Malice in Wonderland (2009)
Busy night for me, I guess. Still under the thrall of Sunshine (see my earlier post from this evening), I watched Malice in Wonderland with Dale. It’s a really nicely done British adaptation of Alice in Wonderland Lots of familiar faces in the cast too. Danny Dryer is Whitey (the White Rabbit), Nathaniel Parker is the King of Hearts (his Queen of Hearts is a sight to behold) and Danny King is a character they call “Gonzo.” For the life of me, I can’t figure out who he’s supposed to be. I think maybe he is the Dodo because he’s on a carousel in the beginning. That’s sort of “caucus race”-ish. I don’t know. Let me know if you figure it out. Gary Beadle is an AMAZING cheshire cat. He is probably the best version I’ve ever seen. They pitch him as a sort of love DJ from the 70s. Hard to explain but pitch perfect. The aesthetic of the whole project is really great too.
“Gonzo,” whoever that’s supposed to be, and “Whitey”
Gary Beadle as the Cheshire Cat
The King of Hearts’s Club
The Queen and King of Hearts
Like Tim Burton’s recent Alice, the success of Malice in Wonderland is largely dependent upon the places where it chooses to veer away from the original novel. This can be as subtle as having a male actor play the “Queen of Hearts,” although, he has a transvestite lover who is his real “Queen of Hearts,” to having an East End Madame as the Mad Hatter. Her complaint? Alice stole her tarts. . . . I’ll wait a minute while you get the joke. The Mad Hatter is a pimp? Alice stole her tarts? Anyway….
The ending was pretty disappointing. But there is a LOT to recommend the movie as a whole. Probably one of my favorite adaptation of Alice in Wonderland of late. Netflix has it on Instant so watch it there.