While sitting here, after setting up Cafe World for the day, and realizing the dishwasher had finally stopped being so damn loud, I turned on the Wii, started the Netflix channel, and began browsing.
I really did enjoy this latest adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Tim Burton has such an eccentric imagination, and casting for the movie was rather sound. But when I saw, Alice, Jan Svankmajer's sordid take on the epic Lewis Carroll novel, I figured, "What the hell? Why not?" Well, it's 9:15 in the morning, and I was sooooooo not ready for this.
I ran to IMDB to get a listing of other presentations Svankmajer had made, so I could prepare myself for whatever other bizarre pieces the man had created. This one, however, I have to say was just completely interesting.
Kristýna Kohoutová plays our infamous Alice, in a world that looks like 1980s Robot Chicken meets The Nightmare before Christmas after being dipped in bleach, ammonia, and Wild Turkey. Filled with stop motion animation, the only living thing in here is Alice, who, honestly, seemed more out of place than the character in the story. As I was setting up this blog, I looked at the screen and saw lips and teeth. The eyebrow raising "huh?" of course appeared, but then I realized that only certain words came from the girl's mouth as if she was reading the book. Okay, I can deal with this. The beginning of the film starts with opening credits mixed with the lips of Alice and her voice as well, saying "Now you will see a film... made for children... perhaps... ' But, I nearly forgot... you must... close your eyes... otherwise... you won't see anything."
Like I said, I wasn't ready. From the sawdust supper the rabbit ate to the skeletal animals going after Alice after the shrinking potion not only diminished her size, but turned her into a doll as well, I was engaged, horrified, confused, intrigued, and sleepy. This was all in the first 45 minutes. Oh yeah, no music. That doesn't do me well, but I said I'd make it through it.
There were times when this movie seemed like the horror dream of someone who had too many Skittles, a gallon of Funnel Cake batter and three acid strips too many before reading the book. Our friend, the wise and smug Caterpillar, was created with a sock, a set of dentures, and glass eye beads, and his mushroom seemed to be a wooden thumbtack. Oh, did I mention that she got to this "wonderland" by crawling into her dresser? Yeah, tripped me out. Svankmajer's vision is rather strange, like.. Kanye West's twisted fantasy strange. Throughout the whole movie, all I could ask myself was, "Did we read the same book?" Yet, scene after scene, I realized we had.
I don't know what rating system I'll use for the blog, but whatever it is, it'll go up to ten and this movie gets 7 for its direction, lighting, creepiness and sound effects alone. Wait.. I know what I'll do.
This movie, in my opinion, gets 7 food stamps out of 10. If you get a chance, check it out: Jan Svankmajer's Alice, (1988).
