Customer Reviews

Alice in Wonderland [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It's great to have this adaptation of Carroll's story on DVD, but the presentation is quite shoddy.

I saw this film at the National Film Theatre in London, and the audience was warned then that the best available print was in poor shape. The particular brand of film stock it was shot on was unstable, and the colour fidelity of the print shown was inconsistent. The film also suffered from some sort of chemical decay down one side of the image. These faults have been faithfully reproduced on this DVD edition.

Sadly, the DVD transfer has only compounded these problems. It's been mastered from an analogue tape source, and quite a low quality one at that (possibly U-Matic). The tracking of the playback isn't stable, and the top third of the picture suffers from chroma problems. On computer monitors, or other displays with no overscan, you can see head switching artefacts at the bottom of the screen.

In summary: this a wonderful adaptation of the story, marred by photochemical decay of the print, and further blighted by shoddy video mastering.

"This wonderful film turns Lewis Carroll's book of Alice in Wonderland upside down into a claymation fantasy. Buy it now!" This review was written by my 8-year-old son, who is a huge fan of the book and everything having to do with Alice. He also loves the Disney version, but this version which came out around the same time (1950), is better, truer to the book, technically more remarkable, and has some wonderful and strange songs. Carol Marsh is a very English Alice. In short, Leonard Maltin is WRONG. This is well worth getting and seeing.

While not as much of an assault on the senses as Jan Svankmejer's astounding version of Alice in Wonderland, this film should appeal to those who feel that Disney's 1951 version is too homogenized and "Disneyfied".

The puppets and stop motion effects were created by American puppeteer Louis Bunin, and are excellent.

A warning, however, is in order. The movie is book-ended by some very wooden and tedious scenes of a Lewis Carrol charactor telling stories to Alice. Also, strangely, Alice looks like she's about 25 years old.....

I had the privilege of meeting and studying with Lou Bunin while at college. He was very proud of this film, and rueful regarding the circumstances which kept it from wider release. In our class, Bunin ran a beautiful 16mm print of his "Alice" that was superior to the copy on this DVD. How unfortunate that the original colors and crispness are lost. This DVD version has no chapter stops, special features, interviews, or commentary. Too bad; it's a film that could have used them. For animators and fans of stop motion, I'd say take a look, and at least the price is lower than the usual. But even for devotees of the "Alice" stories, the film itself can be dense and off-putting, in that it faithfully recreates the arch cynicism and curious aloofness of the original story. This film cries out for a loving restoration: sadly, this isn't it, but it may be the only way to see Bunin's "Alice" for the time being. Bunin was a wonderful, warm, and talented man, and this feature is, to many, his most lasting legacy. If viewers can see beyond the limitations of the poor transfer, they may come away impressed with the artistry and cleverness of the movie's dream-like design.

I bought this movie in the early 1990's for my son, who was around 3 at the time. We both loved it and I still watch it. The songs in the movie were great and the British cast were truly amazing! I also loved the bit of Medieval history that you hear in the songs in this movie. In my mind, this movie best tells Lewis Carroll's story about Alice. The characters were lovable and are depicted in this movie just as they are in the book. I highly recomend this movie to anyone.

I enjoyed this movie as a child, and am very happy to finally own it, and now I can share it with my children also. I had a copy on VHS that someone copied off another VHS for me, but the quality was very poor. Although this is a very old movie, and I understand that most of the film copies were destroyed somehow, this version is the best that I've seen yet. The stop-motion animation done by Lou Bunin is a delight, and the musical score is set to lyrics straight from Lewis Carroll's book. Love it! Love it! Love it!

This is a great film and a rare classic, but a poor transfer from film to DVD(or from VHS to DVD from the looks of it), there has never been a good copy of this film available since it was allowed to deteriorate from mindless neglect.
Lou Bunin's stop-motion animation masterpiece was the first attempt at making a full length stop-motion animated film. decades before Tim Burton and Disney took all the credit for the idea. Lou Bunin even took it a step further and combined a live action actress( the wonderful Carol Marsh) into the animation. the whole thing is very hip and cutting edge. too bad the film has been allowed to become faded and washed-out because of abusive neglect by today's filmgoers.
this film has been the victim of unfair criticism by persons who refuse to look at the film's innovations and contributions, but instead chuckle about it's neglect and poor picture and audio quality. something a little kindness and restoration would do wonders for.
James Johnston
the real 'Alice' fan
(Dean Richards is just my brother)

Ordered this because of some distant childhood memory of seeing it on TV. The song, "I'm Upside-down" had been in my mind ever since and for years I had tried to track it down, not really knowing which version I had seen. When I finally found this, it did not live up to my memories. The tranfer was what I had expected: watchable, but old, soft-focus VHS quality. The film itself, though, was hard to get into becuse a good deal of time is spent at the beginning with Lewis Carroll (Dodson) and his University cronies. It seemed endless and by the time Alice finally fell down the rabbit hole, I had fallen asleep.

I was completely blown away by this enchanting version of ALICE IN WONDERLAND. Carol Marsh's portrayal of the famous heroine is truly remarkable, capturing the innocence and curosity of such a
girl. The combination of puppets and live-action is unbelievable,
bringing the fun and surrealism of the original book to the screen. Well acted and laid out. A treat for the entire family!

As I said when I reviewed the 1999 version, that I love Alice in Wonderland. This version of Alice is closer to Alice's real life. It shows her friend Mr. Dodgson and even her father and both her sisters. It's a good way to design such an Alice. The Wonderland characters were made and shaped into puppets for this. The designs were excellent, but colors was a problem I found. Some of the puppets had no color what-so-ever, for example the Cheshire Cat had none! And he was usually the funky and jazzy kind of colorful cat. But anyhow, I just loved this movie an I think you will to if you buy or rent it. Well gotta go!