshire Cat -- also gets the opportunity to vocalize (signing off with a "Meow, Baby!") Other songs are musical renditions of the original poetry, like "You Are Old, Father William" and "The Walrus and the Carpenter".

The special effects are the traditional Irwin Allen variety, with rear-projection and forced perspectives, but the stage settings are vividly colorful and work well for a child's dreamland.

While Alice in Wonderland is and always will be best appreciated as a book, this version -- deviations aside -- is still the closest one I've seen in its faithfulness, often pulling direct sequences of narrative from Carroll -- the conversation with Humpty Dumpty (Jonathan Winters) about words and what they mean has always been one of my favorites. "Alice in Wonderland" will certainly be picked up by Carroll aficianados who will add this to their collections, and could reasonably entertain and enthrall children who have the patience and intelligence to appreciate the story (even if the Jabberwock does look like he just stepped off a Star Trek set.) Perhaps the most disappointing bit of all is that the story ends with Alice denying her imagination -- destroying the Jabberwock by repetitively claiming she doesn't believe in it -- and having her mother and father feeling that she is now quite grown up enough to join the grown-ups at tea, putting a neat ending on everything rather than the open-ended dream that was the story. Basically, when it's on, it's spot on -- and when it's off, it's jarringly so.

This DVD will launch its own player when played in a DVD-ROM drive with autorun enabled. It's in full-screen format, and the viewer can turn on subtitles for either English or French.

Previews on this disc include "Open Season", "RV", "The Pink Panther", "Zathura", and "Are We There Yet?"