Alice in Wonderland

(Fantasy Telepic -- NBC; Sun. Feb. 28, 8 p.m.)

By RAY RICHMOND

Filmed in London by Hallmark Entertainment in association with NBC Entertainment. Executive producer, Robert Halmi Sr.; producer, Dyson Lovell; director, Nick Willing; writer, Peter Barnes; based on the book by Lewis Carroll.
 
Alice - Tina Majorino
Mad Hatter - Martin Short
Red Queen - Miranda Richardson
Cheshire Cat - Whoopi Goldberg
Major Caterpillar - Ben Kingsley
Mock Turtle - Gene Wilder
White Knight - Christopher Lloyd
Carpenter - Pete Postlethwaite
Walrus - Peter Ustinov
Tweedledee - George Wendt
Tweedledum - Robbie Coltrane
With: Peter Bayliss, Heathcote Williams, Ken Campbell, Jason Byrne, Paddy Joyce, Murray Melvin, Richard Coombs, Kiran Shah, Janine Eser, Jeremy Brudenell, Mary Healey, Dilys Laye, Francis Wright, Adrian Getley, Robert Tygner, Tim Potter, Angus Barnett, Richard Strange, Toby Ross-Bryant, Nigel Plaskitt, Dave Barclay, Jonathan Broadbent, Matthew Sim, Chris Ryan, Peter Eyre, Hugh Lloyd, John Owens, Christopher Greet.

 

Watching NBC's hallucinatory three-hour take on "Alice in Wonderland," it is suddenly easy to imagine what Grace Slick must have envisioned when she warbled the Jefferson Airplane tune "White Rabbit" a generation ago. This "Alice" plays much like a star-studded acid trip, a wiggy fantasy driven by a dazzling special effects array from London's FrameStore, and the kind of animatronic wizardry only the Jim Henson Creature Shop of London can deliver -- and only Hallmark Entertainment guru Robert Halmi Sr. is predisposed to fund. It is a spectacle for the eyes, if not the ears.

Halmi, who remains admirably committed to the spare-no-expense telepic/miniseries adaptation ("Merlin," "Gulliver's Travels" and "The Odyssey" being recent examples), has in the case of "Alice" bought himself 180 minutes of dandy, state-of-the-art film technique and spectacularly bad acting.

The phrase "over the top" does not even begin to describe the performances of Martin Short and Miranda Richardson, who were apparently instructed to devour more scenery than a locust swarm (although even locusts have been known to leave a bit of foliage in their wake).

At times wildly entertaining and even poignant, "Alice" ultimately winds up being a trifle too much -- too lengthy, too broad, too unwieldy. Even the impressive visual elements are so multitudinous as to almost detract from any overall magical effect. Indeed, for all of this production's tricks, Alice's journey through Wonderland suffers passages of sheer tedium.

Scribe Peter Barnes' farcical adaptation may be quite faithful to Lewis Carroll's literature, but it's also quite bloated and indulgent.

That would qualify as the bad news. The good is that someone like Halmi is even bothering to try doing ambitious material like this anymore and that helmer Nick Willing has so stylishly stirred the colorful landscapes and imagery into such a bracing feast much of the time.

Effects supervisor Richard Conway and animatronics head Jamie Courtier and their teams have deftly created a warped little world where apples dance and spin in slo-mo, teardrops become flash floods and size and scale are skewed into a dreamscape of absurdity.

Tina Majorino ( "Waterworld") proves a perfectly charming and poised Alice, a snow-pure child assaulted by an equal measure of insecurity, bewilderment and wide-eyed wonder. Majorino navigates this eccentric land of domineering queens, smirking cats, chattering flowers and human turtles with great, subtle skill, bringing a nuance to the proceedings that many of her bigger-name co-stars lack.

Short, as the Mad Hatter, is a whirling dervish of cheeky overindulgence and bad teeth. Richardson, the Red Queen, reaches shrill octaves seemingly not designed for the human ear. Also proving surprisingly stiff are Ben Kingsley as the upright Major Caterpillar and Christopher Lloyd as a particularly clueless White Knight.

Faring better are Gene Wilder (who captivates in his all-too-brief appearance as the Mock Turtle), Whoopi Goldberg (a surprisingly low-key presence as the Cheshire Cat, with a superb job of makeup from Anne Spiers) and George Wendt and Robbie Coltrane as a quirky Tweedledee and Tweedledum, respectively.

And what can you say about Peter Ustinov being cast as the Walrus? It doesn't really matter how he does (fine, as it turns out); it's inspired.

Story skips along at its own oddball pace, the highlights (Wilder's 10-minute turn) blending with the lowlights (an interminable Mad Tea Party) in a swirl of brilliant hues. There is a clever edge of kitsch to the entire proceedings, and you have to admire a production of "Alice in Wonderland" that manages to slip in a reference to "That Girl" -- intentionally, one would hope.

But did they really need three hours to tell this oft-told tale of escape and imagination? Pic was pushed up to February sweeps to fill a void, after having been originally skedded for May. And if it's targeted to families -- as everyone insists -- why run it from 8 to 11 p.m. rather than 7 to 10 p.m. when there's school the next day? As Alice herself might have observed, things keep getting curiouser and curiouser.

Camera, Giles Nuttgens; editor, Alex Mackie; production designer, Roger Hall; supervising art director, Alan Tomkins; special effects supervisor, Richard Conway; animatronics supervisor, Jamie Courtier; costume designer, Charles Knode; music, Richard Hartley; sound, Mark Holding; casting, Lynn Kressel, Joyce Gallie. 3 HOURS