Alice au pays des merveilles

The first thing that must be said is that this is not the original Alice in Wonderland. Honestly, anybody who thinks it is... They said it in the very first commercials that this was "different" so from the get go you shouldn't expect Carrol's book.

This is a completely different take on Wonderland and Looking Glass - and it's good! It presents us with a headstrong and kind of reckless Alice who is capable of taking care of herself. And Hatter is just awesome, he really is. The Queen makes me want to punchasize her face (which is a good thing, it means Bates played her role well) and the White Knight... Ah, what can I say about the White Knight besides, "Most awesome old guy ever?" Some people have complained about the CGI but honestly... I expected it from Sci-fi (or Syfy, whatever). But that doesn't stop this from being a good miniseries. It was well acted, well written, and fun! I must reiterate: This wasn't meant to be the children's story, it was meant to be a different take on the story and aim it towards a different audience! A good miniseries and well worth watching if you can accept that this really is "a different kind of Alice."

I don't understand all the harsh negativity heaped on this series by previous posts. As long as you aren't expecting "The Greatest Movie Ever" you should come away fairly pleased. I for one found the series fun and fresh. Some good ideas mixed with decent acting. In particular the role of Hatter was very well played. Matt Frewer(Trashcan Man for those who watched The Stand in 1994) puts in a rather delightful performance. Alice was pretty without being cliché and embodied a more realistic and modern woman. The special effects were better than your average SyFy Channel fare. I see no reason not to take a journey down this Rabbit's Hole.

So two re-imagingings of Alice in Wonderland were released this year. One was from an iconic Hollywood director, the other a smaller production special on the ScyFy network. Guess which one was better? I didn't like Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, at all. My opinion is if your going to do a remake, bring something to it, don't tread the trodden ground. His version played it safe. And actually diluted the experience, by a lot. This Alice had an interesting twist on it and although it falters in some key areas, overall it had more than enough charm for me to appreciate the retelling. I liked noticing the characters from the book, and acknowledging the little nods to the original story. The woman who played Alice was infinitely more interesting to me, and I enjoyed the dynamic between the Hatter and Alice. I was surprised at the special effects and thought they were rather good for what the movie was. I also felt the casting was elevated with Kathy Bate's role as the Red Queen. She made me laugh in more than one scene and I thought she did a splendid job. My complaints are a few. While the script can have clever moments, it also falls into generic dialogue. When a director realizes what an opportunity he has with writing scenes in wonderland, and utilizes it properly, I will praise him with countless accolades. As it is, this really has not heightened scripting to any level. The other complaint was the pacing. Towards the final act, it felt very uneven, jumping from action to exposition. It just felt very rough. At the end of the day I gave it a six and unlike the other Alice in Wonderland, I would watch this one, most assuredly, again.

I originally scheduled the film after seeing a (mostly) negative review of it on Slate, but as I am very familiar with the original works, I found that I really loved it. I wrote a review on TV.com after seeing the 1st half and now saw the rest. I DID scramble the 2 books together, but used them both creatively, and unlike some commentators, I believe that the fact that Alice had grown up, while the hatter and others were frozen in time was entirely in keeping with a "Wonderland". The Sci-fi aspects were also completely in keeping with the spirit of the work. I am not a great fan of "action films" but I think this would appeal to them. I have never read any Harry Potter, but I saw one with my grandkids and I think this would be no more frightening to children than those. All in all, I just emailed many friends and relatives to try to catch it on the next whole broadcast (until???) this coming Sunday at 6PM.

TV movies are usually...well, TV movies. But I was quite impressed with the SyFi's original production of Alice. I caught this the last two nights and became quite engrossed with it, just as I had been with last year's twisted-tale production of OZ.

Sure, the story has its flaws (exactly how did Hatter get the boat back? Of course she hid the ring!), but the sucking out of human emotions was quite a novel SyFi twist on this old tale, and I have to say it's one that I enjoyed. Forgive the flaws and enjoy the ride.

I must admit I kept staring at Hatter and trying to place him. Andrew Lee Potts does a great job with his character and shows a fine comedic as well as a wonderfully sensitive side, and I couldn't take my eyes off him in scene after scene. I hope to see more from this Brit actor in the future!