Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Outside Of The Box
Review: * My interest in animation sometimes takes me in strange
directions. Almost by accident I picked up Jan Svankmajer's
ALICE, another animated take on Lewis Carroll's ALICE IN
WONDERLAND, and on watching it had my mind completely blown
for an hour and a half.Svankmajer's ALICE is not a cartoon as such. It's a
combination of live-action film and stop-action photography
with models -- some *very* unusual models. If most productions of ALICE IN WONDERLAND have the
appearance of a childhood dream, Svankmajer's version seems
to reflect a childhood nightmare. Wonderland is not a place
of green parks and flowing streams, but more like a huge old
dark and dingy house with an odd "dimensional
transcendence", its curving stairs and dark rooms connected
in disjointed ways. When Alice (played by the astonishingly pretty Katryna
Kohoutova) is locked inside a pantry (by a series of events
I would be hard-pressed to reasonably describe) she finds in
it odd jars containing faintly-decayed food and ticking
watches; a rack of eggs hatches out tiny skulls (of mice?)
that scuttle away and hide; a tin that rattles and contains, on
being opened, squirming woodlice. Alice picks up a small
loaf of bread that grows nailheads as she tries to bite into
it; a slab of meat peeks out of a pot, then slithers across
the floor and slides into another one. Svankmajer's ALICE is not necessarily fun to watch. It
seems to have been deliberately made slow-moving (the
droning TICK TICK TICK of watches is a continuing theme
through the film) and its imagery also seems to have been
devised to be grating and sometimes repellent, like running
fingernails over a blackboard. Sometimes it seems to fall
into the annoying pretensions of art-house cinema. However,
if you're tired of watching Hollywood blow things up and can
prepare yourself to be patient, this movie has enough
surprises in it to keep your head continuously spinning.
Rating:
Summary: Hauntingly Bizarre & Surrealistically Strange Adventure...
Review: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is originally written by Lewis Carroll, and Jan Svankmajer brings his story to life through surreal stop-motion animation. The stop-motion animation adds the element of freakishness as the creature's movements turn jerky and ghostlike as ghosts do in recent horror films such as the American remake Ring and the Japanese Ju-on. Carroll aimed his story for adults, as it is an intellectual masterpiece. In essence, Alice's adventure is a detailed psychosocial study of Victorian England full of analogies and metaphors. Even though Carroll's original tale is temporarily nightmarish, Svankmajer succeeds in creating an adaptation that is a darker and more ominous and is fairly close to the original. In addition, Svankmajer uses many of the same analogies and metaphors as he reflects upon his own Czech society. The Disney version of Alice's adventures is rather tame compared to Svankmajer's adaptation, which most adults would not consider showing for their children.
The opening scene of Alice begins with her sitting by a small stream next to someone who is reading a book while she is throwing rocks in the stream. The reading person is obviously an adult, but the audience never gets to see the person's face as the screen only displays the person from chest down while Alice is fully visible. This is a great touch by Svankmajer as it directly brings the attention to only Alice, who clearly is very bored. By the way, the only actor in the film is Alice (Kristyna Kohoutová), who tries in her boredom to turn the page of the book in the adults lap, but the adult brushes her off.
The first scene leads the audience into the opening credits and later the lips of Alice, which says, "Now you will see a film for children. Perhaps." The voice, which is Camilla Power in the English-speaking version, leaves a daunting echo in the mind of the audience as if a threat is imminent, but also awakens a curiosity. The curiosity is similar to the one of Alice who follows a rabbit as her continuously growing curiosity brings her into a nightmarish world. However, her curiosity is more likely to depend on her boredom.
The story begins in Alice's room where she has an abundance of toys and trinkets. These toys also offer a déjà vu experience as the first scene after the opening credits displays two dolls similar to the reading adult and Alice sitting by the stream as Alice throws rocks in a half full tea cup in her room. Consequently, she eyes the floor and room when she notices a stuffed rabbit that comes to life. The rabbit pulls its nailed paws from the board underneath while the nails remain in the paws. Svankmajer places a reversed analogy within this moment as the nails rest in the front to Jesus Christ's crucifixion as both return to life later. Furthermore, the rabbit continues to check the time on his watch, which he stores inside his stomach, as there is a large hole after having pulled himself from the board. This portion metaphorically compares to the stress of the society to rush somewhere at a particular time, instead of taking time to enjoy the surroundings. Svankmajer adds a little dark humor to this as sawdust covers the watch every time the rabbit brings it out of his stuffed stomach.
Alice offers a truly bizarre cinematic experience comparable to an acid trip, which some suggest. Although, the film is a series of odd experiences that should freak Alice or any other child out, Alice conquers her fears and gains wisdom through what could be a succession of analogies and metaphors. Yet, on the surface, Alice offers a haunting cinematic experience for everyone, which could leave an audience pondering forever.
Rating: 
Summary: Darkly splendid,a fever dream of highest quality.
Review: An excellant movie for the connesiuer of the bizzare. The movie does have some down sides I'm afraid. The narration by Alice does begin to get a bit tedious by the middle of the movie. The stop motion photography is excellant. Well worth it.Its dark under currents give the film a other worldly fever dream quality. No soundtrack though. Disturbing sound effects. Yesssss. A surrealist universe of dreams and nightmares.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond the Looking-Glass
Review: Animation legend Jan Svankmajer applies his distinctive style to Lewis Carroll's most famous creation, crafting one of the most original and unforgettable takes on Alice's adventures ever put to film. Having previously adapted Carroll in his 1971 short film, "Jabberwocky," Svankmajer returns to the author's work with this amazing feature-length film. Employing a magnificent blend of live action and stop-motion animation, he uses many of Carroll's ideas as jumping-off points. Many of the characters are reconstructed as nightmarish abstracts of the way they have usually been depicted in previous adaptions. The white rabbit is a stuffed real rabbit who keeps his watch tucked in a sawdust-leaking gap in his chest. The Dormouse has been reduced to a creepy crawling foxlike hide, and the Caterpillar is a sock with eyeballs and teeth that sews its eyes shut when it sleeps. Although familiar characters such as the Mock Turtle and the Cheshire Cat are left out, Svankmajer's film is incredibly faithful to the book's sense of fantasy and absurdity. The minimal dialogue and pronounced sound effects also add to the overall unsettling mood. The key to truly appreciating this version is to forget the common associated imagery from other adaptions, and treat this as its own entity. Just as a dream makes a totally different impression on you than a person you describe it to (regardless of how well you describe it), this film is one man's surreal interpretation of another man's surreal description. The skull-headed birds, walking dolls, and broken-down furniture of Svankmajer's world make this a pretty disturbing telling of Alice's journey, but a masterful, enthralling, and undeniably unique one as well. The DVD also includes his 8-minute short from 1989, "Darkness-Light-Darkness," a brilliant (and pessimistic) metaphor on existence featuring some outstanding claymation work. If you are unfamiliar with the art of Jan Svankmajer, this disc is a great introduction to the animation genius.
Rating:
Summary: ALICE!
Review: Apparently it was a lifelong ambition of Jan Svankmajer, the Czech master of animation, to film his own interpretation of "Alice in Wonderland"! In this 1988 film he remains true to Lewis Carroll's classic but still makes this "Alice" undeniably his own! The combination of animation and live action makes is certainly distinctive! Kristyna Kohoutova stars as Alice! This would not be the first version of "Alice" you should check out, but if you have loved the story you should check out this version! Also, check out the story of the "true" Alice in "Dreamchild"! If you enjoy one of these films, I am sure you will enjoy the other!
Rating:
Summary: The Living Dead in Wonderland...
Review: As an Alice fanatic I had been looking forward to Jan Svankmajer's film, but I am suspicious it will eventually give me nightmares. I also am a lover of the macabre and surreal, so perhaps I was just not in the right frame of mind for this sort of thing... We have Alice, as her true size played by a real life little girl, who then morphs into a porcelain doll when she shrinks. There is something basely terrifying about the blank china doll, and I really felt like locking it in a closet whenever it was onscreen. The White Rabbit, a dead stuffed sawdust-leaking rabbit with big fake eyes and hideous teeth is even more horrific! The other classic characters, all brought to life by stop-art animation, are almost equally repulsive. Wonderland itself isn't anything like it is in the book or film adaptations, Disney especially. No fantasy cottages or magical gardens here. It's as if the new setting alternated between the basement of an Old World morgue and a dilapidated Old World tenement, through which Alice wanders room to room. One unsettling aspect of the film is its lack of background noise. Apart from it's piercing sound effects there is absolutely no music and no score, only intensifying the nightmarish landscape. Another oddity is the way Alice tells the story. The bits of dialogue, though brief, are constantly & bothersome-ly punctuated by a girl's voice finishing off the speech with: "Said the White Rabbit," or "Said Alice to herself." These punctuations are shot as full close-ups of Alice's mouth, and since the original Czechoslovakian dialogue has been dubbed over with English it has a rather irritating effect... Look out for the disturbing scene where the White Rabbit and Co. capture Alice and throw her in a dark pantry full of freakish sundries! This film is definately not for children--I can't say this any other way! Imagine Sesame Street if all the Muppets were little corpses several weeks dead, rotting & grossly skeletal! I still rate this movie fairly high, despite my adversion to it, as I am guessing this was Svankmajer's ultimate intention, and it does all come down to individual preference and mood. Maybe rent this one first or borrow a friend's copy before putting out the money. I can't see myself ever watching "Alice" on a regular basis. I guess I'll save her for Halloweentime or a dark and stormy evening when frightening dreams are called for. If you feel like visiting a bleak imaginary world then may I recommend "Nightmare Before Christmas," where the characters are much more on the adorable side...
Rating:
Summary: High sweetness factor, but it needs a little noise
Review: Basically, this movie is like watching an hour-and-a-half long music video - a really SWEET music video, for that matter. However, there's no music. At all. And there's almost no dialogue. I recommend watching this movie on low volume (since you won't be missing much) while simultaneously listening to some cool music. I watched it with Tool's album, "Lateralus," and I now like this album more than I ever did before. The reason I emphasize the music video thing is that this movie is basically just a conglomeration of really cool stop-motion animated images.
Rating:
Summary: Strange and Fun
Review: I love stop motion animation. This film was a great effort. It really isn't for kids. The lack of any soundtrack gives the entire piece a very eerie tone. Fans of Alice in Wonderland will have a great time with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Wowy!
Review: I only saw a bit of this last year when I purchased it from Starstruck Entertainment. I had looked forward to seeing Jan's version of ALICE and thought it was going to be excellent and well done. Well it was from what I seen of it, but it was sort of weird and a shiver down my spine. It's kind of scary when Alice catches sight of that horrid white rabbit in the cave bleeding saw-dust! UH! The cave itself was also scary because of the dripping water and the dirt and mud as well. It's weird because when Alice narrates the story, you get a close up look of her mouth just lipping the words of somebody else's voice. The other odd thing is that Alice rarely speaks at all. She only makes sighs and screams. I took this movie back to Starstruck because it was that weird and it was $40.00! However, I'm gonna rent it and see the rest and then see what I think of it and then I'll write a better review of what I thought here at Amazon! (Can you imagine it? $40.00!).
Rating:
Summary: Delightfully NOT Disney
Review: I've been a fan of "Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland" for some time now, and frankly found the all-too-popular Disnified version rather dissapointing. Jan's adaptation however, was a refreshing change for what you'd expect from a children's novel adaptation. Although at first I was dissapointed by the exclusion of some characters and scenes, the movie is nonetheless beautifully done, with amazing stop-motion animation. If you are familiar with and enjoy the works that Arthur Rackham did for AAIW, you will definitely appreciate this version. (and if you don't know who Rackham is, please look him up online!). All in all, a nightmareishly delight to watch, particularly alone in the dark, right before you go to bed.
(had some interesting dreams the first time I saw this!) enjoy!
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