Down The Rabbit Hole (OUATIW Pilot)

Since Season 4 is coming & one character is coming in from this spin-off, I thought I may as well review this one-season-thirteen-episode-long season! Originally intended to air during the season 3 hiatus to keep Oncers occupied, the executives at ABC probably made the stupidest decision by airing it shortly before the second half of season 3 aired! Heck, even the CEO of ABC admitted this was a dumb move & was partly why the ratings were awful! Anyway, onto the story! This version of Alice in Wonderland is actually a sequel as it takes place after Alice (Sophie Lowe) went to Wonderland as a child & is sent to an aslyum after her next attempt to prove that the world of Wonderland is real to her father. However, thanks to the Knave of Hearts (Michael Socha), she manages to escape as she discovers the love of her life, a genie named Cyrus (Peter Gadiot) who she believed to be dead, is in fact alive. When they get to Wonderland to find him thanks to the White Rabbit (voiced by John Lithgow), they come across obstacles like the Mallow Marsh, Cheshire Cat (voiced by Keith David) & discover that he got kidnapped after finding a necklace of his at Jefferson's cottage & decide to rescue him. In the flashbacks, they detail how Alice & Cyrus met & fell in love along with how he (falsly) died in the hands of the Red Queen (Emma Rigby), leading to Alice's despair. However, in a twist, it's revealed Jafar saved him with his magic carpet & is now locked up in Jafar's secret hideout.
Now as for this Pilot, I have to say that I do have some big problems with it in comparisons to it's mother show! First off, the really cheesy dialogue, mostly consisting of exposition, or stating the painfully obvious. But it's not as bad as the awful CGI! Seriously, the green screen backgrounds look phoned in & obvious, the effects look terrible & the CGI characters like the White Rabbit & the Cheshire Cat look creepy! Seriously, it makes OUAT's CGI look like a big budget film in comparison! Believe me when I say in the pictures recap that there'll be a lot I have to say on the CGI! Anyway, the plot just feels very cliched, with Alice's motivation being her one true love  feeling very stereotypical & it seems that the main plot of the show will be the quest kind with Alice & the Knave going to various places in Wonderland while at each other's throats! We know that kind of plot & it doesn't seem that the show will put anything new in it to make it feel refreshing. This is my opinion after watching one episode, so keep in mind I could be wrong & that eventually they'll do something good! I also didn't particularly like the acting, especially from Emma Rigby as the Red Queen with her annoying posh accent sounding very wooden, clearly trying to be like Regina from their mother show & Naveen Andrews as Jafar, who just chews so much scenery that it explains the poor green screen! Anyway, I do have a few good things to say, like John Lithgow was surprisingly good as the White Rabbit, I did enjoy seeing Storybrooke at the beginning & I thought Michael Socha was good as the cynical Knave of Hearts. But besides all that, this wasn't all that great for me & it's pretty clear gonna take a while for me to get into it.

Hmm! Nice reference to the Disney movie with Young Alice's outfit!

*Sighs* Feels so nice to see Storybrooke!

Love the cameo of Emma's car! And Iggy Pop is in this?!?!

Definitely didn't expect to see Ashley in this!

I don't know whether to find the White Rabbit's design cool or creepy due to the CGI...

After hearing crazy stories about a world with hookah smoking caterpillars, a grinning cat & food & drink making you grow or shrink (no rhyme intended), putting her in an asylum seems logical!

So Iggy Pop replaced Roger Daltrey...bit of a weird casting choice if you ask me!

Why is the green screen much more obvious compared to OUAT?!

OK, the design of the interior of the lamp looks pretty cool!

Well, it seems this keeps it's mother show's spirit by having hot men!

Pretty interesting that he's from Agrabah!

OK, I'll give them credit that Alice & Cyrus do have chemistry!

'Alice, you were an ignored little girl who wanted to be loved so you created a fantasy land full of characters who would help you become who you wanted to be. Tall, brave, beautiful. You wouldn't be the first child to do this. You're just the first to grow up and still believe it was real.' That's actually an interesting analogy!

God, her lip collagen looks awful! And her posh stuck-up voice is getting on my nerves!

So he's gonna do a lobotomy on Alice...

OK, Alice's room would give me claustrophobia! 

Woah! Alice is a badass!

Haha! 'You're late!' 'To you, everyone is!'

Boy, that green screen is looking pretty obvious!

I will say that the concept of the looks pretty cool, but, again, the bad CGI!

'The Hatter, he hasn't been in Wonderland for quite some time.' 'And he ain't never coming back! He's found himself a nice little life back in a place where I was making mine.' So this is the show's excuse as to why Jeffersion won't be appearing!

OK, I'll admit, the design of her castle looks good!

Wait, the White Rabbit is double crossing Alice & the Knave?!

The Tugly Woods is no more than some plastic mushrooms & a smoke machine...?

So this version of Alice in Wonderland is also a crossover with Aladdin...never thought I'd ever hear that!

God, this CGI looks much worse than OUAT!

Hmm, interesting parallel with Snow White's wanted poster in 1x03!

Even with Keith David's badass voice, I can't get over this awful CGI! 

So the Cheshire Cat's sight is just a warped POV shot...

So that's where Jefferson was living during his time in Wonderland!

It's about time we had the interior of somewhere in Wonderland to not be a green screen!

'When you really love someone, you don't need proof. You can feel it.'...of all the things they had to rip off, it had to be Snowing's 'I will always find you' catchphrase?!

Really Jafar? The best form of torture you could come up with was locking him up in a birdcage?

Oh God, this green screen is so bad!