Special effects are lacking as most are done with stylized "pop-up book" sets edited into a green screen. But, this allows more of the subtle dreamlike moments in the book to be represented visually.
Original Source Breakdown
Through the Looking-Glass
Chapter I: Looking-Glass House - MOSTLY INTACT
Alice begins in the drawing room with her kittens (although Dinah is not present) and travels through the Looking-Glass. She does not read "Jabberwocky" in full as that scene is reserved for later when Humpty Dumpty can explain it (which is an edit that makes sense).
Chapter II: The Garden of Live Flowers - INTACT
Even the ever changing path that keeps sending Alice back into the house is kept. A few lines between her and the Queen are dropped, but that's true of most scenes in this film.
Chapter III: Looking-Glass Insects - MOSTLY INTACT
Alice suddenly finds herself on the train without the transition of seeing the Elephant-Bees before jumping over the brook. Her train outfit and the chorus of voices are included (they even think in unison). There is no mention of the Forest of No Names with the Gnat, and so she goes directly to the Tweedles house after her conversation with him.
Chapter IV: Tweedledum and Tweedledee - INTACT
Chapter V: Wool and Water - MOSTLY INTACT
The White Queen doesn't go into much detail about being able to remember the future and so we don't hear about the Messenger's imprisonment. And Alice's boat ride with the Sheep is a little shorter than it is in the book, as she doesn't try to grab the dream-rushes from the water.
Chapter VI: Humpty Dumpty - INTACT
"Jabberwocky" is presented in full during the conversation with Dumpty. The whole conversation is kept intact (even the unbirthday math) save for Dumpty's argument about all faces looking alike as he bids Alice farewell.
Chapter VII: The Lion and the Unicorn - INTACT
They remembered to have the Hare and Hatter as the Anglo-Saxon Messengers this time!
Chapter VIII: "It's My Own Invention" - MOSTLY INTACT
The Red Knight does not appear at all, and instead the White Knight attempts to make Alice his prisoner until she corrects him, saying they're on the same side. Everything else is intact, including the Aged Man story.
Chapter IX: Queen Alice - INTACT
The guests at the feast sing Alice's welcome song in full while she is still outside the door rather than until she comes inside, which works because in the book, it states that she hears them singing before she enters, even though they repeat it once she enters.
Chapters X, XI, XII: Shaking, Waking, Which Dreamed It? - MOSTLY INTACT/ALTERED
Alice does shake the Red Queen into her kitten as she wakes up. After rushing through which kitten played which chess piece in her dream, Alice holds up the Red King's piece to the mirror and asks it who was really dreaming. Her reflection responds that it was Alice, of course, and runs off. Alice tries one more time to pass through the mirror, but to no avail. Oh well.
Review:
Just as with the BBC's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland miniseries, I was placed to find a version of the story that was so close to the book. And I believe that this adaptation did a much better job at retaining Carroll's voice and humor throughout the story.
There are many little directorial choices throughout that pleased me because they were moments I hadn't really considered having to adapt into film. While the green screen effect was cheesy for a lot of it, it really helped to visualize how the garden scene would have appeared. The Aged Man poem was a particularly strong moment as it depicted the Aged Man as trying to get money out of the White Knight but he's too oblivious to his begging, which was not an interpretation of the character I pictured when I read the book. During the feast, a lot of film and stage versions like to populate it with all of the characters that Alice met previously in her travels (even though the book just specifies assorted creatures), but this was the first one I saw where the Red King also appeared and he is still sleeping in his soup. These little parts helped bring this version alive for me.
While I wasn't particularly impressed with a young Sarah Sutton as Alice (she rarely seemed to imbue her words with much feeling, especially during monologues), I found the rest of the cast to be filled with great hidden performances. Freddie Jones was perfect as Humpty Dumpty, as he captured the character's arrogant attitude in a way no others had before. These Tweedles, while not my favorite incarnations of the characters, had this mischievous little laugh added in that made them feel very much like teasing schoolchildren with everything they said. I had never considered them to be malevolent characters before, but the dynamic worked. And the Jabberwock was a giant puppet (or a regular-sized one filmed close up) meaning that there had to be some interesting choreography for the Boy to fight him with.
Most of all, I loved Brenda Bruce as the White Queen. While other versions depict her as over-the-top loony or rude, Bruce played her as very sympathetic, flustered, and helpless, as if living backwards really had altered her mindset. She would take these pauses as if her words were always escaping her and even her "meaner" moments towards Alice were played as if she was just innocently trying to say the right thing, matter-of-factly. During the Queens' examination, when she says that she'll need to repeat her ABCs with Alice often to help her remember, it seemed like a child looking forwards to hanging out with a new friend. She found the humor and charm in nearly every line.
While the 1986 BBC Wonderland often felt like it was just going through the motions, this Looking-Glass feels as if it's inhabited by actors and creators who wanted to produce the best, authentic version of the story that they could with the small budget they had. While it's not flawless and it is uneven and strange looking with muted colors, it made me feel as if the book had come to life.
4 out of 5 Jabberwock Marionettes
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