A darker view of the book than I had imagined. The Henson puppets are so out of date they detracted from the rest of the story. I was surprised by the sexual overtones between Carrol and Lucy. And Lucy's mother threw all of Alice's letters from Carrol in the fire. Why? She seemed to suspect something also. But overall an interesting movie that gave a different look than Alice in Wonderland.

Watched this again tonight. Truly an exceptional movie. Love and time and death seem to be the predominate themes. A muse ripped from time and confused with the temporal wish against the universal need. An honest and pure statement of inspiration, satisfaction, frustration, and restraint against wisdom. I wish it were letter boxed on DVD for the Henson segments. Any extras would be phenomenal. Has anyone seen this in theater? It must have been a rare moment. I don't know if a soundtrack exists but it would be excellent. Everything from big band to Victorian nonsense. OK, it isn't historically accurate and Alice and Charles may have some corrective input if they were able to comment. Still, it is an exceptional, sincere, and intriguing story.

What a strange movie this is. Is it supposed to be a cute fantasy (with clever Jim Henson puppets)? Or an expose/biography? The latter doesn't seem to be true, since there is a disclaimer at the end of the credits denying that any of the characters are real. Does anyone know whether ANY of the events of "old Alice's" life have any basis in fact? What I have read about Dodgson does indicate that he may have had an unhealthy obsession with young girls, but no evidence that he was an actual pedophile. I was afraid that Dennis Potter, who has shown in films like BRIMSTONE & TREACLE that he can wallow in the worst forms of human behavior, would turn Dodgson into a Victorian Michael Jackson (Wonderland/Neverland?). But Dodgson is a very sympathetic character, and the movie never descends into the dark side of his relationship to his young students. Portions of the film are charming.In one respect, Ian Holm was a good choice for Carroll/Dodgson, because he can project charm and innocence. But he's also the movie's biggest flaw. Holm was in his 50s when he acted the part. According to the movie's own chronology, Dodgson was only TWENTY years older than Alice, not FORTY. That extra 20 years makes the relationship with Alice seem even stranger than it already was. A suitable 30-ish actor would have reduced the "dirty old man" factor considerably.

In order to fully appreciate this movie a knowledge of both Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll is recommended. For a film associared with Dennis Potter--who'd previously written an Alice in the 60s...you might expect smut but there's none here. Its all done very tastefully so it would disappoint anyone looking for titillation. Jane Asher has a minor role as Mrs.Liddell,shown as a chaperone on the famous river outing.She played Alice herself in the early 60s for a couple of studio casts. Though its artistic license to suggest Mrs.Hargreaves took along her maid in reality there were two others,one of which was her granddaughter. I liked the scene where Mrs.Hargeaves read out a commercial---for which they'd pay her 1000s of dollars: ""once when I was a little girl I fell down a rabbit hole then picked up a bottle with a label on which said DRINK ME.But today I look for a bottle which says CHARDONAY"