Lewis Carroll's 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', as well as 'Through the Looking Glass' has always been a personal favourite book of mine and deserves its reputations of a literary classic. Episodic it may be, but it is also wonderfully odd in atmosphere and full of colourful stories and characters, as well as Carroll's timeless prose with very unique poetry, logic and paradoxes. It is not an easy book to adapt, 'Through the Looking Glass' even more so, and some adaptations are better than others. A perfect one has yet to be made, but the only one to be terrible is the Video Brinquedo animation.
It is a shame that this version is so rare. While perhaps not one of the best adaptations, it is one of the most faithful (in detail, with almost all the key characters and sequence retained, and spirit) and most interesting ones, that alone makes it a must watch for those who like adaptations to be as faithful as possible. On this front, not all adaptations of the book are but judging adaptations on their own merits has for me always been a fairer way to judge, and many 'Alice in Wonderland' adaptations do fare well on their own terms. Something that this version does. It even uses illustrator John Tenniel's own illustrations for the puppetry, which is a delight and an interest point in itself. Just to say, the version itself has already been overviewed, have just decided to review the individual episodes too.
After a good first part, thanks to having more interesting characters and events, this second episode is even better. Not perfect, but much of it is very well done. It begins with concluding the Caucus Race section, that ended somewhat abruptly in the first episode, with "A Long Tale", and then covers the fourth and fifth chapters "The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill" and "Advice from a Caterpillar". A noble job is done with both, Carroll's prose really shines in the latter.
Once again, the limitations in budget are obvious in some of the puppetry and costuming. Particularly in "A Long Tale" portion, with the mouse again sticking out like a sore thumb. Found the caterpillar to look rather odd too.
That aside, this 'Alice in Wonderland' has a lot of impressive elements visually, very varied technically and a lot of effort went into it and it shows. The White Rabbit is rendered very well as is the quaint little house. The standouts though are the picturesque, photographic woodland and the use of Tenniel's illustrations on screen for the "Old Father William" part. The changing size effects in "The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill" were also done quite well considering the budget, while the live action, detailing the origins of the story, is beautifully filmed and evocative.
Music has a lovely understated whimsy, in particularly the introduction of the Caterpillar, while the dialogue flows naturally with Carroll's writing shining wonderfully (the writing in the live-action bookend scenes with its telling-a-story device similarly charms). As said, this aspect comes off especially well in "Advice from a Caterpillar". Slow start aside with "A Long Tale", the episode picks up and entertains in mainly "The Rabbit Sends a Little Bill".
On top of being one of the more age-appropriate Alices, Giselle Andrews is more comfortable here and the winsome-ness and spirit comes out more. Robert Peters charms as Dodgson. While Paul Eddington continues to be appropriately twitchy and John Braban has fun as Dodo, it's John Barron's doleful Caterpillar that fares most memorably.
Summarising, well done though not perfect and better than the previous part. 8/10
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