Alice Through the Looking Glass (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

A missed opportunity that could probably never be taken.

[alice liddell · 5/10 · 26 January 2000]

Without infringing on the IMDb guidelines, can I just suggest that this film is a disappointing visualisation of the greatest book ever written? Lewis Carroll's masterpiece is too mercurial to depict - taken out of its literary context, its ideas, incidents and characters simply don't make sense. Its humour and traumas are literary and philosophical. The filmmakers fail to adapt forms, instead relying on swathes of dialogue.

Different film styles are used to try and disrupt normality, a la Carroll, but the incoherent script, uncertain acting and muffled diction only grate. There is no sense of narrative momentum (even if only to be subverted), and targets are missed because it is unclear what they are. Changing the book's view from that of a child to a woman renders the whole exercise redundant. Graver still is the unwillingness to trust the audience - the dream/reality ambiguity, crucial to the book's meaning, is too clearcut. The colours and set design can be extremely beautiful though.

interesting

[moviefan2003va · 6/10 · 23 January 2005]

This is apparently a made for TV movie that was broadcast on British TV in the late 1990's. It is just now being sold on DVD in the US. It is interesting for fans of Kate Beckinsale to see some of her work before she became a household name in the US. The dialogue between the characters and the set design and costumes are the strengths here. A blond Beckinsale, who appears to have been in the early stages of her real life pregnancy, makes an inquisitive Alice as she meets more and more interesting characters. Beckinsale conveys the impudence and innocence of her character well. The movie is further enhanced by a top notch British supporting cast.

Wasp in a Wig

[Cineanalyst · 4/10 · 11 August 2020]

This is the only adaptation that I've seen of Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" to include "The Wasp in a Wig" chapter, which Carroll, on John Tenniel's suggestion, excised from the book. So, there's that. I also like the rabbit ears sculpted in the garden, seen in the background as Alice leaves it, as if leaving behind Carroll's first Alice book, on her adventures in Wonderland. Otherwise, it's of the sort of poor quality one might expect from a TV movie. The colors are garish. The visual effects are lousy and mostly unnecessary (e.g. the reoccurring portal). The Tweedles episode, unfortunately, plays like a choppy music video.

On the other hand, it does mostly stick to Carroll's words and without much mixing of the two Alice books (besides quoting the first one at the end), unlike other screen adaptations. Having actors pretending to be insects and flowers or Kate Beckinsale to be a child in an adult's body within the dream isn't as distracting as one might fear. Furthermore, there's a hint here of parodying or imitating other motion-picture styles that's akin to Carroll's literary treatment of nursery rhymes. There's the aforementioned Tweedles music video, which also includes some sort of brief animation or model work, and there's the White Knight's tale told in black and white and in the style of part silent slapstick and creaky early talkie. I could envision a good adaptation being made by expanding upon that notion of mocking various film styles. This isn't it, though.

Kate Beckinsale makes it worth seeing

[tvce · 11 November 2001]

I only had a passing familiarity with the works of Lewis Carroll, (I had a children's book of Alice in Wonderland and gave a reading of Jabberwocky for my tenth grade English class) so I couldn't comment very authoritatively on the literary significance of this movie. I can say I thought some of the readings were very good...Humpty-Dumpty and the White Knight for instance. But I especially liked Kate Beckinsale's performance. She is very beautiful and talented, and by herself would make the picture worth watching.

Embarrassingly bad. Really.

[rch427 · 3/10 · 3 September 2009]

One might think that with a stellar cast (Sian Phillips, Ian Richardson, et al) and such rich source material, "Alice Through the Looking Glass" would do justice to the beloved book. Alas, it is far from the case here.

Kate Beckinsale is one of the films biggest liabilities. News to any producer or director of any future version of either of Carroll's two "Alice" books: the "Alice" in the stories is between 7-1/2 and 9 years of age; NOT in her 20s! The story is absolutely absurd with an "Alice" that old. The internal logic of both stories depend entirely upon Alice being mystified by the world of adults. How can this work when SHE HERSELF is an adult?! It just makes her look like an adult with the mind of a child.

Problem #2: the production values are laughably amateurish, and not in a charming, inventive "Doctor Who" way. The "special effects", such as they are, are the sort that come as handy plug-ins in Adobe Premiere; "liquid mirror", "tunnel vision", and the like. Also, green-screening abounds, in its crudest form. Editing is likewise god-awful, with harsh cuts, bad segues, lost continuity, etc.

Problem #3: the music. It really does sound as if the director got his hands on a CD of "Generic Library Music for Fairy Tales", and simply plugged the background music in, and as often as possible. There is none of the creative scoring of great earlier versions of "Alice..." Problem #4: the pacing is glacial. Carroll's wordplay should delight the ears and enliven the plot. Nothing could be further from the truth here. It is a stultifyingly boring production, with long passages of nothing worth paying attention to. There are, thankfully, two recitations that are *almost* magical (by the "Wasp" and the "White Knight"), but those rely more upon those actors' verbal skills than on the images they accompany, which are a potpourri of low-tech gimmicks (stop-motion animation, grain effects, etc.)

Surely, someone out there could make a worthwhile version of "Alice Through the Looking Glass". Great cast (well, most of them) notwithstanding, his one is about as far from it as could be imagined. Carroll fans should give it a wide berth.

So so so so so so so bad

[BradLacey · 2/10 · 15 February 2006]

Are there redeeming features here? Because I can't find them. This film is horrible on just so many levels.

The set design is shoddy to the point that it looks like a high school performance for the most part (despite the assembly of a great cast of English character actors - Ian Holm, Steve Coogan, Kate Beckinsale as Alice - we know where the money went then).

The cinematography is awful, constantly leaving the viewer second guessing the possible motivation for the camera changes - Blair Witch style hand-held becomes a staple for some reason, but why? Are we meant to be scared? I mean, hey, I was...but not for the right reasons.

The script is not so bad, but then how could it fail, coming from such a magnificent text to begin with. Rather, the problem is the pacing and lack of action - how often do we need to sit, bored and restless, as the actors and camera sit statically in front of us, reading slab after slab of text? This is supposed to be a film, a dynamic movement - for the love of God give me some movement.

There is just so much bad to be said about this film that it's not worth going on. Oh, in case you haven't quite figured it out yet, don't see this film. Go rent the Disney animated version of the original Alice instead, or, better yet - read the book.

Worst movie ever

[Oaksox2 · 1/10 · 20 March 2005]

We have been watching the movie for an hour, and right now we are contemplating suicide... we also rented a ratty horror movie about school girls using chainsaws, and we can't freaking wait to put that on. This was the worst experience of my life, and we are fast-forwarding it to the end... send me four dollars instead of renting this. Do I seriously need 10 lines of text to post?? There is nothing else to say about the worst experience of my life... if you want to see Alice Through the Looking Glass, rent the 1985 version, it is actually good and scary... Kate Beckinsale, what are you doing with your life?? I want to make your babies...

best film version I've seen

[Abadeo · 7/10 · 15 June 2001]

This is the best film version of the Lewis Carroll story that I've seen. Other versions usually employ comedians as actors and their performances are always way over-the-top. This version is really amusing because the dialogs are so deadpan serious. Sort of Pythonesque. I think that is how Lewis Carroll intended it to be done; that is how I read the books. I love the dialog between Alice (Kate Beckinsale) and the White Knight (Ian Holm). They are both so intense and sincere about discussing such very silly topics and that is what makes it so amusing. Kate's reactions to many of the inane things that happen is so subdued. It's perfect.

Worst movie I have ever seen

[LincyTy · 1/10 · 28 January 2014]

This sounds cruel but this movie is by far the worst movie I have ever seen. It was a hell to get through the whole movie. Multiple times we wanted to switch it of, but for a strange reason we kept watching till the end. Not that the movie got any better at all...

It might be because I have never read the book, but I found the story quite confusing. I didn't understand why Alice is played by Kate Beckingsale. If I'm correct I thought Alice was still a child... maybe I didn't pay enough attention because it was hard to keep watching it.

Never ever am I going to see this movie again!! So if I were you take another movie, you won't regret that choice.

A very valiant effort of adapting a difficult book, while flawed it mostly succeeds

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 24 October 2013]

Both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are classics, rich in atmosphere and with colourful characters. Admittedly they are episodic but in a way that is part of the books' charm. Both are also difficult to adapt because of the structure, the atmosphere and Carroll's way of words, especially Through the Looking Glass where the structure is even more nonsensical and the characters even kookier. This adaptation is a valiant effort and it is on the most part the most faithful adaptation of Through the Looking Glass, whether it is the best is up for debate, I remember liking the 1973 BBC adaptation more but that may change on re-watch.

This version is far from perfect, the ending is abrupt, Kate Beckinsale's hair did look too modern and the Walrus and the Carpenter scene felt very badly rushed through, the production values in this scene did look on the amateurish side. While the Wasp with the Wig segment was interesting and well done the adaptation may have made more sense with the Lion and the Unicorn scene intact- it felt like it was meant to be there in the first place but edited out- and the White Knight scene really could have done without the black and white footage which added nothing to the scene. Some of the adaptation especially at the end felt rushed, if they had slowed things down those who had trouble following the story may have understood it a little more. The adaptation does look decent though, very TV-movie-bound, but it is colourful and attractive enough once you get used to Alice's constant clothes changes and Tweedledum and Tweedledee made up to look like characters from A Clockwork Orange.

The photography is nicely done and flows decently into each frame and scene. The music is laden with whimsy, a sense of wonder and subtle edge, very like a fantasy adventure score should sound. The script is very true to Carroll's humour and how he wrote, the sing-song-like poetry and oddball nature are most endearing too. A-Sitting on the Gate stood out in this respect. The story maintains the episodic feel that the book has and also the wonderful weirdness(in a couple of scenes a little too weird admittedly) and whimsical charm. In terms of individual scenes, the melancholic White Knight scene and the really genuinely spooky train sequence stood out. The flower garden scene was colourful also, and the White Queen and Red Queen encounters are nicely done. The jabberwocky is much scarier in the Natalie Gregory adaptation(which I also preferred over this despite some of the songs and casting not quite being there), but it still makes the same impact here. The cast are fine.

Kate Beckinsale is too old- Kate Burton was also too old, around the same age, in the excellent theatre production from 1983 and she actually still worked- but there is still the winsomeness, assertiveness, sense of confusion and simple charm that you'd expect Alice to have. Ian Richardson, Marc Warren and Steve Coogan also give nice contributions, but the standouts were Sian Phillips' menacingly imposing Red Queen, Penelope Wilton as a riotuous White Queen(though much more subtle than the hilariously batty Carol Channing in the Natalie Gregory adaptation) and especially the touching White Knight- the only sympathetic character on Alice's adventures- of Ian Holm. In conclusion, a good if flawed version(though if people dislike it it is easy to see why), Through the Looking Glass is a very difficult book to adapt and this does valiantly with it. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Not kid friendly

[creepymagick · 2/10 · 17 April 2022]

There are flowers wearing lingerie in the first half of the movie, had to turn it off. A bit slow for the kids also. Not worth the time, pick a different movie.

A 'wonderful' little interpretation...

[gluebben · 9/10 · 8 December 2000]

I really enjoyed this adaptation. It was far and above better than Disney's attempt to turn what is already a children's book into a 'kiddie' film. It was, with very few exceptions, very true to the book, despite the difficulties associated with converting Carroll's unique style to a screenplay.

Something I've always felt critical to adapting both Alice stories is her precocious nature. There is truly no way a child actor could handle the scope of Alice in any film. I thought moving the story to an older Alice was wonderful. And Kate Beckinsale's performance in that capacity was outstanding. She brought to life the very childlike innocence and naivete of Alice while dealing so very well with interpreting Alice's very opinionated, stubborn and whimsical personality. And visually, she fit the role perfectly. :-)

The quirky nature and self-interpretation in this film is a wonderful way to introduce children to a complex and bizarre children's story. I can only hope that it will be available on DVD someday.

Okay but not enough action!

[Sylviastel · 7/10 · 12 June 2011]

I didn't really read Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass which is the film's basis for his version. It has a first rate cast like the red queen played by Sian Phillips in one silly red costume and the white queen played by Penelope Wilton again in a silly white costume. There is too much talking at times and not much action for this film to serve a purpose. At the end of the tale, I didn't understand what happened to Alice all along. Did she learn a lesson about the looking glass. Anyway, the costumes are definitely silly maybe too silly to be taken seriously. I didn't understand what Alice and the world in the Looking Glass was doing. I didn't understand how the white queen went from small to life-size to talk with Alice. I thought there were some moments but the writing seemed to take forever for things to make sense or none at all. Still, it should be shown regarding the Alice books.

Homeopathic Seduction

[tedg · 17 December 2010]

In 1871, A deacon logician at Oxford published a sequel to his surprisingly popular children's story. In that original, he had dabbled in the mix of logic and mysticism that he thought respectable. Fortunately for him, it was characterized as the sort of nonsense genre created by Edward Lear. But he was deeply disturbed in the years that followed as the Church and what came to be called spiritualism diverged. So to make amends to his God, and to deflate the Kabbalistic origin of the first work, he formulated something with much the same structure and tone, but without the magic.

This work was based on conundrums created by the symmetries in the world. It became as popular as the first. His later works tried harder to distance himself from divination and became tepid Christian allegories. "Through the Looking-glass" was so successful that it and the original Alice are often merged as if they were seamless. The symmetries in the later work are easier to quote, so the looking-glass symbology and structure is re-used and quoted far more than the dangerous and slippery original Alice.

In 1979, auteur Raoul Ruiz made "The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting," a remarkable film, using the Alice structure as a template for narrative folding and a painting as the conflation of both book and mirror.

Based on this, cinematic novelist Arturo Pérez-Reverte, wrote a rather complex and ambitious novel. "The Flanders Panel" published in 1990.

In 1994, filmmaker Jim McBride continued on of his two film careers, the one where he starts with extremely ambitious material, making a mainstream film based on Pérez-Reverte's novel. While the novel was inherently cinematic, McBride added an extra dimension: the folds of inner narrative, of dreams and fantasies were mapped onto the body of the on screen detective, with insight conflated with nudity. To accomplish this insofar as he could, he found a quite beautiful and intuitively talented young actress. Like Nastassja Kinski and Asia Argento before her, she grew up in an acting family and genuinely knew how to map narrative on her body, unafraid to be as sexually complex as possible. Together, Kate Beckinsale and McBride made an interesting if not profoundly successful film.

Like Kinski and Jovovich, Beckinsale would go on to make films directed by lovers, films that would shamelessly exploit this talent. But in between her First Alice and her leathered vampire phase, she was Alice in a literal film version of the book. Well, it is not quite literal in that we have to explain why a redheaded sexual being is in this looking-glass world, and plot accommodations are made based on the Pérez-Reverte model.

This film is a disaster, an utter disaster if you take it as it comes. It has none of the magic of the book, though the language and images are used exactly. It has none of engagement that other experiments have with whatever mix of mystery and sex they use. And though it experiments with cinematic inner visions, the devices used are from Terry Gilliam and all utterly fail.

But if you see it in this greater context of Kate's mother, the Lewis Carroll cover-up and deliberately obfuscated magic; if you see it as overtly sexual but with the sex completely hidden: homeopathic seduction, then it works amazingly well. Alice as a redhead!

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

The Adventures of Alice, the Big-Time, or the Budget Screening of Carroll's Tale

[lyubitelfilmov · 6/10 · 12 December 2020]

Story. A free film adaptation of the famous absurd fairy tale by the English writer Lewis Carroll, filmed for British TV, where the cutie Kate Beckinsale played the main role. Another picture of a young lady that I wanted to see. And the viewing experience is ambiguous, and here's my short opinion - The Adventures of Oversized Alice. In the picture, in addition to the pluses, there were also minuses, and now I will tell you about them. Therefore - pour some tea and sit back, we begin! So the pros: 1. The picture is bright, juicy, obviously a drug addict, giving the whole absurdity an aura of fabulousness. Operators and decorators were clearly inspired by a well-known substance when creating this fairy tale, the picture was painfully oversaturated with acid colors. In any case, the picture is pleasing to the eye. 2. Atmosphere - a fairy tale as it is, filmed for children under 6 years old. The music, the costumes, and the sets - all of this works exactly as you expect. For children - the very thing. Personally, I plunged into this atmosphere myself during the timing - and it was nice. 3. References - here to you and "A Clockwork Orange" by Stanley Kubrick, and the great Charlie Chaplin and a few more cult films that have become classics of world cinema. It was unexpected to see all this in a children's fairy tale. 4. Kate Beckinsale - just for the sake of cute Kate, I saw this picture, and she is in it - fire, ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, comrades. Young Kate often smiles, and is dressed in such a wonderful dress (now it is clear where American McGhee inspired the design of Mad Alice), which suited her so well. And how sweetly she was embarrassed and silent in bewilderment from all the absurdity that was happening! Damn it! Cutie Kate is just nice to look at without saying a word. I didn't regret wasting my time on this picture, for you, Kate. So the cons: 1. Logic - "What's going on here?" This is the question you'll be asking yourself throughout the picture. For the main thread of the story is simple and clear - to get from point A to point B, but everything else is a heap of absurdity, excellent poetry and complete nonsense. Although, what am I talking about? This is a screen version of an absurd tale! Nevertheless, I was greatly lost in the vicissitudes of Alice's journey, and quite often and quite strongly, and constantly asked the above question. 2. There is no wholeness - in fact, the picture is a film adaptation of the most memorable moments from the book, connected by the thread of Alice's journey. First we are here, then the frame changes dramatically, and we are in a completely different place. First we are in Winterfell, then in Riverrun, then in Old Valyria, and so on. The picture jumps between scenes and characters, like a mountain goat over gorges and rocks. Because of this, I periodically lost interest in the painting, and glanced at the clock, despite the fact that the painting took an hour and a half, not counting a few minutes. There's nothing to be done - it's true. 3. Cheapness - it is clear that the picture was filmed for TV, because the scenery - with a gulkin's nose, costumes - back and forth, but do not cause irritation, actors - who grimaces and who tries. But the budget is visible in everything. I don't know if modern children will watch this picture with such cheapness. A little about the main characters: 1. Alice performed by Kate Beckinsale is a mother who read a fairy tale to her daughter until she found herself in the magical world of Through the Looking Glass, where everything is wonderful and ridiculous. Natural curiosity forces the heroine to make a journey where strange characters and a drug addict picture await her. Cutie Kate! Love you! Clever and beautiful! I played brilliantly! 2. The White Knight, played by Ian Holm, is a brave knight and a clumsy rider who comes across Alice's path and from whose mouth we hear the best and most poignant verse in the whole picture. The only memorable character Through the Looking Glass, superbly played by beloved Bilbo Baggins - actor Ian Holm, who left us in this coronavirus 2020. Rest in peace to him and Eternal memory! Well, this picture is also very careful about the original source and is close to it, in contrast to the 2016 film adaptation with Johnny Depp and Mia Visokovskaya! You can watch only for the sake of cutie Kate and fans of Lewis Carroll's work, everyone else - your choice. As a result, we have a good film adaptation of Carroll's fairy tale, with the cutie Kate Beckinsale, with an absurd script, an excellent fabulous atmosphere, successful and not very acting work, and general cheapness. My rating is 6 out of 10. About the recommendation - see for yourself!

OK Book Adaptation

[rls0812 · 6/10 · 29 June 2011]

Once I started to watch this movie, it immediately became apparent that the director assumed the audience read the book first. I would think any one who never read the lesser known classic, would be totally lost.

The film, for the most part, did good job sticking to the books story line, though they dropped some stuff, and added others.

The weirdest part was casting an adult actor to play the role of a child ... "I am 7 and 6 months old", said the 20+ year old .

The interactions never seem right with a "childish" adult.

For the most part, the looking glass world looks about what I imagined it to be from the book, though things were changed around a bit.

The oddest part was, one of the Tweedles looking like the guy from A Clockwork Orange.

Over all, it's an all right movie ( if the watcher first read the book ), geared more for younger folks.

Definitely worth a watch.

Great introduction to the book

[JulietV · 8/10 · 9 March 2001]

I taped this for my four year old daughter, who is obsessed with the Disney version and was watching it twice a day if I let her. This was a charming, wonderful change. The actress playing Alice is fantastic, she is really like the character, even though she is an adult. I was shocked that she was also Darlene in "Brokedown Palace" ...she really can play a wide range. This movie is very aesthetically beautiful to watch. It's fun watching humans play the animals and picking out who is whom.

A unique treat, done in a subtle way for thoughtful people

[Strutter9 · 8/10 · 12 May 2001]

The film has beautiful scenes. A movie for intelligent adults rather than children, the performances are subtle and allow for the nuances of meaning that the mathematician author placed into his book. With more obvious acting, the movie would have become clichéd. I found Kate Beckinsale's portrayal of Alice to be intriguing, particularly her insouciance in the face of insults. Ian Holm, as usual, was masterful, playing the White Knight in a way I had not thought possible. The movie is unique, a treat for watching many times.

Wonderfully and hilariously faithful

[cherold · 8/10 · 7 November 2021]

As someone who has read the Alice book's over and over again (mainly as an adult) I have been consistently disappointed with adaptations, which always focus on the surreal story while ignoring most of Lewis Carroll's brilliant, hilarious jokes. But this version of Through the Looking Glass doesn't give us musical numbers or turn it into a simple children's tale (or, alternately, create a dark, satirical adult version) but instead gives us Lewis Carroll, faithfully. The logic-based jokes, the curious puns, the abrupt insults, are all intact and glorious.

The movie begins as Kate Beckinsale falls asleep while reading Looking Glass to her child and dreams of herself as Alice. To be clear, because this point seems to elude a lot of IMDB reviewers, Beckinsale is playing the 7 year old Alice of the book, not an adult version, and not a pretend-child version. Just an adult dreaming she's a child. While I was skeptical ahead of time, Beckinsale perfectly captures Alice's mix of wonder and bemusement.

The rest cast is consistently amazing and hilarious, particularly the two queens and the two Tweedles, who are hilarious as young toughs even if they do race through The Walrus and the Carpenter so quickly that they ruin most of its jokes.

The story has the dream structure of the book, and if you're looking for a sensibly plotted story that is not something you should expect from the Alice books. It's a dream, and if you're own dreams are less confusing than this one then you have a very ordered mind. Alice jumps from one episode to the next with little reason, and poems fly thick and fast, illustrated in a variety of imaginative ways.

While most of the significant parts of the book are there, there are some cuts and a surprising addition. The Red Queen's classic run through the garden with Alice is gone, as is the entire Lion/Unicorn section (which I'm surprised to see some people inexplicably consider the best part of the book), and some scenes are truncated. Which would be understandable as a time constraint if the movie hadn't added the bit with the wig, which was deservedly cut from the original book and adds nothing. This is the one serious mistake of the movie.

It's true, as some have pointed out, that the special effects are low budget, and if you prefer a visually striking adaptation that cuts out most of Carroll's wit there are many options. But if you want to see a true adaptation of one of the funniest and most imaginative books in all of literature, this is easily your best choice.

Highly recommended.

Not your typical Alice

[Sperry23 · 9/10 · 7 July 2005]

Warning: Contains possible spoilers for anyone not familiar with Lewis Carroll's book Alice Through the Looking Glass. (Are there such people?)

This is one of the best, if not THE best versions of Through the Looking Glass I've ever seen. Far truer to the story than most, it isn't the usual mish-mash of both books that so many portrayals are. It was, however, disappointing that so little of the book was included. Still one must take what one is given.

Visually beautiful, the scenery draws the viewer in. The film presents in a more dreamlike, even psychedelic, manner than the other versions. Much more in keeping with the book.

Well-acted by everyone involved, especially Kate Beckinsale (Alice) and Sean Phillips (Red Queen). The venerable actors Geoffry Palmer (White King), and Sir Ian Holm (White Knight) provide touching and amusing performances, and all provide splendid and new interpretations of their characters.

Speaking of the Red Queen, her costume, though a great departure from the standard interpretation was amazing, as were all the costumes. I especially liked the way Alice's clothing changed throughout, enhancing the surreal feel of the film.

One might wish to quibble with the choice of having Alice as the mother drifted off to sleep while reading the story to her daughter. But I find it a refreshing change and quite in keeping with the spirit of the book. As adults, who wouldn't like to re-live the wonder and amazement of being a 7-year-old first being introduced to Carroll's Wonderland.

All in all, a film worth seeing again, especially with older children.

Good version of Lewis Carroll's book

[davidrulesyou · 10/10 · 29 March 2009]

As an Alice in Wonderland fan, I thought this was a good interpretation of the sequel Through the Looking Glass.

I thought this film definitely had the atmosphere of the original novel. And although she is too old, Kate Beckinsale, I think, looked good as Alice and I thought she acted the character very well.

It follows the book mostly well, except they skipped "The Lion and the Unicorn" chapter in this film and just moved onto the "It's My Own Invention" chapter after Alice was talking to both the White King and his messenger Haigha. In the scene when Alice goes into the dark shop before she meets Humpty Dumpty, the White Queen didn't turn into a sheep, although there were shots in that scene of a sheep.

If you want to look for a good adaptation of Through the Looking Glass, here is one to watch. As a fan myself, I rate it 10 out of 10.

Best adaptation I've seen of the book

[r.w.storm · 8/10 · 30 December 2001]

Clear yet subtle, funny and sophisticated in its apparent simplicity: an excellent rendition of Carroll's own quirky humor, and vastly entertaining. A fine cast, appropriate staging, and a literary pace combine to make this an outstanding film. Would that it were available on DVD!

Visually stunning

[zagato · 9/10 · 21 October 2000]

Gorgeous little film. I'm not sure how accurate to the book it was, but I've never believed that to be too important, two different mediums.

Beautiful scenery plus the added benefits of the not-unattractive Kate Beckinsale and the impressive acting of Sir Ian Holm.

9/10

A solid telling of a favorite book

[seanbehre · 9/10 · 2 July 2017]

You know your book is poorly adapted when Disney is still considered the gospel... And that's how Alice is. Nobody gets it right, but this film comes close.

The Looking Glass is a world where everyone is speaking in puns, riddles, logical inversions, and nonsense poetry. There's almost no plot or character. It is random, sometimes funny, sometimes tender, sometimes boring, sometimes creepy or insane. It passes over you like a dream, but the best parts endure...

Yes, the special effects are dumb. The scenes are cheap. Alice is a hot 20-something instead of cute 7 and a half. blah blah blah... It doesn't matter!

What matters is perfect delivery of great lines. Like watching Shakespeare, it all comes down to what the actors say and how they say it.

Stand aside Tim Burton

[christoph-14868 · 8/10 · 30 October 2019]

Unlike Tim Burton's very distant film, film takes on many of the great moments from Carrol's masterpiece - especially the train scene. The only disappointment was Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee, the scene of the White queen is memorable.