PodBill Just what I expected

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

jarobledo3 This charming musical adaptation of Carroll's text may be my favorite "Alice" film yet. Regarding the music, it is beautiful and enchanting, and almost hypnotic in tone, drawing us in to a fantasy realm of wonder and chaos. The songs in here astound: alongside most of the poems from Carroll's text ("You Are Old, Father William" and "Tis' the Voice of the Lobster" do not appear, and a few poems, such as "Turtle Soup," are not done in song, but still appear), there are several songs simply taken from lines in the book ("The Duchess is Waiting," "Curiouser and Curiouser," "Off With Their Heads," etc.), and the songs that are original numbers ("The Pun Song" is my favorite) do not get in the way at all. There is a collective, musical whole.The characters are also well defined: most, if not all, of the portrayals of the characters in this film can be found somewhere on my favorites list. Fiona Fullerton is my second favorite Alice (a scant percentage below Amelia Shankley/Coral Browne from "Dreamchild"), the only thing dragging her down from first place being her age: she is close to twice as old as both the Alice in the stories and the real Alice Liddell, both of whom she plays in this film. That being said, once she starts talking, and later singing (I understand her singing was dubbed, but I couldn't care less), this fact barely intrudes. She SOUNDS like Alice, she LOOKS like Alice, and she is, overall, nearly perfect as this childhood icon. Michael Crawford is equally fantastic as the White Rabbit...it's hard to believe he would later play Erik, the titular character of "Phantom of the Opera," when he starts talking and speaking. His performance as the Rabbit is just as great as this legendary role, and I'm surprised he doesn't get more credit for it. Sir Robert Helpmann, who disturbed generations of adults and children as the malevolent Child Catcher from "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang," plays another top-hatted, beak-nosed character here: the Mad Hatter, and he is excellent at this role. Dudley Moore's Dormouse is almost unintelligible, but he adds a depth and likability to this often overlooked character, and Peter Sellers, a.k.a. Inspector Clouseau from "The Pink Panther," is wonderful as the March Hare. Flora Robson's Queen of Hearts seems to come straight out of this Carrollian's nightmares: she is the epitome of Carroll's tyrannical, foul villainess, and, having quite a bit of experience as queens and villains prior to this film, it's no surprise she plays literature's greatest evil queen so perfectly. Peter Bull and Patsy Rowlands as the Duchess and the Cook are brilliant, and Davy Kaye steals the Caucus-Race Limelight as the Mouse with the Long, Sad Tail.Part of what helps these actors is the costumes: these outfits make them look almost unrecognizable, in many cases. This is both a good and a bad thing: it's good for us, as the viewers, because, unlike in many other all-star cast "Alice" films, the big-wig names and faces don't distract us, allowing us to see the characters: so, for example, instead of saying, "Oh, look! It's Spike Milligan as the Gryphon!" we say, "Oh, look! That's an interesting Gryphon! Wonder who plays him...Spike Milligan? Cool!" (It's a bad thing for the performers, because I imagine those costumes couldn't have been particularly comfortable.) And lest we forget them, the sets are magnificent: while faded, thanks to the number of bad quality DVD prints existing, they still manage to be colorful and magical. This Wonderland carries a "Willy Wonka" feel to it, creating a storybook quality in every scene.My only real gripes are these: first, and already mentioned, is Fiona Fullerton's age. Second, the editing: this film is extremely accurate, and, yet, it isn't: most of Carroll's text and dialogue is kept, either via song or actual spoken dialogue, but two scenes are cut out: first is the infamous Giant Puppy scene, which rarely makes it into "Alice" films in the first place, and is, thus, somewhat excusable. But there is no reason to skip what might be one of the most key points of Carroll's story: "We're All Mad Here." While the Cheshire Cat does appear (played by Roy Kinnear), his conversation with Alice, involving this oh-so-famous line, is omitted. It was filmed, but never included in the final print. Why? It's arguably the most important point in the entire first book! It's also, in my opinion, one of the best parts, and is present in almost every other "straight-out" adaptation of the story I can think of, aside from the Czech film by Jan Svankmajer. This just pushes my buttons...particularly since this film includes Tweedledee and Tweedledum from "Through the Looking-Glass." Fred and Frank Cox are terrific as the Tweedles, but couldn't we have just stuck with the first book, especially given the "real world" premise? (Another problem, especially since I've read the original manuscript...but I digress.) Sigh...all that ranting aside, this is an excellent adaptation of the "Alice" tales. No real restoration of this film has been made yet, despite its being released on VHS and DVD several times. I sincerely hope such a restoration is done in the near future...this lovely film, despite its few flaws, deserves it!

dwpollar 1st watched 2/10/2010 - 4 out of 10(Dir-William Sterling): Fair musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's book about the young girl mentioned in the title and her adventures. This version is a British live production with a few notable British comedians covered in makeup and costumes so you hardly recognize them(especially Dudley Moore but also including Peter Sellers). There a few songs mostly sung by the lead played by Fiona Fullerton and done well for the most part. The downfall of this version, in my opinion, is the amateurish sets and the costumes are similar to a Saturday morning kids show. The songs are fine but nothing very memorable and we really don't get a feeling that Alice has learned anything when it's all over(I guess I'm not sure if this was the author's intention but we see this in the Disney version). Anyway, the movie just doesn't keep us that interested and it's just OK viewing. It would be interesting to read the book now that I've seen a couple versions filmed to see what was included or dumped in each one. This version is viewable but not much else as I've already said, but I was glad I watched it.

Jackson Booth-Millard Even the Disney animated version isn't as cheesy, lame or frankly ridiculous as this live action remake, based on the Lewis Carroll tale. You know the basic story, Alice (A View to a Kill's Fiona Fullerton) falls asleep, and dreams chasing the White Rabbit (Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em's Michael Crawford) into the bizarre (more son in this version) world of Wonderland, meeting a variety of weird and "wonderful" characters, such as the Dormouse (Dudley Moore), The Caterpillar (Sir Ralph Richardson), Tweedledee (Frank Cox) and Tweedledum (Freddie Cox), the Cheshire Cat (Roy Kinnear), the Mock Turtle (Michael Hordern), the Mad Hatter (Robert Helpmann) and March Hare (Peter Sellers), the Gryphon (Spike Milligan), and Queen (Flora Robson) and King (Dennis Price) of Hearts. I don't know if it is the film itself that is ridiculous, or the fact that so many well known TV and film stars are making complete idiots of themselves, and as for the songs, they don't help, oh, Fullerton talks to herself too much. It won the BAFTAs for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design, both wrong choices. It was number 63 on The 100 Greatest Family Films. Pretty poor!

didi-5 This adaptation of Lewis Carroll's weird and wonderful book tries hard to do justice to its source, but doesn't quite get there. The music by John Barry is saccharine and unmemorable for the most part; although things do pick up when the Mock Turtle and Gryphon (Michael Hordern and Spike Milligan, inspired casting!) lead Alice in a mad dance.Young Fiona Fullerton looks the part and sings well - she'd go on to front a number of musicals - but the other characters just stop on the wrong side of odd and scary, making them not frightening in the least. The White Rabbit (Michael Crawford) dashes around, the Mad Hatter, March Hare, and Dormouse have their odd tea party (Robert Helpmann, Peter Sellers, and Dudley Moore in another highlight of the film), the Duchess's baby turns into a pig (the Duchess is played by Peter Bull, who turned in a number of grotesque female roles in cinema), and the Queen of Hearts orders everyone's heads off (a waste of Flora Robson's talents). The film needed a bit of imagination to take off (for another interpretation of the creatures, see the 1980s film 'Dreamchild', with horrific creations from Jim Henson's workshop); as it is, it passes the time but has little fizz.