Alice in Wonderland: What's the Matter with Hatter? (2007)

A small subsidiary of Sony Pictures known as BKN International produced a handful of computer-animated specials based on public domain properties.  Spearheaded by animator Ric Machin, the producers churned out a 47 min adaptation of Alice in Wonderland.  The story is very simplified and altered, clearly intended for an elementary school audience.  Alice speaks more like a 21st-century American kid than an upper-class Victorian child, and the whole cartoon has a very modern feel.

This cartoon reminded me of those cheap knock-off Disney clones that are intended to trick unsuspecting customers into purchasing inferior quality merchandise.  And it especially reminded me of religious cartoons with very simple, non-threatening morals and vanilla humor.  I'm not saying that was the intention or the case here...but I kept expecting the characters to start singing their praises to the glory of God at any moment.

Original Source Breakdown

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter I: Down the Rabbit Hole - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
Alice gets bored by the riverbank with her sister and her pet dog Jabberwock.  Her dog chases the White Rabbit down the hole and Alice follows, falling down a long ways.  The Cheshire Cat appears at this point, introducing her to Wonderland and they both end up in a room with many doors.  As in the Disney film, one of the Doorknobs helps talk her through this new process of growing and shrinking.  This time, however, it is accomplished by a magic double-sided hand mirror.

Chapter II: The Pool of Tears - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
Alice gets upset at becoming stuck and cries, filling up the entire room with water.  Amazingly, she doesn't drown, but she manages to open up another door that dumps her out into a nearby river.

Chapter VI: Pig and Pepper - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The Cheshire Cat pops in and out of the story at various moments.  Also, when Alice arrives at the Pink Palace, the Duchess is inside, complaining that the White Rabbit has been arrested and is awaiting trial.

Chapter VII: A Mad Tea Party - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED

The Hatter appears after Alice is flushed out into the river and takes it upon himself to help Alice find her dog.  He appears as a kid about Alice's age, and is not mad at all (though he supposedly makes others mad).  He occasionally produces tea items from underneath his hat.  The Dormouse also appears, though he takes the place of the hedgehogs in the croquet game.

Chapter VIII: The Queen's Croquet-Ground - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The Queen holds her croquet game which is played as it is in the book until Alice and the Hatter crash the party.

Chapter XI: Who Stole the Tarts? - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The White Rabbit is put on trial for stealing one of the Queen's tarts.  The King appears as the judge and takes great joy in abusing his power.  The Hatter opts to be the White Rabbit's defendant during the trial.

Chapter XII: Alice's Evidence - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
It is revealed that Alice's dog was the real culprit behind the missing tart.  Alice, fed up with the unfair trail, uses the mirror to grow large and destroys the courtroom, as well as the entire house of cards, which all fall around her.  She wakes up and tells her sister a bit about her dream.

Through the Looking-Glass
Chapter I: Looking-Glass House - MINOR REFERENCES
The dog is named Jabberwock and Alice uses the Looking-Glass to change sizes, but she doesn't travel through it.

Chapter II: The Garden of Live Flowers - MOSTLY REMOVED/ALTERED
The flowers are the first to greet Alice after she escapes the Pool of Tears.  They introduce her to the Hatter and everyone sings a song.

Chapter IV: Tweedledum and Tweedledee - MAJOR REFERENCE
Dee and Dum appear as helpers for the Duchess.  They are quite dumb and repeat each other often.

Chapter VII: The Lion and the Unicorn - MAJOR REFERENCE?
In a scene that is not present in the story, the Hatter and Alice don wings to cut through the clouds of the Sky Kingdom which is ruled by the nice Sky King.  I assume this is loosely based on the White King whose messenger is the Hatter in the book, but nothing else that happens comes from the story.

Review:

Well, I was bound to hit some of the pointless adaptations sooner or later.  Many low-budget production companies like to use public-domain stories to churn out a quick buck or two without having to put a considerable amount of effort forward.  This 2007 cartoon definitely had some sort of...vision behind it, as there are choices and differences made, however bizarre they might be, and it isn't entirely misguided, but this was the first time during this exercise that I found myself wondering why they even bothered making this at all.

There is a lot of new material and modern aesthetics that make it feel as if it is marketed to today's children, but I couldn't find anything particularly charming about it.  And the added songs aren't anything to write home about.  The most confusing aspect of this special was its title.  There was nothing the matter with Hatter.  This young Hatter just seems like a generic teenage boy without any noteworthy qualities.  Why bother taking the most interesting character in the book and making him the least interesting?  Was the title some sort of meta-commentary on the cartoon itself that the Hatter was so bland?

There are some interesting choices made here and there.  The whole trip through the Cloud Kingdom was interesting, as it allowed for some new puns and the design of the King was amusing.  He's a bear with an upside-down stool on his head for a crown.  And Alice destroying the courtroom was something I hadn't seen yet in any adaptation.

This version borrows heavily from cartoons tat came before it.  Obviously Disney, with the appearance of Alice's outfit and the Talking Doorknob (which is NOT a public domain character, so Disney could do something about that).  The hipstery Cheshire Cat and the search for a missing dog where very reminiscent of the 1966 Hanna-Barbera cartoon as well.

Overall, this was the first adaptation that I felt I did not gain anything new from.  It's competently made, for the most part and the voice actors really seem to be giving it their all.  But this provided nothing noteworthy.  Well, except for creepy, low-budget CGI.  It all reminded me of the fake Tim & Eric CGI character Grum that mocks cartoons like this one.  That Cheshire Cat's grin was unintentionally frightening to behold.  I just want to put this one behind me.

0.5 out of 5 CGI Abomonations