Alice Through the Looking Glass

PLOT:

In this trippy sequel to the 2010 blockbuster “Alice in Wonderland,” young Alice returns from several years at sea and again passes through to the magical landscape, where she ends up journeying into the past to try to save the Mad Hatter.

What people are saying:

“A solid kids’ movie in the old style. One with something to say about something real – family and time- and a willingness to admit consequences, even as it serves up goofy humor, mild thrills, and slippy-slidey accents from slumming stars.” 2 stars

“It deviated from the actual book, but that doesn’t mean it was not entertaining. It had good messages about positive attitudes for women not to be victims of circumstance. A much needed improvement from much of the stuff many kids are watching now. ” 5 stars

“The charm found in the first Alice in Wonderland is definitely missing in the sequel. The story is a mix match of going in the past future time etc. The plot that is way too confusing for most children even some adults. The acting isn’t anything great most of the actors you can tell look like they’re in front of a green screen. Some of the special effects were nice and there’s some creativity to be found in this movie but in the end it just didn’t come together very well.” 2 stars

“I never read the Alice in Wonderland books, but I doubt this is one of them. Yes, it has that zany twisted quality you expect in Wonderland, but there is a theme running through the movie that gives it a scifi depth, “Why can’t I go back in time and change the past?” Most of the characters from the first movie are back and Cohen’s Time fits in Wonderfully. ” 5 stars

“the most offensive kind of film…one that spends an enormous amount of money yet seems to have nothing on its mind but money. You give it, they take it. And you get nothing in return but assurances that you’re seeing magic and wonder. The movie keeps repeating it in your ear, and flashing it onscreen in big block letters: MAGIC AND WONDER. MAGIC AND WONDER. But there is no magic, no wonder, just junk rehashed from a movie that was itself a rehash of Lewis Carroll, tricked out with physically unpersuasive characters and landscapes and ‘action scenes’, with blockbuster ‘journey movie’ tropes affixed to every set-piece as blatantly as Post-It Notes” 1 star

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Alice in Wonderland (1985 TV mini-series)

PLOT:

The first part opens with Alice (Natalie Gregory) helping Mother set the table for tea time. Although thankful for her daughter’s help, Mother tells Alice that she is still not grown-up enough to join the adults at tea. Alice goes outside to see her sister (played by Gregory’s real-life older sister Sharee Gregory), but gets bored at the “dull thought” of reading a book with no pictures. Her sister tells her that she will understand when she grows up, but Alice thinks she is already grown up (after all, she’s seven and a half). While playing with her cat, Dinah, the White Rabbit comes running by, saying he’s late. Wondering where he is going, Alice follows him until she falls down a dark rabbit hole, which takes her into Wonderland. Unlike the book and most movie versions, the rabbit hole appears here dark and frightening.

Alice finds herself in a hall with many doors, all of them locked. On a table is a key which Alice can use to open one small door. Yet the door is far too small to even fit her head in. A small bottle appears labeled “Drink Me.” Doing this, she shrinks to the right size for the door, but can no longer reach the key to open it. A box of sweets appears labeled “Eat Me.” Doing this, she grows to over nine feet tall. As she begins to cry, her tears fall on the floor and flow under the cracks. The White Rabbit appears, but frightened of the giant Alice, runs away dropping his fan and gloves. Using the fan makes Alice shrink again to a size small enough to crawl into one of the cracks, which takes her diving in her pool of tears.

While swimming in the pool of tears, she meets the Mouse, who tells her why he hates dogs and cats. Alice later catches up with the White Rabbit, and, in his house, curiously she finds another “drink me” bottle and chances it growing her full 9 foot character once again. Angry at Alice, the rabbit and his friends think that this is uncalled for and begins throwing stones at her which turn into cakes that causes her to shrink back to size. After running away she meets the Caterpillar and goes to the house of The Duchess. Finding the house too violent and hateful, she takes the Duchess’ baby away, but it then turns into a pig. She meets the Cheshire Cat, who gives her directions to see either the March Hare or the Mad Hatter, but warns Alice that they, along with everyone else, are mad. Alice visits the garden of the Queen of Hearts, who always yells “Off with her Head!” and plays croquet, or at least watches the others play. She visits The Gryphon as well as the Mock Turtle, but then she is called to attend a trial.

The trial deals with the Knave of Hearts, who is accused of having stolen The Queen’s tarts. There is no proof that he did it, but again there is no proof that he did not do it, nor is there proof that anybody did it, which proves him guilty, according to the Queen. Alice argues with the ways of the court, but inexplicably begins to grow larger again. The Queen becoming angry, yells “Off with her Head!” and has the guards chase the giant Alice, who is hardly afraid of them as “they’re nothing but a pack of cards”. Alice keeps running until she trips and falls and finds herself back home, in her normal size.

She runs happily back home, but finds that nobody is there and nobody can hear her. Hearing her cat Dinah, she sees her in the other side of a mirror, along with her parents, who can only see their own reflections and can’t see or hear their daughter. Alice doesn’t know how to get through to the other side. She notices a strange book next to her and starts reading it. There is a poem called Jabberwocky about a scary monster. Trying to deny her fears, she gets very scared as the room becomes dark and the Jabberwocky monster appears in the house.

The second part opens with the Jabberwocky scaring Alice. But as Alice wishes it away, it disappears. Yet, she is informed by The Owl in a painting that it may come back any time and reveals to her that it is a creation of Alice’s own fears.

After an interesting conversation with talking flowers, Alice meets The Red Queen, who is taking the place of one of the pawns/children of The White Queen on the chess board. Alice plays a pawn, but finds herself now on the second square, from where she must reach the eighth square to become a queen. The Red Queen tells her that only if she becomes a queen she may go home.

On the way to the eighth square, Alice meets many various characters and visits many places. She goes on a train that doesn’t stop, along with The Goat, The Horse, and The Gentleman in Paper Suit. She meets The Gnat king, as well as Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who sing the story of “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. She bumps into The White Queen, who speaks about the ways of the land and ends up turning herself into a sheep. She is then chased by a giant bird, which she initially thought was the Jabberwocky, and meets Humpty Dumpty. The Jabberwocky appears again, and Alice flees when it pursues her after knocking Humpty Dumpty off a wall. Alice then meets The White King and his Messenger, who bring Alice to see the Lion and the Unicorn, who are fighting for the crown. The combatants call a temporary truce and are intrigued by Alice, whom they perceive as a “fabulous monster”. Alice flees the group after a deafening barrage of drums begins to play, which she is apparently the only one to hear. Thereafter, she meets The White Knight, who sings and dances with her. Finally, Alice reaches the eighth square and finds her way to her castle, where a great feast in her honor takes place, with many of the characters she met previously on her journey.

Alice appreciates the feast but tells everybody that what she really wants is to go home. A present is then brought to her, out of which comes The Jabberwocky. The beast starts frightening and terrorizing everyone in the castle. The White Knight tries to rescue Alice, but fails. Alice manages to find her way back to the mirror and into her home, where she gets to confront The Jabberwocky. Telling him that he is just in her imagination and that she does not believe in him, he finally disappears. After this, Mother walks in and tells her daughter that she is finally old enough to join the grown-ups at tea time. Alice then sees the Wonderland characters in the mirror, and they sing farewell to her. Tearfully, Alice waves them goodbye as the movie ends.

REVIEW:

Here we go, another Alice in Wonderland, but this time the film in question is the 1985 CBS miniseries. The thing that sticks out the most about this film from e is that it covers the story we ll know in the first half, then going”Through the Looking Glass” for the second part. For some reason, the Looking Glass is always overlooked, so its good to see an Alice film tackle that part pf the stories as well.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the youngest Alice on film, including the animated versions. Her youth is obvious, but so is her talent. I’m not sure what Natalie Gregory is doing these days, but she appeared ot have a career ahead of her

Each of the fantastical creatures and whatnot that Alice encounters are brought to life by various celbrities, such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Red Skeleton, Carol Channing, etc. Normally I’d rip them a new one for this, but these Thespians pt that behind them. Unfortunatley it seems that many of them took the job for a quick paycheck and didn’t clock in for a full say of work,,

In the eighties mini-series like this one were commonplace, as people actually tuned in and watched television, rather than spending almost every waking hour in front of computer screens or video games. Alice in Wonderland is not the best version of the classic story, but it is one of the more entertaining ones, if for no other reason than to see the all-star cast and their various costumes. Is this worth the time to watch? Well, being that it is 3 hours and 12 minutes, it has that working against t, even if it was mini- series. While it is enjoyable, it doesn’t fully capture my attention as anything more than a forgotten joke. For that reason, I can’t say this is anything more than  half way decent film.

3 out of 5 stars

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

PLOT:

Alice Kingsley, 19, attends a party at a Victorian estate shortly after the death of her beloved father. Learning that the party is actually an engagement party to wed her into the family of her father’s friend and current owner of his trading business, Alice spots a White Rabbit wearing a waistcoat and pocket watch. In shock and confusion, she runs off into a maze and follows the White Rabbit through it. She eventually tumbles down a rabbit hole into Underland, learning that the White Rabbit has been searching for “The Alice” who is the only one that can slay the Jabberwocky, a dragon who terrorizes the inhabitants of Underland under the rule of the Red Queen.

Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Dodo, and Dormouse as they and the White Rabbit take her to see Absolem the Caterpillar. But after he says she is “The Alice” they’re looking for, the Bandersnatch appears and chases the clan through the woodland. As he corners Alice and scratches her arm, the Dormouse jumps on his head and stabs his left eye causing it to pop out. Alice continues on after the Tweedles are captured and meets the Cheshire Cat who brings her to a tea party being held by the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and Dormouse. The Knave of Hearts, the Red Queen’s army and the Bloodhound show up and begins a search for Alice, but failing to find her as she was hidden the Mad Hatter’s hat after drinking the potion to make her shrink, they continue on with their search for her in the woods.

After the Mad Hatter is arrested by the Knave, Alice manages to sneak into the Red Queen’s castle to free him, but only able to obtain the Vorpal Sword and escape with the Bandersnatch after she gives him back his eye. While Alice arrives to the domain of the White Queen, the Mad Hatter manages to escape execution with the Cheshire Cat’s help, rallying a revolt before his group flee to the White Queen’s castle. Though Alice was at first reluctant to fight, she later learns from Absolem as he enters his pupa state that she had visited Underland 13 years earlier. This gives Alice the strength to face the Jabberwocky the next day in a duel, though both armies clash when the Mad Hatter intervened until the Jabberwocky is slain. With the dragon dead, the Red Queen’s army sees no more reason to fight, and the White Queen exiles her sister from the kingdom, handcuffing the Knave to her. With the Jabberwocky’s blood, Alice returns to her world where she turns down the marriage proposal to Hamish and instead carries on her father’s work as an apprentice in which she goes to China to expand the trading firm.

REVIEW:

This is not the Alice in Wonderland we’re all familiar with. Gone is the happy-go-lucky, magical Wonderland, and in its place is a dark, gloomy place called Underland. Having said that, though, this is a Tim Burton film, so you know there is plenty of fantastical whimsy to be had.

Lots of hype surrounded this film, pretty much from the moment it was announced. I was a bit skeptical about it until I saw some early shots.

The good…Johnny Depp was obviously the selling point for this picture. I can’t argue with that, but I’m more excited that he learned a new accent. Using Jack Sparrow’s accent for all his characters was getting old. I’ve read some reviews that said that Helena Bonham Carter stole the show. Eh…not for me. Sure, Depp wasn’t as big a deal as they made him out ot be, but Anne Hathaway’s over the top White Queen stole the show, in my opinion. Stephen Fry’s voicing of the Cheshire Cat really sold me on the character. He brought that calm and coolness that Cheshire Cat needs. Alan Rickman as the wise caterpillar was pretty good, but I kind of wish he had more screentime. The look of Underland, especially the two castles and the battlefield is vintage Burton. You don’ get much better than those. The Jabberwocky may be the best looking creature in the film. He has a mix of Norse dragon and Chinese dragon with a hint of originality. Nice touch!

The bad…the non Underland parts. I realize that you needed these bookends to set up the story, and that’s fine and dandy, but they were just too long, especially the opening. Honestly, what did it serve to give us the back story of her father? I didn’t understand the reasoning behind this. I wasn’t too crazy with the actress who played Alice, Mia Wasikowska. At one point uring the film, I was telling myself they could have just let Anne Hathaway do it, then she blew me away with her portrayal of the White Queen, but Wasikokwska just didn’t inspire me. She may look like a slightly prettier version of  Tilda Swinton, but she doesn’t have half her talent. Tim Burton films are known for their contrasting of bright, exuberant colors over a slightly dark tone which equals a fun, entertaining film, however, Alice in Wonderland seems…normal. The fantasy and everything that is usually associated with these stories is almost gone and this is almost just a fancy sci-fi flick.

I saw this in 3D and have to say that it was half worth it and half not. I say that because while the effects looked cool, there was nothing that just screamed out to me that this had to be seen in 3D.

What is the final verdict of this film? Well, the hype is a bit much, but it is not unfounded. It is very good and entertaining, though not as good as it could/should be. It is infinitely more entertaining that SyFy crap that aired a few months back, Alice, then again almost anything could accomplish that feat. So, should you see this? I’m not going to say you should spend your last $8 (or however much it is where you live) on this, or that you should shell out the extra couple of bucks for the 3D experience, but it is worth seeing in theaters, but I just don’t think you’ll miss much by waiting for the DVD in a few months. Either way, it still is worth watching.

4 out of 5 stars