| Alice in Wonderland | |
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| Directed by | Nick Willing |
| Produced by | Dyson Lovell |
| Written by | Lewis Carroll (novel) Peter Barnes (screenplay) |
| Starring | Tina Majorino Whoopi Goldberg Ben Kingsley Christopher Lloyd Peter Ustinov Ken Dodd Robbie Coltrane Miranda Richardson George Wendt Gene Wilder Martin Short Liz Smith |
| Music by | Richard Hartley |
| Cinematography | Stefan Lange Giles Nuttgens |
| Editing by | Alex Mackie |
| Distributed by | Hallmark Entertainment |
| Release date(s) |  February 28, 1999 |
| Running time | 129 minutes |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$21,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Alice in Wonderland was a television movie first broadcast in 1999 on NBC based upon Lewis Carroll's books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. 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, Gene Wilder, and Miranda Richardson. The film won four Emmy Awards in the categories of costume design, makeup, music composition, and visual effects.
Synopsis
The film follows the storyline of the book closely, save for adding some scenes from Through the Looking Glass. It also changes the opening "real world" scene from Alice and her sister sitting at a riverbank to Alice in her bedroom, reluctantly practicing the song "Cherry Ripe", which she is expected to perform at a garden party. (The party guests are played by the same actors as the Wonderland characters, and are shown as resembling them in appearance and personality, in a similar manner to the MGM version of The Wizard of Oz. The toys in Alice's room also reflect the residents of Wonderland). Thanks to stage fright, and constant nagging from her confident music teacher, Alice runs out of the house and hides herself in the woods nearby until the party has ended. However, an apple floats down from the tree and seems to hover in Alice's face. She is suddenly distracted by a human-sized White Rabbit (voiced by Richard Coombs) rushing by. Curious, Alice follows the White Rabbit, falling down his rabbit hole and ending up in Wonderland. In the court, the Knave of Hearts is put on trial for apparently stealing the Queen's heart-shaped jam tarts (a reference to a similar poem). Most of the characters Alice has met are present at the trial, including the Duchess, the Mouse and his companions and of course, of the Queen of Hearts and the King. The Mad Hatter, March Hare (voiced by Francis Wright) and the Dormouse are summoned as witnesses. The King accuses the Mad Hatter of stealing someone else's hat. The Queen then recognises the Hatter as the man who interrupted her concert previously with his Twinkle Song, which the Hatter happily sings for the court. The three friends depart when dismissed. Alice must now take the stand to decide the Knave's sentence, but she soon notices that the jam tarts haven't even been touched. She openly insults the Queen, King, the trial and Wonderland all together, revealing she is no longer afraid. The White Rabbit then hints that he purposely led Alice to Wonderland to help her out of her fears and sends her back to her world using the same hovering apple as before. Alice finds herself back in the forest by her house and is found by her mother. Alice is given extra confidence by her tutor. Alice briefly has stage fright again, but then decides to sing Lobster Quadrille instead of Cherry Ripe. The guests, although rather surprised by the song, enjoy her performance and applaud. Alice then notices the Cheshire Cat watching nearby, who smiles at her in term of congratulations.
Cast
- A mouse, played by Ken Dodd
- Major Caterpillar (Sir Ben Kingsley)
- Ahe Duchess (Elizabeth Spriggs)
- Cheshire Cat (Whoopi Goldberg)
- The Mad Hatter (Martin Short)
- The Queen (Miranda Richardson)
- The Gryphon (voiced by Donald Sinden)
- The Mock Turtle (Gene Wilder)
- A White Knight (Christopher Lloyd)
- Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Robbie Coltrane and George Wendt)
- The Walrus and the Carpenter (with Peter Ustinov and Pete Postlethwaite as the titular characters)
