What should I start with? The good or bad side? Okay, let's get the things that don't work well for the movie out of the way.For starters, the SONGS!!!! Ugh! I'm sorry I find them way too cheesy and unnecessary! What's a rapping/tap dancing caterpillar doing here? The duchess and her cook botch the short song written in the book, forget Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat; it's not as interesting as the added song! Why does the Queen need a song to explain why she needs a reason to behead people; she needs no intro! But I'm going to have to say the song that bugs me the most is Ringo's song as the Mock-turtle. He sings about how "this" world doesn't have enough nonsense (not sure if he's referring to the 4th wall's world or Wonderland). If he's referring to our world, fine, but at the same time what concern does he have about our world? He's carefree in Wonderland! If he's referring to Wonderland then I could strangle the lyric writers! Wonderland is abundant in nonsense! Everyone there is MAD! Not one person there is not mad (except maybe for Alice). The songs aren't the only things that annoy me. Alice goes to Wonderland and there are very not so subtle hints about teaching her how to grow up and face her fears. Wonderland was an escape from reality; not a return to it. I won't scream at the costumes or special effects because there's no point in 1985, however I'll bring up this childhood killer; the Griffin mentions the Queen beheading is not real. I know we would like that, but that was part of what made Wonderland exciting and a tad bit scary; heck she sings a whole song about it and a trial's going on to determine whether or not they should sentence the Knave of Hearts for stealing the tarts!Okay, so let's get down to what is good. They've got a proper aged Alice (6-8 years) and she's not too bad, though I'm not sure if the Alice in Wonderland dialogue fits her well. Some of the actors are good, though I like the Queen of Hearts (her song ruins her), and as much as I hate to say it, the White Knight is likable and his song is nice and soothing. I know his long song from the original story gets botched too, but this song is heartwarming and relaxing after trauma Alice went through. It's cheesy, but it's mildly okay.

This is a great film-I watched the film as a child, and I actually played it for my kids tonight, they loved the songs, and I fell in love with the movie all over again! As I watched I thought about being a child and remembered all the actors that performed during the movie with a VERY small number of them STILL ALIVE.It is very hard for me to watch much TV, with reality shows, and not much family shows that I grew up on. I loved the cast, my husband even forgot about all the stars that filmed the movie, and was excited to see it.It would be great if today there could be an all-star cast for a TV movie just like this, but I doubt egos could coexist long enough for fans to have that chance. Great movie, great memories!

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.

I saw this film when it first debuted on television. I have remembered it fondly over the years and was quite ecstatic to find it on DVD recently. I enjoy it even more now as an adult because I can pick up on the subtle messages of the film. Also, I can appreciate the all-star cast more, now that I am more familiar with them. Seeing such great actors like Sid Caesar, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Red Buttons is such a treat. The young actress who plays Alice is such a joy to watch. She often reminds me of Shirley Temple. I highly recommend this film for families and the young at heart. It is a classic film in every sense of the word.