Alice Through the Looking Glass (1999)

A delicious combination of live-action, animation, and special effects tells the fantastical adventures of Alice as she returns to Wonderland, in this imaginative adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic story of the same name. Kate Beckinsale plays Alice, a young girl who steps through a magical mirror and is transported from the real world into an enchanted one of talking insects, nonsensical questions, and reversals of logic. Her journey is marked by mostly incomprehensible encounters with quirky characters such as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Red Queen and White Queen, and Humpty Dumpty. Beckinsale's Alice is a believable blend of curiosity, poise, and impertinence whose presence in nearly every scene carries the film. Other strong performances include Desmond Barritt, as Humpty, who recites a chilling rendition of "Beware the Jabberwocky," and Ian Holm (The Lord of the Rings), as White Knight, with a soliloquy as colorful as his hair. If, as Carroll states at the end of his tale, "all life is but a dream," this wacky version is one to remember. (Ages 10 and older) --Lynn Gibson Amazon.com

Beyond Comprehension!

Why was this made? This has no audience: too hard for children to understand and no saving grace for adults who love this classic story!
NOT WORTH EVEN ONE STAR!!!! May 14, 2008

Some people here didn't get it...I did..

I saw this movie on tv and thought wow, I love the imagery in it and of course the sheer genius of the world play in it..so I bought the DVD. Some people may get bored with it..but I personally love this movie. Some say "It's to weird." Who cares I found it entertaining and Kate Beckinsale did an amazing job. The acting is great and I do recommend it. Kids...well..they may get bored with it cause they may not understand it. All in all..I loved it. March 29, 2008

Ok movie

This movie was an interesting rendition of Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Can't say it's one that I'm going to watch again. A bit long winded in my opinion. October 31, 2007

The Only Alice Movie that Really Gets It

No, this is not 100% true to the book. Obviously not, since it starts in the present and stars an adult Alice. But it is one of the few Alices that keeps to the events of the one book, instead of blending both, and it is the only one I have seen to successfully convey the absurdism, the surrealism, the silliness, and the disturbing qualities--as well as the occasional touching moments. The movie is worth seeing if only for Ian Holm's beautifully melancholy rendition of "A-Sitting on a Gate" (or whatever the song is called!). Yes, the filmmakers clearly spent all their money on their cast, and not much on sets and special effects, but they supply in imagination what they lack in budget. April 20, 2007

A Bit Rushed at the Beginning

This is quite an interesting version of Through the Looking Glass because its screenplay uses little else than direct book quotation. Of course, I can only imagine how challenging pulling off such a feat can be, since Carroll had SO much stuff to say. How to cram it all in? Well, you can try going very, very fast. And that's exactly what this movie does for the first 40 minutes or so. I mean it blazes from one chapter to the next, and as a result the characters seem a bit under-established and it's tough for the viewer to know what the heck is going on. However, the last half of the movie slows down quite a bit to an appropriate pace, and is quite enjoyable, at least to anyone who's read the book.

Another thing to consider in attempting to translate a Carroll book to film is carrying out the dialogue successfully without making the film seem too talky. Speeding through lines DOES make the time spent on talking shorter, but I don't know if that's such a good idea. I mean, speeding through the Walrus and the Carpenter poem completely ruined it for me. It sounded mumbled and I couldn't even hear most of it since some rather loud background music was playing during the entire scene.

The excessive amount of incredibly witty dialogue doesn't work near as well on the screen as it does in print, but I wouldn't say this film is bad, or even average. Heck, I was very pleased to see that it contained the Wasp in a Wig chapter, and the train scene is incredibly spooky, moreso than it is in the book. There's no denying that this movie does a very good job with the spooky stuff, and the white queen running in super-fast motion darn sure creeped me out. You know, odd as it is, I never felt creeped out reading a Carroll book. I always found his works to be darn funny and thought-provoking (the good kind of provoking) at the same time. What fond memories of the book this Through the Looking Glass DVD brought back to me! February 4, 2007

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