Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Alice Blu-ray Movie Review

Down the rabbit—drawer?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 11, 2014

What is it about Lewis Carroll’s immortal Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that has seemed to defy easy adaptation into visual media, whether on the large or the small screen? According to most sources, film versions of Carroll’s improbable tale started appearing as early as 1903, and there have been literally scores of adaptations for both film and television since then, including everything from a Claude Chabrol film to an Elizabeth Swados musical starring a newcomer by the name of Meryl Streep. Disney had a go of it in 1951 with Alice in Wonderland and Tim Burton attempted his version (Alice In Wonderland 3D) almost sixty years later, but even filmmakers (and/or studios) this renowned have usually failed to completely capture the magic and mystery of Carroll’s book. Many adapters, including such composing talents as Jule Styne and John Barry, have attempted to capture some of the spirit of the story by making it a musical (Styne for the 1966 television musical Alice in Wonderland (or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?), Barry for the big budget 1972 British feature Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), but even that gambit didn’t seem to help with the fundamental problem with almost all of the adaptive efforts—film and television are often fairly literal visual media, even with special effects thrown into the mix, and there’s no easy way to easily translate the hallucinatory, dreamlike quality of Carroll’s writing in an easily accessible way. Czech director Jan Švankmajer took his own stab (almost literally—more about that later) at the vaunted world of little Alice in his 1988 film Alice, and if nothing else, Švankmajer was able to create a world that does seem to come out of a dreamscape—though some might argue it’s more nightmarish than anything.

My hunch is that Švankmajer’s film may have been a major inspiration for Tim Burton, for it traffics in one of Burton’s favorite techniques, stop motion animation. While Alice was actually Švankmajer’s first feature length film, he had been plying his trade with a number of well received, and often quite surreal, shorts, including a 1971 version of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. (Švankmajer was evidently also a major inspiration for one Terry Gilliam, and Gilliam himself took on Jabberwocky—more or less, anyway—in 1977.) While Švankmajer’s Alice begins with what seems to be a fairly literal take on the source material, with a brief scene showing Alice and her sister (whose head is out of the frame) sitting by a languid stream on a sunny afternoon, things get into decidedly weirder territory after a close-up of Alice’s mouth announces that this may or may not be a tale for children. (The film was originally in Švankmajer’s native Czech, and this British Film Institute’s restoration, which is dubbed in English, has rather awkward match ups between what’s being spoken and the actual lip movements.)

Perhaps unexpectedly the film segues to an interior location that might be an attic playroom for Alice. Instead of sitting next to her sister, she’s next to a Victorian doll, and instead of throwing stones into a river, Alice is doing similar duty with a cup of tea (just the first of several patently odd touches). Suddenly a stuffed rabbit in a glass case springs to life (in one of Švankmajer’s most facile animations in the entire film). In what is a troubling but perhaps intentional reference to crucifixion, the rabbit pulls the nails that had kept it secured in the case out of its paws with its teeth, and then accesses a secret drawer in the case which contains a pair of scissors, an implement which allows the creature to smash through the glass and make its way down the rabbit hole. Only in this case, it isn’t a rabbit hole at all, but rather a bureau desk of sorts, one that is in the middle of a barren desert setting. Already Švankmajer is making it clear that while the basic outlines of Carroll’s piece will remain more or less intact, he is not going to be a slave to tradition.

The revisioning tends to play out in a decidedly darker tone than Carroll’s more sanguine approach. While little Alice (Kristýna Kohoutová) “acts” out actual passages from the book, the representations tend to be quite disturbing at times, with a lot of imagery that evokes death or perhaps something more Freudian, as when the living Alice emerges from a doll version which stands in for her in some sequences. (There are repeated images of things coming out of abdomens, including the Rabbit leaking his stuffing and, later, a crocodile being sewn up, taxidermy style.)

Like many (maybe even most) of the other filmic adaptations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this Alice is probably not the definitive version of Carroll’s timeless tale, and yet it is easily one of the most striking. The stop motion animation is extremely playful, if unsettling at times, adding a quasi-hallucinatory tone to the proceedings. There’s also a significantly edgier approach to this material even divorced from the stop motion animation, as exemplified by Alice holding up a pair of scissors at the film’s close and musing about cutting off the rabbit’s head, should he return. This particular wonderland is obviously fraught with subtext. That may not be everyone’s cup of (Mad Hatter) tea, but it’s a distinctive brew nonetheless.

Alice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Alice is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of First Run Features with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. This is the "digitally restored" British Film Institute version of the film, and while not particularly sharp or vivid looking, it's a generally natural looking presentation that offers some nice fine detail (especially with regard to the textures of the creatures as well as the costumes) and accurate if not especially brilliant looking colors (flesh tones are occasionally slightly on the yellow side of things). There are occasional very minor fluctuations in contrast and lighting between frames, as may be unavoidable considering the stop motion technique utilized for large swaths of the film. While there is some noticeable fine grain in evidence, it's not very prevalent which may indicate some moderate denoising efforts have been made here. That said, things never really approach waxy territory, as evidenced by things like readily apparent pores and skin textures and even the down on Alice's upper lip (see a couple of the screenshots accompanying this review) as well as the nicely detailed textures of the creatures.

Alice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Alice's sound design is one of its chief allures, and if you can get past the disparity between the English being spoken and the actual lip movements (one of the worst mismatches in my personal memory, a problem which is only exacerbated by the fact that so many lines are voiced with an extreme close-up of Alice's mouth), there's a lot to enjoy in this LPCM Mono track. Wonderful sound effects like the clinking together of silverware or the scurry of feet across the desert are brought surprisingly vividly to life in the track. While obviously narrow, there's substantial depth and the midrange is especially full bodied. There are no dropouts or problems of any kind to report.

Alice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The only so-called "supplements" on this Blu-ray disc are trailers for other First Run Features releases. First Run is still relatively new to the Blu-ray game and the authoring of this disc is a bit clunky. There's no Pop-Up Menu and even individual trailers can't be chapter skipped through. Evidently the original British release of this title included the 1903 silent version of Alice in Wonderland, and it's a shame that isn't included here.

Alice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Literalists need probably not apply to this particular Alice, for Jan Švankmajer, while hewing mostly to the general outlines of Carroll's text, takes the viewer on a decidedly individualistic journey through Wonderland. Much darker and more troubling than Carroll's version, this Alice prays upon the almost atavistic fears of childhood, including sublimated terrors related to mortality. Visually, this piece is beyond ingenious, with some wonderfully realized stop motion animation that's quite artful and artistic. Little Kristýna Kohoutová is quite winning as Alice, though at times she seems to have been ported in from a Czech touring company of The Bad Seed. Those who don't mind a completely odd take on this iconic material will probably love a lot of what Alice has to offer. Highly recommended.