A new kind of Alice: the horribly cheap mid-80's made-for-tv kind

This made-for-tv movie musical is another memory of my childhood at my grandparents.  Though the overall title is Alice in Wonderland, the movie is divided into two parts, the first "Alice in Wonderland" and the second "Alice Through the Looking Glass".  Watching it now, I realize exactly how horrible it is: both in acting and set/special-effects quality.  I guess I should keep in mind that it was the 80's and it was a rather elaborate production for tv, but I can still wish for it to be better.  And even if the special effects were better, its hard to excuse the horrible acting, mainly referring to our heroine Alice (Natalie Gregory).  The girl was ten at the time of filming, but when you have seen great young actresses like Dakota Fanning and Lindsay Lohan, makes you thing "really, there was no one better?"  On the other hand, the film also contained a large amount of big name stars at the time, such as Red Buttons, Sherman Hemsley, Sammy Davis Jr., Carol Channing, just to name a few.  Now what would push these celebrities to do such a d-list movie is beyond me, but it didn't stop them from displaying their talents and trying to make the best of a horrible script and production.
I know I make it seem so dismal now, but I do remember loving it then.  I enjoyed the multitude of different characters with there own different personalities (at the time I had yet to read they novel and there for wasn't familiar with the Looking Glass characters yet) and how more detailed the story was compared to the animated Disney movie.  The story seemed to have no end (the movie's length is 3 hours), and all the events seemed too amazing.  I laugh now remembering how much I wondered how they made Alice grow and shrink and how Alice passed through the looking glass.  Geez wiz, what a poor simple child.  I do also remember how much it bothered me that they dressed Alice up in a peach frock instead of the infamous blue, and it still does.  It's just how it is!  Alice=blue dress.  It's the law.  And the Jabberwocky frightened me so much that I would fast forward through those parts.  It still is rather scary.  Production probably spent most of their money on that costume, and the castle set for the last banquet/chasing scene. 
Another downside to the movie is that it couldn't just simply be about the story.  They made it to teach children life lessons through Alice, who in Wonderland learned about growing up and then in Looking Glass Land learned to conquer her fears.  And they also tried to entertain through musical numbers.  Almost every main character had a number to sing, and that's along, especially when when half of them can't actually sing and the other half (more rather) are terrible numbers.  Shame on you, Stephen Deutsch and Morton Stevens! 
The movie is nice to have around for reminiscence sake, but unless you're a small child it's not going to do anything for you.

For more info on the movie, check out the link below:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088693/