Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland has been adapted for the screen many times, and stolen or mutated into other forms even more times. For some reason many of these adaptions become celebrity magnets. I guess everyone wants to do something for their kids, or the kids they might someday have and the idea of spouting ten lines or so as the Caterpillar is fairly painless. At least painless for them, for the audience we are often subjected to wild over acting.

This is not a problem with the 1966 version produced for the BBC show "This Wednesday's Play." Oh, it has a lot of British stars including Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, Michael Redgrave, and Sir John Gielgud. Special mention has to be made of Leo McKern, who Iwill always remember fondly as #2 in the Prisoner, as the Duchess. With the exception of McKern's Duchess however the acting is very very purposefully flat and without affect. Instead of a manic, madcap, rompish tea party we are given basically cupcakes with people already on their anti psychotic meds. The worst offender is Anne Marie Mallik who plays Alice. I swear she looks and acts like the zombie girl from "Night of the Living Dead." All and all, this flatness makes the disturbing parts of Alice stick out far more. There is certainly more of a nightmare here than a day dream.

Another interesting decision was to forego make up. Everyone is dressed in the period that the story takes place but there is no dormouse or caterpillar, except that they are called that. Also, though Alice doesn't really change sizes she refers to often which again makes things all the more mad.

The only really upbeat thing in this adaption is music. It is mostly done by Ravi Shankar and his sitar playing creates a bright otherworldly feel to this Victorian dreamy nightmare. There's a wonderful section on the DVD where the director and Ravi are working together on the soundrack that should certainly be watched. The film itself is beautifully shot and lit, and is certainly a worth a watch.

I certainly don't think children would warm to this version though.