If you’re of a certain age (like me), you’ll be forgiven if the Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic-’60s hit “Go Ask Alice” rattles around your brain while watching “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.”
This prime-time series adaptation of the classic “Alice in Wonderland” tale is lushly photographed and packed with (what I’m guessing were) very expensive special effects — including ye olde “hookah-smoking caterpillar” immortalized in the Airplane song.
Even if you already know the “Alice” story — and, let’s face it, almost everyone does — series creators Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz and Zack Estrin have done a fine job of retooling it for the small screen, where the aforementioned special effects will really pop in high-def.
The big question is whether Thursday night’s series opener on ABC will give viewers enough of a reason to return the following week — instead of playing like a one-off TV movie.
I think it will.
Like the original story, “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland” is set in Victorian England, where a young Alice — who’s disappeared for a while — reappears on her family’s doorstep with fantastic tales of a Red Queen and a talking rabbit. We know that she’s traveled to Wonderland through a magical rabbit hole (via flashbacks), but her father thinks Alice is stark-raving mad. After a year, with Alice still insisting it’s all true, he has her committed to an asylum. Once there, the now-older Alice (Sophie Lowe) agrees to undergo a lobotomy to help expunge her Wonderland memories (and to get everyone off her back already).
But just as Alice is about to have her skull drilled, she’s rescued by the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha), who convinces Alice that her true love, Cyrus (Peter Gadiot) — who she thought was killed by the evil Red Queen (Emma Rigby) — has been seen alive in Wonderland.
So it’s back down that magical rabbit hole . . .
That’s all you need to know, because revealing anything else would spoil the fun of watching “Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.” I can tell you that the computer-generated White Rabbit — who moves convincingly among his human cast mates — is voiced by John Lithgow, whose plummy tones are perfect for the role.
Lowe and Gadiot make convincing lovers, Socha provides the comic relief and Rigby is suitably sinister as the Red Queen.
To play the evil Jafar — he of the flying carpet — Kitsis and Horowitz have recruited a game Naveen Andrews (Sayid from their old show, “Lost”).
Good family fun.