Alice in Wonderland

Plot

Alice unwillingly prepares a performance of the song "Cherry Ripe" for her parents' garden party; facing stage fright of performing a song she dislikes to an audience of strangers, she hides in the woods. There, she sees the White Rabbit and follows him to a rabbit hole, which leads her to Wonderland. Alice attempts to enter a small door leading to a beautiful garden, but accidentally grows to giant size and floods the room with tears before shrinking to the size of a mouse. She meets Mr. Mouse, whose avian friends attend his boring history lecture and participate in a Caucus Race, which Alice is asked to give out prizes for.

Alice again encounters the White Rabbit, who tells her to retrieve his gloves from his house; there, Alice drinks from a bottle which makes her grow, trapping her inside. The White Rabbit and his gardeners Pat and Bill attempt to remove Alice, but she shrinks to a tiny size. Wandering in long grass, she meets Major Caterpillar, who tells her not to be afraid when performing before transforming into a swarm of butterflies. Alice returns to normal size by eating part of his mushroom and arrives at the manor house of the Duchess, whose Cheshire Cat advises Alice to visit the Mad Hatter and his friend the March Hare.

Alice meets the Hatter and Hare with their friend the Dormouse f

at a tea party, where she is given advice on the fun of performing and how to get around stage fright. The Mad Hatter performs for her as he had previously at a concert of the wicked Queen of Hearts. Alice leaves when the two start to stuff the Dormouse into a teapot and once again finds the small door, this time entering the garden, which turns out to be a labyrinth maze belonging to the Queen of Hearts, who is quick to have people beheaded. The Queen invites Alice to her bizarre game of croquet, where the Cheshire Cat's face appears and is ordered to be beheaded, but Alice's logic stays the order and everyone applauds her.

Alice escapes the croquet game and meets the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, who teach her the Lobster Quadrille dance. Alice then wanders into the illustration in an enormous book, emerging in a wooded area where the Red Knight is battling the White Knight, who encourages her to be brave when she goes home. Alice encounters talking flowers and bickering twins Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who tell her the story of The Walrus and the Carpenter, before card soldiers bring her to the royal court, where the Knave of Hearts is put on trial for apparently stealing the Queen's tarts.

Cast

Tina Majorino as Alice – A British young girl who is nervous and unenthusiastic about performing the song Cherry Ripe at her parents' party in the beginning. After her adventures in Wonderland, she finds the confidence to sing.

Miranda Richardson as Queen of Hearts – A childish queen whose only way of dealing with rage is to shout "Off with their heads!" She sometimes calls in a very high pitch as a persuasive tactic. At the Knave's trial, she hosts a croquet game involving hedgehog balls and flamingo mallets. The trial turned out to be held under unfounded pretenses.

Martin Short as the Mad Hatter – A mad haberdasher whose tea party Alice happens upon. Other party guests are the March Hare and the Dormouse. The Hatter and the March Hare are quite rude to Alice, insulting her several times and shooing her away. Nevertheless, the Mad Hatter performs a bizarre parody of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for Alice. He informs Alice that he once sang the same piece during the Queen's concert but was sent away because she was offended by his performance. The Mad Hatter was also called as a witness to the Knave's trial, where he reprised his performance, further angering the queen and causing her to chase him away as she shouted "off with his head!" Presumably, he and the March Hare escaped decapitation again due to their speed.

Whoopi Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat – A grinning cat who teaches Alice "the rules" of Wonderland. She was also one of the few characters who was nice to Alice. Her favorite pastime is appearing and disappearing.

Simon Russell Beale as The King of Hearts – The foolish husband of the Queen who constantly tries to be like his wife and fawns over her.

Ken Dodd as Mr. Mouse – A very kind, funny and wise mouse who tries to get Alice dry with a very boring lecture. When it fails, the Dodo suggests that they have a caucus race. Mr. Mouse is last seen going home, along with his friends, for a cup of hot chocolate.

Gene Wilder as The Mock Turtle – A weird type of turtle who often cries on remembering his moments at his school in the sea. He sings two songs to Alice: The Lobster Quadrille and Beautiful Soup. His best friend is the Gryphon.

Special effects

The film utilized both puppetry and live-action footage. The puppet designs were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

In all, 875 special digital effects were created for the film. An example is Martin Short's head; it was enlarged to three times its size to resemble the Hatter in Tenniel's illustrations.

In December 2018, composer Richard Hartley was interviewed for Tammy Tuckey's "Rattling the Stars" podcast about his work on the film for the 20th anniversary, providing never-before-heard stories.

In September 2019, director Nick Willing was also interviewed for Tammy Tuckey's Rattling the Stars" podcast about his work directing the film for the 20th anniversary.

In 2019, a behind the scenes documentary of the film was released on YouTube, which had originally been broadcast on the Hallmark Channel (then known as Odyssey Network) in 1999 and had not been included on any VHS, DVD, or digital releases of the film.

In March 2024, castmembers Kiran Shah, Richard Strange, Nigel Plaskitt, Matthew Sim and Francis Wright as well as production designer Roger Hall, reunited to celebrate the film's 25-year anniversary by participating in a 1-hour livestream on YouTube on The Tammy Tuckey Show. The event had been organised ahead of time.

Reception

The original NBC airing averaged a 14.8 household rating and a 22 percent audience share and was watched by 25.34 million viewers, ranking as the 6th highest rated program that week in terms of households and the most watched program that week in terms of total viewers.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 33% based on six critical reviews.

David Zurawik gave the film a positive review in The Baltimore Sun, calling it a "grand and magical production" and praising the cast's performances, particularly Majorino and Wilder. Rating the film 2 out of 5 stars, David Parkinson of Radio Times praised the "wondrous Jim Henson puppetry" and the performances of Richardson and Wilder; however, he found the film "still falls short of the cherished images taken from those first readings of Lewis Carroll's classic tales."