Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley.

I’ve seen the two Disney live-action films based on Lewis Carroll’s works featuring Alice, including the 2010 film ‘Alice In Wonderland’ and the 2016 film ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’. I’ve enjoyed both films on Disney+, but they’re not great films and they’re loosely based on their source material.

The 2010 ‘Alice in Wonderland’ film is directed by Tim Burton. It stars Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anna Hathaway as the White Queen, Helen Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, and Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts.

Lindsay Duncan, who I’ve seen in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Waters of Mars’, plays Alice’s mother in the film. There’s also the late Tim Pigott-Smith and Geraldine James as Lord and Lady Ascot. There’s Leo Bill as Hamish Ascot, and there’s Jemma Powell who briefly appears as Margaret, Alice’s sister.

There’s a good voice cast to match the live-action cast. There’s the Caterpillar voiced by the late Alan Rickman, the Cheshire Cat voiced by Stephen Fry, the White Rabbit voiced by Michael Sheen, the Dormouse voiced by Barbara Windsor, and there’s the March Hare voiced by Paul Whitehouse.

There’s also the Bloodhound voiced by Timothy Spall, the Jabberwocky voiced by the late Christopher Lee, the Dodo voiced by Michael Gough, the Talking Flowers voiced by Imelda Staunton, and the Executioner as well as one of the Frog servants voiced by Jim Carter. There are also additional voices provided by Frank Welker.

I know a lot of these characters have names given to them in the film, but quite a lot of the names given to these characters aren’t very memorable. I prefer to refer to them by their book, 1951 Disney film and 1973 BBC TV film counterparts when I recall watching them in these particular films.

With that said, even a star-studied cast featured in the 2010 ‘Alice In Wonderland’ film can’t save it from being a very good film. For one thing, it was decided to have Alice be a grown-up instead of a little girl. Thus, the 2010 film’s title is misleading, as it should be called ‘Alice Returns to Wonderland’.

It’s an odd decision to make, since Alice is often depicted as a little girl in most versions of ‘Alice In Wonderland’ and ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ instead of a grown-up. The world that Alice enters is also called Underland instead of Wonderland. 😐 There’s also not much nonsense in these films.

I know that sounds strange, but very often that’s what the ‘Alice In Wonderland’ and ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ books and their TV/film adaptations are best remembered for. The live-action Disney films have sense and logic in them, which doesn’t stay true to what the books are all about. 😦

The 2016 ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ film follows in that same manner, despite it being directed by James Bobin instead of Tim Burton, who is a producer on the film. Mind you, there’s more colour in the 2016 film compared to the 2010 film, which often has grey and dark tones throughout.

Mia Wasikowska returns to play Alice as well as Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as the White Queen, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Matt Lucas as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Lindsay Duncan as Alice’s mother, Geraldine James as Lady Ascot, and Leo Bill as Hamish.

There’s also most of the voice cast from the 2010 film returning in the 2016 film. There’s the Caterpillar, who’s become a Butterfly, voiced by Alan Rickman (and this happens to be one of his two final films before he passed away in 2016). I’m glad a dedication was made to him in the film’s end credits.

As well as the Butterfly, there’s the Cheshire Cat voiced by Stephen Fry, the White Rabbit voiced by Michael Sheen, the Dormouse voiced by Barbara Windsor, the March Hare voiced by Paul Whitehouse, and the Bloodhound voiced by Timothy Spall. There are also new cast members in this film.

There’s Rhys Ifans as the Mad Hatter’s father, and there’s Sacha Baron Cohen as Time (who looks like a combination of the Valeyard and the Master in ‘Doctor Who’ 😀 ). There are also brief appearances of Richard Armitage as the King, who is the father of the White and Red Queen, and there’s Andrew Scott (who played Moriarty in ‘Sherlock’) as a cruel psychiatric doctor. 😐

There’s also Ed Speleers (who I’ve seen in ‘Downton Abbey’ and ‘Star Trek: Picard’) as James Harcourt. There’s Siobhán Redmond (who has played the Rani in the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’) as one of the Mad Hatter’s sisters, and there’s Louis Ashbourne Serkis as a Young Mad Hatter.

Apparently, Andrew Sachs voiced the Mantel Clock in the film. This was his final film role before he passed away in 2016. There’s also Nobody, voiced by Meera Syal. Like the 2010 film, the 2016 ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’ doesn’t match to what I recall from watching the 1973 BBC TV film with Sarah Sutton in it.

This is especially when time-travel is involved and there’s a backstory given on how the Mad Hatter lost his family. This makes the 2010 and 2016 films poor examples of being film adaptations of Lewis Carroll’s books, as the uninitiated are going to be led into thinking these film adaptations are good. 😦

So, as you can tell, the 2010 and 2016 live-action Disney ‘Alice’ films didn’t impress me as being film adaptations of Lewis Carroll’s books. They’re impressive in terms of visuals and featuring stellar casts, but I’d stick to the 1951 Disney animated film and the 1973 BBC TV film starring Sarah Sutton.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂