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YMMV / Alice in Wonderland (1999)

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  • Awesome Music: This film's version of The Lobster Quadrille, sung first by the Mock Turtle, and then reprised by Alice at the conclusion, remains to this day a favourite on YouTube.
  • Broken Base:
    • Superior, a perfect equal, or inferior to the animated Disney classic? Take your pick.
    • The vast majority say that the film is the best and most faithful adaptation to date, even over the Disney film in the former respect. Other factions range from mixed opinions (it should have been either more faithful or cut shorter) to the complete negative (it's boring and rather too faithful).
  • Critical Dissonance: Its score on the Tomatometer is 33%. The Audience Score side of Rotten Tomatoes is 62%, Internet Movie Database has 6.3 stars, Letterboxd has 3.1 stars, and a walloping eighty-nine percent on Google love the film.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle were this for the novel already, but the versions of them in this movie have to be the most fondly remembered of the adaptations made so far. Having Gene Wilder as the actor playing the Mock Turtle also helps with this status, especially since this was one of Gene's final performances; he retired in 2003, and died in 2016.
    • Martin Short's performance as the Mad Hatter has been claimed by many to be the best interpretation of the character to date.
  • Older Than They Think: This isn't the first time Alice has had brown hair and worn a yellow dress. Maria Louise Kirk's illustrations from 1904 portrayed her with that color combination too. Brooke Shields also played a brunette, yellow-clad Alice in her guest appearance on The Muppet Show in 1980.
  • Special Effects Failure: The White Rabbit is clearly sped up in many shots, moving around in a wild, janky manner that makes it look like the puppet is breaking down.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The film boasts some excellent practical effects and puppetry.
    • Of special note is the Gryphon, who is not only a very convincing puppet, but also interacts directly with the tiny Mock Turtle. You might just assume the puppet was gigantic.
    • The Mad Hatter's enlarged head is absolutely seamless, turning Martin Short into a pitch perfect recreation of John Tenniel's classic illustrations.

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