Alice: Bizarre & Compelling Czech Film

Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland gets a makeover in this old Czech film from 1988. And what a makeover it is!

The movie starts off on an eerie note, when little Alice, troubled and lonely, begins to tell you about her dream. It’s told like a child’s story, even a nursery rhyme, but the movie is clearly intended for older audience.

Everything is odd in this tale, so downright different from the way we always imagine the book. Wonderland is a wasteland of stones and scraps, of laboratories with preserved and half-alive monstrosities. the White Rabbit is made up of sawdust, and the Caterpillar is a sock with dentures. Oh, and the Mad Tea Party is a surreal repetition of the guests having tea and buttered clocks — i.e. it really is as mad as its name. These are not the cute or harmless creatures from Disney… The silent background to the movie adds to its eerie-ness.

The threat to Alice is limited because she has cookies and potions to shrink or enlarge in size (as the story goes)… and because all of these other creatures are miniature-sized. And I think that’s where the art of the movie shines — its stop-motion animation style using clay figures, puppets and paper cutouts. It was weird and fascinating and totally engrossing. I don’t know how Director Jan Švankmajer managed this scale of imagination in 1988, with considerably limited technology. But this movie is a cinematographic feat.

I began the movie fearful that it would have some violent triggers or descend into amoral disaster. On that count, I am happy to say that Alice escapes unscathed. But Alice herself is a puzzle, a dark puzzle. It would be better not to psycho-analyze her too much, and just watch the movie for the animation.

Rating: 10/10

While I would in no way call this movie a favorite, I have to give it a starred rating for the art.

Alice won the feature film award at the 1989 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.