Movie Review by Debbie Winkler
Starring: Caterina Scorsone, Andrew Lee Potts, Philip Winchester, Kathy Bates, Tim Curry
Release Date: 6 December 2009
Language: English
Length: 180 minutes
Movie Rating: Not Rated
View Format: TV
My Rating: 
Synopsis:
“In this reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s classic novels, Caterina Scorsone stars as Alice, a young woman who descends into the twisted world of Wonderland after her boyfriend is abducted by the Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates) and forced to gamble in her royal casino. As the Hatter (Andrew Lee Potts) helps her battle a secret society called the White Rabbit, Alice uncovers the source of the Queen’s wicked power. Tim Curry co-stars in this miniseries.” — Netflix.com
Review:
This was a very interesting adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Truthfully, if the creators hadn’t kept familiar character archetypes in the film, I would not have recognized the story at all. However, they did keep all of the original characters including the Queen of Hearts (Kathy Bates), Alice (Caterina Scorsone), Jack of Hearts (Philip Winchester), the Mad Hatter (Andrew Lee Potts), the “Mad” March Hare (Geoff Redknap), the White Knight (Matt Frewer), the Caterpillar (Harry Dean Stanton) and many more. All of these roles were well cast and ably acted. It seemed like the villains, especially, dove into their parts with gleeful abandon and just really went over the top and had a marvelous time.
The plot was a little convoluted and weird and, I must confess, a bit offputting at the beginning, but it really grew on me and I was impressed with the creativity and the thought that went into it. That said, I wasn’t exactly surprised at some of the twists and turns that the plot took and I seemed to be one step ahead most of the time, but I still really enjoyed seeing the story slowly unfold. The sets were very creative and extremely interesting. My favorite was the Old Wonderland set where the White Knight lives, but the city itself was very interesting as well. The costumes, the special effects, and the crazy, psykidelic feel of the world was just fantastic.
I really admire the creativity and the pushing of the boundaries that the Syfy Channel is currently experimenting with and hope that they continue in this vein. Who says that you can’t take a classic, give it a new spin and create an entire different event and outcome? If you missed this movie on TV (it is actually a 2 part miniseries on TV or a 3 hour movie on DVD
Content:
This film contains violence, fighting, drug use (though not with drugs as we know them -- with emotions), kidnapping, and some intense scenes. It is fairly clean, for the most part, and I think that children ages 10 and up will understand the plot and be intrigued. Be prepared to answer questions about motives and the eternal favorite “why?” as this is definitely not the Disney version!
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