"Will it ever be over?"

Upon completion of Alice in Wonderland, we had a movie night to watch a film version. The version we watched came from a cereal box (!) and featured an amazing cast of great actors including Ben Kingsley, Christopher Lloyd, Pete Postlethwaite, Whoopi Goldberg as the Cheshire Cat, Martin Short (his resemblance to the original illustrations of the Hatter is uncanny!), Gene Wilder, and Jason Flemyng. Miranda Richardson as the Queen of Hearts is uproariously funny, a welcome change from the butch bully à la Disney. (She played Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and was also the voice of Mrs. Tweedy in Chicken Run.)

The kids enjoyed it immensely, although at one point Maren commented, "This sure is a long movie. Will it ever be over? Does it stop, Mama?" Here's an interview with the young lady on the movie translation of the book:

What was the biggest difference between the book and the movie?
The book didn't have any colours, but the movie did.

Did the characters in the movie look the way you thought they would?
The King looked the way I thought he would, and the Hatter, and Alice, but not the other ones. The Queen had a little bit of hair and I thought she would have a lot.

Did you like reading the book or watching the movie better?
Watching the movie, because we got to see some different parts that were not in the book, like the time when the guys were fighting that had a toothache and a headache. Also the brave knights on the horses, the puppet show, and the flowers.