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One day, little Alice (Kristına Kohoutová) witnesses the weirdest to
fhings: Her rabbit mount suddenly starts to move, frees itself from the
nails that hold it in place, gets dressed, and just takes off, ultimately
disappearing into a drawer of a desk on a wide open field. Alice is much
too curious not to follow him - even if the rabbit doesn't want to be
followed - and also gets into the drawer, which widens into a mine and
ultimately leads to a room not unlike her own, where Alice finds a tiny
door, much to small for her to fit through, and the rabbit on the other
side does everything to keep her out. Eventually, she cries so many tears
that she floods the room and she and the rabbit are both swept out. Alice
takes a cookie that shrinks her down to the rabbit's size but also brings
disadvantages with it - so much so that the rabbit eventually lures her
into a trap and has her attacked by bizarre animal skeletons. She escapes
somehow though and sees a sock being transformed into the caterpillar,
she's invited to the Queen of Heart's party by an animal messenger, sees
the rabbits baby boy turning into a piglet, meets up with the Mad Hatter
and the March Hare, and ultimately makes the Queen of Heart's acquaintance
- who of course wants her head ... which is when Alice wakes up in her
room of course - but looking around, was she ever really gone? Even
though this movie introduces itself as a film for children right at the
beginning, it's possibly the most grown-up (as opposed to adult, examples
of that elsewhere on this page) version of Alice in Wonderland,
as it puts its emphasis on the surreal elements of its source material and
thus relies very much on a psychological re-interpretation of Carrol's
story, rather than just going for its wonderful imagery or bizarre
setpieces.But while this might sound brain-heavy, it isn't really in the
hands of Jan Svankmajer, who is not only able to create a visual world all
of its own for this film, masterfully blending live action and animation
and getting the most of everyday objects to make his vision work, he also
treats the whole thing with tongue firmly in cheek, making sure that one
is above all else entertained by this movie. Highly recommended!!!
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