Using a live actress to portray the oddly violent Alice and a vast array of stop-motion animated taxidermied animals and bones as the creatures of Wonderland, Švankmajer creates an Alice unlike anything I've ever seen before.
The creatures are scary and very unfriendly, all of them looking like they're on a 3 day cocaine bender with their wildly transfixed glass eyes. The White Rabbit even mirrors Jack Nicholson breaking down a door with an ax.
Unfortunately, after the initial shock wears off of what is unfolding before your eyes, the story becomes a little tiresome. We've all seen it before countless times and I find myself wishing most of the scenes were cut in half.
In conclusion, I recommend you see this film at least once, just to experience the horrors with your own eyes. You will NEVER forget it.
3½ neighing bird bones out of 5
4 comments:
4 sawdust and socks out of 5.
I agree it does get a little tired as it goes on but Švankmajer's wild imagination gets under my skin.
I was ready to give it a 4 going into the film (based on memory)....but I found myself watching the clock all too often.
Had it been 45 minutes long, I might have given it a 5.
Oh well....still got one more Švankmajer to cover here. :)
3.5 sounds right to me.
This was the first feature-length Švankmajer I ever saw. It just didn't flow as well as some of the shorts.
Strangely, the fist time I ever saw it was as a series of shorts. It was split into (I think it was) 5 parts over here. It wasn't until last year I saw it as one feature-length.
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