Let's Be Honest


I don't know about the majority of the people here, but when I first saw this overblown, horribily acted version of "Alice in Wonderland" I knew why it was made-for-TV and not done for the big screen.

The costumes for the most part were embarrisingly cheesy and made most of the actors look silly. Donald O'Connor, Telly Savalas, and Ernest Borgnine all looked embarrassed wearing those ridiculous costumes. They should've spent more money better costumes.

Some of Steve Allen's 'whimiscal tunes' were goofy and rather unnecessary. The movie would've worked better with less musical numbers. The best was of course seeing Sammy Davis Jr. tap dance with Natalie Gregory.

And the casting? Irwin Allen always went with 'big names' for his projects. He has Shelley Winters, Donald O'Connor, Carol Channing, Borgnine, Red Buttons, Roddy McDowell, Beau Bridges and Martha Raye (among others). But then, low and behold he drops TV personalities like John Stamos, Sherman Helmsley, Scott Baio and Pat Morita into the mix...very strange. The production must've had some contractual obligations to the television network to use those actors? Going from Academy,and Tony Award winners to run-of-the-mill sitcom actors is peculiar.

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I thought it was pretty good for the time, even if the Jabberwocky did look like someone walking around in a sleeping bag painted brown with dinosaur arms and legs stuck on it. Gotta love the cheese you find with some of the older productions, special effects weren't as good as they are today, and CGI was in its infancy and hugely expensive, so little productions like this couldn't afford it, so they made do with what they had.
The acting IMHO was OK, Natalie Gregory certainly deserved top billing as 'Alice', and probably behind the scenes laughed her little head off at how cheesy the actual Jabberwocky costume looked. She would have thought differently had Robby the Robot taken the place of the Jabberwocky I'm sure...
There is a lot of stop-motion and rear projection (eg the scenes with Alice and the chessboard people) used, and cheap monsters and props (Irwin Allen was not known for spending money, as Jonathan Harris once put it) so he put together what he could on an extremely limited budget. The result is quite enjoyable, if still cheesy by today's standards, but is above and beyond the crap we see on TV now.

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I always thought the Jabberwocky looked pretty scary.

And about the special effect being SOOOO wonderful today, that is debatable.

I just hate it when ppl hold everything by today's standards and say everything was cheesy and lame back then.

Just because we lose today's battle doesn't mean we've lost tommorow's war.

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I wonder if Natalie Gregory and Jack Warden were under contract from Columbia Pictures Television to appear in this miniseries? The two previously starred in another CBS miniseries from earlier that same year called Robert Kennedy and his Times, and it, too, was produced by CPTV.

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I kinda wonder that too... Columbia probably got them both on a contract to appear in a few CPTV-produced miniseries.

I wish I had been an extra in any of Natalie Gregory's work.

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This is the best Alice adaption ever made. Everything is perfect. Stop bashing it.

Your chains are still mine, you belong to me! - The Phantom Of The Opera

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I was 8 when this miniseries came out, and although my parents thought it was not very good, I watched it over and over. (It also introduced me to a load of famous actors I hadn't seen before.) My parents still have their original VHS recording of it, but truthfully I'm hesitant to ever watch it again. Even back then I had some sense of its cheesiness (and I still remember the bad songs quite well), but for some reason I found it engaging. At least it retained some of the sense of wonder of the original book (something that, in my humble opinion, Tim Burton's version sorely fails at). I just wouldn't want to destroy the nostalgic feelings I have about it. There are films from my childhood that hold up well when I watch them as adults, but I try to be careful when there's a possibility they won't (for example, when I watched the original Escape to Witch Mountain recently, I was surprised how bad the children's acting was, something I had somehow never noticed as a kid). In this case I'm probably better off preserving my memory of the series as is.

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That's really stupid. There's nothing wrong with this movie.

Your chains are still mine, you belong to me! - The Phantom Of The Opera

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I'll admit it does have its flaws, but I still consider this to be one of the best screen adaptations of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books. Some songs are better than others and some parts are either disturbing or weird, but I still find this movie highly entertaining. You, ddc300, on the other hand, are a total fool for bashing this movie!

If you want a REALLY bad fantasy movie, I suggest you check out Disney's "Babes In Toyland"!

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I was the same age as Natalie Gregory when this movie came out. And the Jabberwocky scared the crap out of me. And I love seeing all the epic actors/performers that I had come to know through my parents. Though I found the singing a bit much, I really love seeing Sammy Davis Jr. dance and Carol Channing sing that strange little song about jam. I still have it on VHS and think of it as a treasure.

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