Alice

Rating:
Summary: Not Alice in Wonderland
Review: If you are a fan of Lewis Caroll and the original novel Alice in Wonderland, then chances are you will not like this film. If you find stop motion animation even slightly annoying, then you will not like this film. If you enjoy movies with intelligible plots and definite story-lines, then you will not enjoy this movie.
This motion picture contains random scenes of dark, twisted oddities that at times can be vaguely connected to Lewis Caroll's novel. If you feel like watching a morbid romp through what seems to be the result of a drug trip then you would enjoy this film. Just don't see it expecting the light-hearted, witty word-play that characterizes the original or song & dance and cute cuddly animal characters like the Disney movie. Expect stop motion animation and random odd, eerie "things."

Rating:
Summary: Probably Svankmajer's best movie
Review: If you are unfamiliar with Svankmajer, it may be best to start with Alice. It is his most stylish and least morbid and grotesque long feature.

Sounds appealing? Actually it is a masterpiece. Like his other movies it is not for everyone, but it promises a unique movie experience.

Rating:
Summary: This Movie Syncs with Pink Flyod - Dark Side of the Moon
Review: If you start the Alice DVD movie and start Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon CD at exactly 00:11 Seconds (look at the DVD's Counter) This movie will sync similar to what happens with The Wizard of OZ. Examples that show that it is in sync is when Titles start, When the White Rabbit Wakes up, When the ink rolls out of the drawer, and when the cake pops out to make her big again. This is really Cool.. Remember I've only tried it with the DVD of Alice and the CD of Dark Side of the Moon. Start the actual Movie (not the menu) ... wait for 11 seconds (you should see the river) Press play on the CD of Dark Side of the Moon. This movie has no soundtrack so I think this fills in just great... Check it out for Yourself!

Rating:
Summary: Alice on acid.
Review: Jan Svankmajer is a well know Chez aniamaitor who made this adaption of Lewis Carrols' Alice in Wonderland also did some work on a few of Tool's music videos.

Unlike the Disney version of the book, don't expect to find any lovable or adorable chacters in this version, all you get is the sick and twisted world full of sharp and disfigured objects that enter themselves into the Sereal. A stuff rabbit that "bleeds" sawdust through a gap in its chest, and a calipillair made up of a sock, glass eyeballs, and false teeth are stopmoiton animated with a uncanny relisiem to them.

The movie is english dubbed and all the sound fx are amplified to the extreame adding a little bit more to the experience.

This is the version, I know, that Lewis Carrol imagined in his book. Jan does a great job bringing a new spin on an old story that will boggle the mind of an adult and encaint (and scare) childern everywhere.

If you are a fan of the twisted and unuseale then pick this one up now.

Rating:
Summary: unsettling yet oddly inviting
Review: Jan Svankmajer's films are beyond classification. Each film mixes stop motion animation, cartooning and live action brilliantly. Unlike modern movies, Svankjmajer's films have no musical scores to "guide" the viewer into the expected mood of a scene. This leaves the viewer to decide for themselves what the intonations for a scene are. Such an atmosphere can leave the viewer drained and uneasy. His films are the most original movies I have EVER seen. Never have I witnessed any which compare. Each Svankmajer film is a treasure which few have bared witness to. You will be pleasantly surprised at any of his film's surrealist view of the world. END

Rating:
Summary: Lewis Carroll's masterpiece transposed to Eastern Europe
Review: Lewis Carroll has been exceedingly fortunate in having 'Alice in Wonderland' inspire two animated masterpieces. Disney's 1951 version brilliantly captures the book's visual illogic and (more surprisingly) its philosophical undertow. Svankmajer's 'Alice' is, if possible, even darker, focusing on the heroine's growing pains - her distressing changes in height; her bewildering metamorphosing of form (doll, animal); her near-drowning in her own tears; her introduction to menstruation, bodily decay and death; her need to negotiate suggestive obstacles like doors and cupboards.

'Alice' is an unnerving experience, as quiet, foreboding, concentrated and theatrical as a ritual, with the mix of live action, animation and modelwork emphasising the loss of boundaries in Wonderland. But if this loss is liberating, it can be deeply frightening, and Svankmajer's film is also a record of the declining Communist Czechoslovakia in which it was made - the hole Alice hurtles down becomes a creaky tenement lift; the Tea Party becomes a vision of mechanised Soviet bureaucracy grinding to mad inertia; the Queen's whims now reflect totalitarian tyranny, a system (civil service, law etc.) made arbitrary, gone berserk.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed. Really, really badly
Review: Look, i hate to come out and disagree with everyone, but seriously, this isn't anywhere near svankmajer's best, and isn't even that good a movie in itself. for those who have already got some svankmajer films, well, i probably won't be able to discourage you from this dvd, cos it's true, the guy's a genius. but for those of you who have only heard of him vaguely, get another one of his films (even better, go for the brothers quay, who do the same sort of films). for starters, the continual closeups of the lips of the narrator telling the story are really quite irritating (and the girl narrating has really bad teeth, by the way); and whoever they got to do the english translation would have to have the most annoying voice i've ever heard. but most disappointingly, the animation is decidedly crude, despite some cool imagery.
there is, however, one really good reason to buy this dvd, that being the excellent svankmajer short film "darkness light darkness", a bonus feature on the dvd, which is terribly brilliant and almost worth the cost of the dvd in itself. almost.
okay, maybe its not as bad as one star. but don't fall for the hype created by all the other reviewers.

Rating:
Summary: At least this movie didn't have too much string in it.
Review: More a film about taxidermy and sawdust than about anything interesting. Though the girl manages some pretty good acting given the environment she's put in, this ugly-to-look-at film still took me awhile to view it to its end (I'd watch about five minutes of it a day until done). Now I can put this DVD on a shelf I'll never look at, or just throw it away. I wouldn't recommend this film to anyone except those interested in animating animal carcasses.

Rating:
Summary: Both wonderful and annoying at the same time
Review: Mostly told through stop-motion animation, this film both amuses me and annoys me at the same time. The animation is excellent, and has a dark and twisted look to it. However, the narration and the constant close-ups on Alice's lips as she speaks detract from the film.

Rating:
Summary: wow
Review: ok, this movie is really wierd. the stop anamation is really awsome. i can spell good, so deal with it. anyways its really good, the more times you watch it, the better it gets.