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From Amazon.co.uk
This adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland mixes animation and live action to create a dreamlike world, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's simply a kid's film. Young Alice (Kristyna Kohoutová, spoken by Camilla Power) watches a stuffed and mounted rabbit come to life in her playroom and follows it through a magical drawer into a strange world that resembles a 19th-century toy store come to life, with a few specimens from a natural history museum thrown in. Czech animator Jan Svankmajer retains the familiar story elements but tweaks them with bizarre imagery brought to herky-jerky life with his spasmodic style of stop-motion animation. The caterpillar becomes a sock puppet with dentures, while other crazy creatures materialise as creepy skull-headed beings that bleed sawdust. Throughout the tale Svankmajer returns to punctuating close-ups of Alice's lips telling the story, just to remind us that this is a tale told. In the best surrealist tradition Svankmajer uses familiar objects in unfamiliar ways, giving a fantasy quality to the banal (and the not so banal) while tipping the dream logic to the edge of nightmare. While the imagery remains more unsettling than genuinely disturbing, younger children will certainly be happier with Disney's brightly coloured animated classic Alice in Wonderland. Older children and adults will better appreciate Svankmajer's sly visual wit and unusual animation style. --Sean Axmaker
Product Description
Alice
A Film by Jan Svankmajer
Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer s Alice (1988) is a creepy and disturbing adaptaion of Lewis Carroll s perennial literary classic, and perhaps the most faithful the original work. Combining a live-action Alice (Kristýna Kohoutová) with a Wonderland filled with threatening stop-motion characters, vankmajer s deliberately crude style of animation, use of close-ups, and rich design work lend the film a pervading sense of unease and a menacing dream-logic which marries a sly visual wit with piercing psychological insight.
Extra Features:- All films presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
- Alternative English language version of the feature
- Alice in Wonderland (1903, 10 mins): the first screen version of Lewis Carroll s classic
- Alice in Label Land (1974, 12 mins): animated COI film by Richard Taylor
- Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1992, 3 mins): first of the Quay Brothers Alice-inspired short music film
- Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You (1993, 3 mins): Quay Brothers second Alice-inspired short music film
- Fully illustrated booklet with newly commissioned essays
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
56 of 56 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape|Amazon Verified Purchase
Like some other reviewers, my parents taped this from late night telly for me to watch, back in the depths of childhood.
As for this film not being suitable to children, I say - pish!
Disurbing images, etc etc - it's only wierd to *rational* grown-ups, who've had a lifetime of conditioning in what consitutes *normal* film-making.
As a child, I loved this film, thought it was crazy, beautiful and amazing - it didn't give me nightmares, or make me afraid of milk or meat, because I didn't know it should be scary, no one told me.....
I say buy it for yourself, buy it for your kids, buy it for your grandparents, buy it for people you meet in the street and abandon twee disney forever!!!
As for this film not being suitable to children, I say - pish!
Disurbing images, etc etc - it's only wierd to *rational* grown-ups, who've had a lifetime of conditioning in what consitutes *normal* film-making.
As a child, I loved this film, thought it was crazy, beautiful and amazing - it didn't give me nightmares, or make me afraid of milk or meat, because I didn't know it should be scary, no one told me.....
I say buy it for yourself, buy it for your kids, buy it for your grandparents, buy it for people you meet in the street and abandon twee disney forever!!!
Long may your socks dig holes and your jam bring forth drawing pins!!!!
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am really writing in reponse to those who suggest that this DVD is too dark for children. My children (girls age 4 and 2) saw this in the late 80's and called it the 'real' alice, prefering to watch it over and above the disney version which stayed in pristine condition in the video cupboard. I have lost count of how many times they watched this film - they never tired of it. So why did they like it? Who knows. THey were never scared of it as far as I could see. Perhaps it said someting to them about their own childish world which is full of seemingly strange and sometimes senseless events. They also liked the Narnia videos made around the same time, and 'The Box of Delights' both of which had dark undertones for very young children. When i was small I read unsanitized versions of Grimm and other European fairlytales, graduating onto Lord of the Rings and Gormenghast when i was 11. I loved them, and gobbled up books like this. They also loved dark stories like 'Not now Bernard by McKee (look it up, it's fab). Apparaently there are sound psychological reasons for the appeal of such dark materials for children so please don't dismiss this out of hand as a film for the young.
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful
By Ex-King Zog
Format:Blu-ray
If you've seen any of Jan Svankmajer's films before you will not be disappointed - if you haven't, prepare yourself for a deeply disturbing, grimly amusing and grotesque 'take' on 'Alice'. Without compromising the spirit of the original, Svankmajer has used 'stop-go' animation and live action, mixed with broken toys and ephemera to produce a film you won't easily forget and should not really be shown to children (a bit like the book, really). Who would have thought an old sock could be so unsettling?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
DVD Jan Svankmajer's Alice
I am so pleased this was available but I have not watched it yet. I am looking forward to that
Published 3 months ago by colin backhouse
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great upgrade over my dvd
One of my favorite movies - and so glad to have it on Blu-ray.
The picture is very sharp, and a huge improvement over dvd and netflix ... Read more
The picture is very sharp, and a huge improvement over dvd and netflix ... Read more
Published 3 months ago by JaneMancini
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Adaptation.
I not usually a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland, its too disjointed and crazy for the sake of it. This version however is one of my favourite films.
Published 12 months ago by Rhys
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Now you will see a film made for children... perhaps..."
There are many screen adaptations of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and each have their own merits. Read more
Published 18 months ago by @GeekZilla9000
5.0 out of 5 stars
Skulls, sawdust and socks
Everybody knows the story of Alice in Wonderland -- a little girl falls down a rabbit hole, and finds a charmingly surreal otherworld filled with strange creatures. Read more
Published 21 months ago by E. A Solinas
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Finally, a refreshing version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."...
This Czechoslovakian version of Alice in Wonderland is a wonder to behold. Dark, disturbing and at the same time whimsical and wonderful, it is a truly refreshing version of the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by C. Sanderson
5.0 out of 5 stars
A terrifying trip down the rabbit hole; fantastic Blu-ray release
A young girl sits next to her older sister in front of a creek, casually tossing stones into the bubbling waters out of boredom. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Steven Adam Renkovish
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alice - A tale for children - perhaps
This is rather a unique, creepy and sometimes disturbing, interpretation of Lewis Carroll's original, which skilfully combines live action and stop-motion animation. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Astor E Teller
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alice
This Is just a Iconic Film, Not really for Children,This Is the Dark Side of Carroll More closer To the Original Book. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Henry29
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful release of a beautiful film
Strangely, in a past review of the BFI's Jan Svankmajer - The Complete Short Films [DVD], I wondered whether the BFI would go to the trouble of releasing any of Svankmajer's... Read more
Published 24 months ago by Rossettian
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