Alice in Wonderland (1985)

In 1985, CBS aired a two-night Alice in Wonderland event that has gone unrivaled it terms of authenticity.  MGM Studios produced this thorough, star-studded, four-hour, musical adaptation of both Alice books.  For today, I'll be covering the first night, which adapted Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (and I'll cover the Looking-Glass adaptation later).

Original Source Breakdown

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter I: Down the Rabbit Hole - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
Alice begins the story inside her house as her mother prepares for the day's events.  She shoos Alice out to go spend time with her sister.  When Alice joins her sister by the river bank, she laments that she is constantly treated like a child.  Once she starts chasing the White Rabbit, the story proceeds as usual.

Chapter II: The Pool of Tears - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
Much of Alice's inner monologue is cut out of this portion.  Also, Alice sees all of the other birds from the next chapter before she encounters the Mouse in the Pool of Tears.

Chapter III: The Caucus-Race and a Long Tale - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
When the crew comes ashore, the Mouse sings a song about how he hates dogs and cats (which is unlike the book, where he never fully explains his hatred of them).  The Caucus-Race begins afterwards, and Alice parts with the creatures before the Mouse's "long tale."

Chapter IV: The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill - MOSTLY INTACT
Once again, the giant Puppy is nowhere to be seen.

Chapter V: Advice from a Caterpillar - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
The Caterpillar sings "You Are Old, Father William" to Alice as they each don the costumes of the father and son from the poem.  The Caterpillar leaves without Alice getting much help from the mushroom.  As a result, the Pigeon scene is also cut again.

Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
The Cheshire Cat does not appear inside the Duchess's house.  He approaches Alice outside and Alice tells him that she just wants to go home.  He is very sympathetic and sings a song about how there is no way home.  This removes much of their classic conversation as a result.

Chapter VII: A Mad Tea Party - INTACT/ALTERED
The scene is kept mostly the same as usual, although the "Twinkle, Twinkle" song has been altered to include al sorts of animals and other verses.  After leaving the party, Alice meets an actual baby fawn in the forest (possibly referencing Looking-Glass) and she sings a song about being surrounded by strangeness.

Chapter VIII: The Queen's Croquet-Ground - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
The Queen of Hearts is given a lot more lines, plus a song about her fondness for cutting off people's heads.

Chapter IX: The Mock Turtle's Story - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
The Duchess's conversation with Alice about morals doesn't get very far and the Gryphon cuts the Mock Turtle's description about lessons short, just like in the 1972 version.  Also, before finding the Gryphon, Alice frees a trapped baby goat and then interacts with a chimpanzee.  I'm not sure why this was added.

Chapter X: The Lobster-Quadrille - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The Mock Turtle sings an entirely new song about appreciating nonsense, instead of any of the songs or poems from this chapter.

Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts? - INTACT
Once again, Alice barely interacts with the jury.

Chapter XII: Alice's Evidence - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
During the trial, Alice reads the evidence that the White Rabbit procures (although she barely reads much of it).  Despite having grown quite large, the card soldiers chase her out of Wonderland when she talks back to the Queen.  When Alice wakes up, she runs home only to find that everyone seems to be missing, setting up the Looking-Glass portion of the story.

Through the Looking-Glass
Chapter I: Looking-Glass House - REFERENCED/ALTERED

Alice finds when she returns home that she is already on the other side of the mirror, as she can see but not communicate with her family on the other side of the glass.  She gives up and sits in a chair and starts to read a nearby book, "Jabberwocky."  She gets about halfway through before becoming scared, and the the Jabberwock itself appears in the room!  TO BE CONTINUED...

Review:

For a lot of people who grew up in the '80s, this is the definitive version of Alice in Wonderland.  It sets out to accomplish a lot and, for a television movie, it has quite a good collection of sets, costumes, and actors.  This one falls into a similar trap as the 1972 version, with humans in animal costumes and a lot of added songs (though a few of the songs were more enjoyable this time around).

During the first half of the movie, I was a bit underwhelmed.  Alice is played by Natalie Gregory, another 10-year-old, who came off as a bit wooden and whiny early on.  It is established from the start that Alice just wants to get home, which becomes annoying to hear for two-hours of runtime.  There is a lot of unnecessary explanations and added dialogue in this version which feels clunky up against the Carrollian text.  I know this film was going for "more stuff" but some times, they could have held back.

I did enjoys some moments towards the latter half however.  Alice with the actual animals (the fawn, the goat, and the chimpanzee) were adorable and sweet, even if they did feel out of place with the story.  Maybe if Alice had been interacting with baby animals throughout, there would have been more rhyme or reason to these additions.

And of all the guest stars, Ringo Starr as the Mock Turtle has probably been my favorite incarnation of the character so far.  He was just the right balance of moody, depressed, and snarky.  I wish he had had more to do, but for now, I'll take the scene and song as is.  And hey, Sammy Davis Jr is back as the Caterpillar this time (though, I think I liked the Hipster Cat better).

Since this is just a "Part One," it does feel a bit incomplete.  Even though the whole first story is told, Alice hasn't seemed to grow much as a character yet, even though we are beaten over the head with the "subtext" of Alice truly growing up during the trial.  I'll probably refresh my review after I see the second part later down the line, but for now, I'll give this one a resounding, "Eh, it's okay."

3.5 out of 5 Baby Animals