Just call it ‘Alice in Wackyland’

Alice Through the Looking Glass

Lions Gate Home Entertainment

DVD: $17.98

(800) 650-7099; www.amazon.com

Rich visual textures and a notable cast highlight this recent DVD release of an oddly sinister 1998 British TV version of Lewis Carroll’s other Alice book. Here, Ian Holm is the melancholy White Knight; the White King is played by Geoffrey Palmer; Ian Richardson is a bizarre, yellow-wigged wasp; and “Van Helsing’s” Kate Beckinsale is a rather mature Alice. Treats include candy box colors, imaginative costuming, a lush forest and meadow setting and special effects that include a shift to silent-movie black-and-white and high-speed sequences. It’s also weirdly edgy. Tweedledum and Tweedledee (Gary Olsen and Marc Warren), for instance, sport “A Clockwork Orange”-type makeup and a whiff of menace, and a sepia-toned Walrus and Carpenter segment is not the stuff of sweet dreams. Best for ages 9 and up.

*

Popular Mechanics for Kids: Gators

& Dragons and Other Wild Beasts

KOCH Vision

DVD: $14.98. VHS: $12.98

www.kochvision.com

A new edutainment release from the series based on Popular Mechanics magazine that is fast-moving, fun, informative and hosted by kids who do the prerequisite bantering and teasing, but who seem genuinely interested in the subjects. Well-filmed segments from zoos, an animal sanctuary, the Florida Everglades and a Canadian airport are mixed with a bit of tutorial animation. Check out the fearsome meat-eating komodo dragons, a very large milk-drinking tiger, an elephant pedicure and falcons used as safety devices at airports (to frighten other birds away from jet engines). The companion release, for the athletic-minded, is “X-treme Sports & Other Action Adventures.”

*

-- Lynne Heffley