Rating: 
Summary: The other face of Alice
Review: Svankmajer's Alice is one othe greatest film ever made! On my opinion this vision of classic Carrol's work is dark, bizzare and disturbing more than many horror films. It's a nightmarish journey in the deep of uncounscious, human fear; the army of macabre animals, the sock - worms, the allucinating caterpillar, all the citizens of this strange Wonderland have the power to leads you in another "acid" dimension.
Say NO to LSD!
Say YES to Great Svankmajer's Alice!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Svankmajer's hugely influential chef d'oeuvre
Review: The influence of Jan Svankmajer's 1988 ALICE on the art and film and deisgn of the 1990s and beyond is enormous: you can see it almost evidently in the films of the Brothers Quay and David Fincher as well as in every beautifully designed magazine you open today. Svankmajer took the Lewis Carroll story and transposed it to a world which seems totalitarian in nature, and beautifully shabby and eroded in look, where everything is chappied and falling to pieces. The white rabbit is a terrifying taxidermic model, with huge teeth and glass eyes; it pulls itself from its mounting pins and bleeds sawdust when opened. The fall down the rabbit hole is a dark descent by elevator down through what seems to be a beautifully decrepit storage warehouse: the small animals Alice encounters are skull-headed toys.All this is beautiful, and creates a stunningly original aesthetic. It's also sometimes a bit creepy, and (worse) at times exceptionally tedious. (You think if you get one more extreme close-up of Alice's lips telling the tale you'll scream.) It's something to pore over shot by shot or sequence by sequence, but it's not particularly entertaining by any means. But it is something that still deserves to be seen again and again.
Rating: 
Summary: Go Ask Alice
Review: The original Alice in Wonderland was weird enough on its own merit. Now... things have taken an even greater twist. A darker, scarier, crazier twist. The animation is unique and morbid. The story takes place within cramped quarters, giving every recognizable scene from Alice in Wonderland a totally new and mystifying approach. It's hard to explain, but the wackiness of Alice draws you in like one is drawn to look upon a horrible car accident. However, sound effects are loud and grating. The narrator is interruptive and bland. And, at times, the show doesn't move with the quickest of ease. But if you're a stickler for old-school animation, and/or you like creepy nonsensical madness, Alice isn't a bad sit, though it has its problems, as well.
Rating:
Summary: Alice in creepy Wonderland
Review: The tale is familiar, though uncanny. Alice follows a white rabbit down into wonderland, and then things get strange. This version of "Alice in Wonderland" is itself, a wonder of film-making. The dialogue is minimal, enough only to tell the story. The claymation is fantastic and creepy, utilizing a stuffed rabbit, children's toys, socks, and various animal bones to name a few. Lots of sharp things children shouldn't run with appear with frequency, and curious Alice continually sticks things in her mouth before knowing what will occur. Live animals appear with regularity.
Though, perhaps not much on story, this version of "Alice" should be seen for the excellently bizarre claymation. Though, not as cheery as "Nightmare Before Christmas", just as worthy of a viewing or ultimately purchase.
Rating:
Summary: "Said the Queen of Hearts"
Review: There are only two negatives to this film that I felt were mostly unnecessary elements. One was the frequent edit to a close-up of Alice's, excuse me "Alenka's," tiny mouth and stained yellow teeth saying things like "Said the White Rabbit" or "Said the Queen of Hearts." By the time this monotony reached the double-digits I was getting annoyed. I knew which character said what, and I didn't need a constant reminder. The other negative, and this is up for debate, is that I don't like foreign films that are dubbed in English. Call me crazy, but I prefer subtitles. There is always something lost in the translation. Well, enough of my negativity. There is plenty here worth seeing, and if you are a genuine nut-case for stop-motion filmmaking than you should thoroughly enjoy this movie. This is not a children's film! There are way too many unnerving and nightmarish sequences. In fact, this film feels like a surreal nightmare! There's a slab of meat that squirms into a pot, there are little rat skulls breaking out of egg shells, and my favorite moment of the film comes when Alice is being chased by the White Rabbit and his grotesque friends. Alice slams the door and bars the smaller door at the base. Suddenly, an axe-head bursts through the tiny door repeatedly until it is completely splintered. The axe withdraws and the head of the White Rabbit(a stuffed rabbit with sawdust for entrails) pokes through and he seems to stare at Alice with an evil glare from his glassy white eyes. I expected him to say "Heeeere's Thumper!" That was the creepiest moment for me, but there are others. There are also some wrenching sound effects that add some excellent flavor to the nightmarish proceedings. If it wasn't for the extremely annoying and frequent cutaways to Alice's slimy mouth I may have given this film a higher rating. That, and she has a gross habit of puting everything she finds into her mouth. One thing she tries is a key she finds inside a sardine tin filled with oil. Instead of wiping the key clean on her dress she gives it one good, long slurp. Yuck! Even she grimaced, much to my delight. "Overall, this is a good movie with plenty of jarring scenes and dream-like sequences that are haunting me to this day," said the Amazon.com reviewer. There is also a short stop-motion film on this DVD that is "definitely" not for children, but it does have some humorous moments. Take it easy.
Rating:
Summary: "Said the Queen of Hearts"
Review: There are only two negatives to this film that I felt were mostly unnecessary elements. One was the frequent edit to a close-up of Alice's, excuse me "Alenka's," tiny mouth and stained yellow teeth saying things like "Said the White Rabbit" or "Said the Queen of Hearts." By the time this monotony reached the double-digits I was getting annoyed. I knew which character said what, and I didn't need a constant reminder. The other negative, and this is up for debate, is that I don't like foreign films that are dubbed in English. Call me crazy, but I prefer subtitles. There is always something lost in the translation. Well, enough of my negativity. There is plenty here worth seeing, and if you are a genuine nut-case for stop-motion filmmaking than you should thoroughly enjoy this movie. This is not a children's film! There are way too many unnerving and nightmarish sequences. In fact, this film feels like a surreal nightmare! There's a slab of meat that squirms into a pot, there are little rat skulls breaking out of egg shells, and my favorite moment of the film comes when Alice is being chased by the White Rabbit and his grotesque friends. Alice slams the door and bars the smaller door at the base. Suddenly, an axe-head bursts through the tiny door repeatedly until it is completely splintered. The axe withdraws and the head of the White Rabbit(a stuffed rabbit with sawdust for entrails) pokes through and he seems to stare at Alice with an evil glare from his glassy white eyes. I expected him to say "Heeeere's Thumper!" That was the creepiest moment for me, but there are others. There are also some wrenching sound effects that add some excellent flavor to the nightmarish proceedings. If it wasn't for the extremely annoying and frequent cutaways to Alice's slimy mouth I may have given this film a higher rating. That, and she has a gross habit of puting everything she finds into her mouth. One thing she tries is a key she finds inside a sardine tin filled with oil. Instead of wiping the key clean on her dress she gives it one good, long slurp. Yuck! Even she grimaced, much to my delight. "Overall, this is a good movie with plenty of jarring scenes and dream-like sequences that are haunting me to this day," said the Amazon.com reviewer. There is also a short stop-motion film on this DVD that is "definitely" not for children, but it does have some humorous moments. Take it easy.
Rating:
Summary: "Said the Queen of Hearts"
Review: There are only two negatives to this film that I felt were mostly unnecessary elements. One was the frequent edit to a close-up of Alice's, excuse me "Alenka's," tiny mouth and stained yellow teeth saying things like "Said the White Rabbit" or "Said the Queen of Hearts." By the time this monotony reached the double-digits I was getting annoyed. I knew which character said what, and I didn't need a constant reminder. The other negative, and this is up for debate, is that I don't like foreign films that are dubbed in English. Call me crazy, but I prefer subtitles. There is always something lost in the translation. Well, enough of my negativity. There is plenty here worth seeing, and if you are a genuine nut-case for stop-motion filmmaking than you should thoroughly enjoy this movie. This is not a children's film! There are way too many unnerving and nightmarish sequences. In fact, this film feels like a surreal nightmare! There's a slab of meat that squirms into a pot, there are little rat skulls breaking out of egg shells, and my favorite moment of the film comes when Alice is being chased by the White Rabbit and his grotesque friends. Alice slams the door and bars the smaller door at the base. Suddenly, an axe-head bursts through the tiny door repeatedly until it is completely splintered. The axe withdraws and the head of the White Rabbit(a stuffed rabbit with sawdust for entrails) pokes through and he seems to stare at Alice with an evil glare from his glassy white eyes. I expected him to say "Heeeere's Thumper!" That was the creepiest moment for me, but there are others. There are also some wrenching sound effects that add some excellent flavor to the nightmarish proceedings. If it wasn't for the extremely annoying and frequent cutaways to Alice's slimy mouth I may have given this film a higher rating. That, and she has a gross habit of puting everything she finds into her mouth. One thing she tries is a key she finds inside a sardine tin filled with oil. Instead of wiping the key clean on her dress she gives it one good, long slurp. Yuck! Even she grimaced, much to my delight. "Overall, this is a good movie with plenty of jarring scenes and dream-like sequences that are haunting me to this day," said the Amazon.com reviewer. There is also a short stop-motion film on this DVD that is "definitely" not for children, but it does have some humorous moments. Take it easy.
Rating:
Summary: A very different Alice
Review: This disk contains two features. "Darkness, Light, Darkness" is a claymation short, and very odd. The main feature, "Alice", combines live action with stop-animation and is even more peculiar. I like both, even though I'm not wholly sure what to make of either.
DLD is all staged in a small room. A person arrives, over the course of the piece, one body part at a time. A hand comes first, then eyes, another hand, the senses, body, and (very late) brain. The whole person is built up from the parts as they arrive and is finally completed - within the room, trapped by doors and windows much too small to allow it to escape.
"Alice" is the most memorable Alice in Wonderland that I've seen. It features only one living actor. She's a young girl, maybe eight years old - a brilliant piece of casting and brilliant in simply being herself. She wears a pretty pink dress and a serious expression throughout. She also wears her smudges and snarls unselfconciously, tends to throw stones, and never shies from the violence implicit in Lewis Carroll's original story.
Svankmajer wanders back and forth across Carroll's story, intersecting at many points. Whether inside Carroll's script or out, Svankmajer aways presents his own vision, one that tends towards the macabre. The White Rabbit is a taxidermy specimen, often leaking sawdust and often licking it back up again. Instead of a mirror, Alice walks through a drawer in a drafting table - the artist's "mirror" on his world - and walks through others at many transitions.
Maybe half the movie is stop-motion animation, but the distinctions are not alway clear. Like Harryhausen, Svankmajer often combines model animation with the real girl. Going beyond Harryhausen, he uses the girl as animation material - the cook-fire on her head being the clearest example. The animation itself tends to be jerky, but very expressive. The caterpillar, for example, is a sock-puppet on a sewing form. When his part is over, he shuts his heyes and goes to sleep. The difference, though, is that his eyes are shut for him, sewn shut by darning needles.
There is remarkably little use of voice, except for a few points where the girl acts as a puppet-like narrator. Only the trial near the end uses much conversation, and that owes more to Kafka ("Say what you're supposed to say," said The King) than to Carroll.
It's good. Strange, but very good.
//wiredweird
Rating:
Summary: Loving and bizarre look
Review: This is a fascinating adaption of Lewis Carroll for the screen, with uncharacteristically few words or outdoor scenes. Yet all the great surrealist images are here - buttered pocket watches, playing cards, etc... indeed, 20th century surrealism owes a great debt to Carroll.
Rating:
Summary: A film for children. . . sort of
Review: This is a film for children. . . sort of, with these ominous words we enter a decaying, claustrophobic wonderland filled with rusty drafting instruments, filthy shards of pottery, lots of sawdust and ageing specimen jars. Watching this movie is like being locked in a closet for a few hours, not exactly fun but impossible to escape. Alice herself undergoes the transformation from a barefoot little girl to a nineteenth century china doll exquisitley animated by the master of stop motion animation as she crawls through desk drawers and grim hallways. the famillar characters of wonderland become rotting museum displays scurrying about like nightmarish clockwork toys. the sound effects add considerably to the eldritch atmosphere - splintering wood, grating metal, and what sounds like some sort of ratchet create a disturbing effect, further reminding us how far from reality we are. this is definitely the best adaptation of Lewis Carrols masterpiece, and the rarest of all commodities - an original voice.
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