If one looks at this version of Alice in Wonderland - a star studded 3 hour mini series or a cut down 2 hour standalone movie - in isolation from Lewis Carroll's book(s), then one must come to the conclusion that it is an excellent piece of work - imaginative, beautifully designed, showcasing some stunning effects work, and populated with very good performances.But it is almost impossible to look at an adaptation of Carroll's work without comparing it to the source material and, notwithstanding the strengths of the adaptation, one's attention is always drawn to the differences. And those differences (which, the makers will surely argue, are there because a literary work cannot be adapted literally for the screen) always - for Alice, always - are for the worse. The additions to the story - poor. The non-Carroll dialogue - poor. The inconsistent visualisation of characters - disconcerting and varying between good and poor.Tina Majorino's Alice is a long way from my personal envisaged Alice, but is nonetheless very good. Her English accent is excellent.

There have been a few movies made of Lewis Carroll's Alices Adventures in Wonderland (1865).This one directed by Nick Willing is a TV movie from 1999.There are some known names in this movie.Tina Majorino does very nice job as Alice.Miranda Richardson is fantastic at The Queen of Hearts with her "Off with the head" routine.Martin Short is brilliant as The Mad Hatter.Whoopi Goldberg is terrific as Cheshire Cat.Ken Dodd is great as Mr. Mouse.Gene Wilder is superb as The Mock Turtle.George Wendt and Robbie Coltrane make a very fine pair as Tweedledee and Tweedledum.Christopher Lloyd is magnificent as The White Knight.Elizabeth Spriggs is marvelous as The Duchess, as is Sheila Hancock as her cook.Ben Kingsley is very good as Major Caterpillar.Peter Ustinov and Pete Postlethwaite are both great as The Walrus and the Carpenter.There are many nice moments in this movie.The most delightful moment must be when Gene Wilder sings "Beautiful Soup".This is great fun for the whole family.

.......after watching this. OMFG it was horrible. I felt like watching a cross between Rocko's modern life and teletubbies. The effects were HORRIBLE the Acting was HORRIBLE and every thing about the movie was just HORRIBLE!!!!!! As we all know the plot is about a stupid god-ugly girl who sees someone who looks a WHOLE LOT like a teletubbie in a rabbit suit. There was the worst effects ever, like a rat turning into a man, a stupid ugly queen who kept saying "off with there heads" every other breath. I couldn't stand the movie, and worst of all, noticed that I OWN it. I found it in my video collection, and this very second as I'm writing this I'm lighting a fire to burn it. Please, do me a great big favor and stick with Disney's masterpiece. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF CRAP!!

When I was 17, even though I was already reading Harrold Robbins, William Burroughs, Iceberg Slim, I also had developed a fascination for the Alice books. Couldn't quite put my finger on it. Course, when I turned 24, I discovered a take on Lewis Carroll that I would have never guessed in a million years, something that justified my re-reading the books with this new knowledge. It was mostly the revelations of his metaphores. The garden Alice was trying to get into, the unexplained growing up and growing down, the idea of the oppressors being "nothing but a pack of cards"...I won't mention what they represent as I am under a restrictive mandate to maintain the secret but it definitely changes the whole picture.This movie followed the book to a certain extent...I'm not crazy about the blending of both stories into one, to tell you the truth. It loses it's thematic thread. That is, one story is essentially about a card game, the other is about a chess game. Who plays chess and poker at the same time? Many of the scenes were surprisingly hilarious. Robbie Coltrane and George Wendt's part as Tweedledee and Tweedledum was a standout. Martin Short literally SHONE in his big courtroom scene. And the scene where Alice comes across the Duchess and her cook for the first time was excellent.However, what was particularly odd was that on the DVD, there were short bios for the main actors...and they said NOTHING about Tina being in Napolean Dynamite, they didn't breathe a WORD about Robbie Coltrane's recurring role in the Harry Potter movies...was this some kind of weird English idiosyncrasy? Then I noticed that this movie was made in 1999, way before those movies I mentioned were ever done. Still, the DVD was made AFTER them, right? You'd think they'd give a backstory.