not horrible nor great

A Brilliant Conflict

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Since the new beefed-up 3D Hollywood spectacle came out I had to go back and REMIND myself and others about this excellent made-for-TV version from 1985!This version was a charming yet extravagant 4-hour tale told in 2 parts, 2-hr prime-time slots. The 1980s 'Alice' featured the ENTIRE Alice storyline - 'Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass'(with the Jabberwocky). I emphasize this point because the 'alice' saga told in it's entirety is, as far as I'm concerned, the only way to tell the story. Far more enjoyable and entertaining! The cast consisted of a veritable Whos-Who of 80's actors, including jeff and beau Bridges and Sammy Davis Jr. (!). As far as TV movies go, the production was very good. The ensemble cast, the costumes, the landscaping, everyone involved does an excellent job bringing to life EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER from Lewis Carrol's all time classic. IMO, the 80s version simply has more heart, more charm, whimsy, wit, and danger that the new-er version simply lacks. You could spend $15 for all the bloated CGI and 3D FX and over-the -top acting from Johnny Depp -OR- you can grab this from Netflix or Redbox (?) and introduce the young ones (and reacquaint yourself) to this superbly delightful, nostalgic treat! :-)

I saw this movie years ago with my then 5 year old and we loved it. I thought Natalie Gregory was wonderful as Alice. Usually Alice is played by girls who appear to be about 16 years old. Alice is supposed to be 7 and Natalie Gregory was 9 when this was filmed. The movie is in two parts with the second called "Alice Through the Looking Glass" The supporting cast includes many old time actors such as Carol Channing, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows, Ann Jillian, Martha Raye, Imogene Coca and more. It was a delight just to see them again. They were all marvelous in their roles, especially Ann Jillian as the Red Queen. I've always liked her in anything she's done. The movie did veer from the book in several areas but most movies do. Most of the songs were good but one or two kind of dragged. However it really did not take away from the enjoyment of the movie. I loved the costumes.Overall this is a fun movie to watch and a wonderful adaptation of the classic story. I highly recommend it.

Producer Allen was either the most amiable man in Hollywood or else paid the best salaries or else had major blackmail material on half the town in order to enable him to amass the incredible all-star casts that he put together in the 70's and early 80's. Here, taking a break from the fully exhausted disaster genre for which he was famous, he made this two-part telefilm based on the books of Lewis Carroll. Gregory plays a petulant little girl who dreams her way into the wacky and confounding world known as Wonderland, first through a rabbit hole and later through a mirror. While there, all the time striving to get home, she comes upon all manner of creature and a variety of royalty (based on cards and chess pieces) who make life difficult and/or confusing for her. Part one is the more familiar tale (immortalized on film many other times, but perhaps most notably in an animated Disney version) while part two has more characters and is darker in tone (thanks mostly to a dragon called The Jabberwock which, while creaky and obviously phony to sophisticated older viewers, may be quite terrifying to youngsters!) Though all mini-series of the era featured huge casts of name actors, Allen really outdid himself here with a roster of performers who range from legendary to popular to unjustly notable. Sadly, the nature of the material and the set up of this project meant that the majority of them would not be given a great deal to do. Winters, for example, barely appears at all and has no lines to speak of. O'Connor is basically the same, which is a heinous waste of talent. Meadows, however, whose husband (Steve) Allen wrote the songs for this, has a far more substantial role. While it's fun to play "Spot the Star" and see them all decked out in their often outrageous clothing and make-up, most of the time the film falls flat and the guest stars don't really shine so much as show up. Standouts in the production include Jillian and Channing who, fortunately, have very significant roles in the second half and who perform with gusto. Newley seems quite right for his blustery and veddy British character as well. It's nice to see Davis still going at it as well. Bridges injects some heart into his role. It doesn't get much campier than Lawrence and Gorme as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee! Apart from the script simply devoting more time to some really unmemorable songs (as compared to the unforgettable ditties "I'm Late" and "The Unbirthday Song" from the animated version) than to the acting scenes, the primary liability is Gregory. The entire project hinges on having just the right person as Alice and this little girl is agonizing. She's a pretty decent singer and quite a capable little dancer, but her acting is atrocious and her whiny, sing-song speaking voice is like daggers to the ear. Besides this, she's charmless when she should be ingratiating and she's snotty when she ought to be sympathetic. She's just not a likable persona in this role. The script sets her up for failure by having her constantly recap to herself everything that is transpiring and this gets old very fast. The costumes for this production are fairly extravagant, as is the make-up, but the sets are almost all Astroturf and silk flowers with a fake sky backdrop. Incidentally, this film reunites at least five cast-mates from "The Poseidon Adventure" and three from "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure", though most of them do not interact with one another. It's colorful and worth a look, especially for star-gazers, but a lot of it is tiresome and uninspired.

Its been beautiful to hear what seems to be the theme of my generation's experience with this film: "My mom/dad/grandma/grandpa taped this film when i was little/unborn and it glued me to the TV for all three hours of it." This was exactly how I experienced it and I feel nothing but gratitude to my parents for taping it and thus giving me the opportunity to watch it again and again and again...even though it TERRIFIED me! Somehow that didn't stop me from indulging in repeat viewings (my parents say I watched it incessantly). Of course, as I got older, I stopped watching it. But just recently I was shocked to find it in my hands as a DVD (my girlfriend heard me speak fondly of it and got it for me as an early x-mas present). Since then I've found myself wrapped in a myriad of awe, nostalgia, and even tears as childhood loves and fears have come flooding back to me because of this film. It's a riveting and beautiful story for children, but for adults who really listen its a treasure chest of wisdom. Buy this film for your kids and for yourself. It's enriched my life as both a child and an adult.