[7.3/10] Alice in Wonderland feels more like a showcase than a movie. It doesn't have a plot so much as it has a series of random events happening in succession. It doesn't have characters so much as it has living toys, wound-up by this or that and crashing into one another. And it doesn't so much have a build to the finish so much as it leaps from scene to scene until all its myriad personalities and pieces pile-up in one grand finale.
And yet, that loopy formlessness is also the film’s charm. Our closing glimpse through the keyhole suggests that this whole escapade may be Alice’s daydream. While more linear than liminal, that sluice of moments and players helps capture the absurdity of dreams and the spirit of joyful nonsense that animates the adaptation of Lewis Caroll’s original work.
It would be hard to describe what happens in Disney’s 1951 release without resorting to a series of “and then” statements, but that matches our tenuous efforts to describe our real life reveries. Why shouldn’t it apply just as easily to their cinematic equivalents?
The best element of Alice in Wonderland its unwavering commitment to that sense off-kilter loopiness throughout. In the film’s introduction and bookend, Alice tires of her studies of history and speaks hopefully of a word defined only by its absurdity, by its self-contradictory silliness, by its negation of everything sound and sensical. Then, Disney’s team delivers just that, an amusing and thoroughly loony realization of the young woman’s idle thought.
Rabbits in waistcoats race through impossibly sized portholes. Sea creatures race in circles in a sopping-wet conga line. Honking twins tell rambling fables of greedy walruses and witless carpenters. Hookah-billowed caterpillars speak in glyphs that match their overenunciated utterances. Kangaroo courts full of head-chopping tyrants, demurring kings-in-name-only, and playing card subjects convene for the world’s most useless array of witnesses. A smiling cat slips bits of his figure in and out of perspective, treating his own anatomy like more of a suggestion than a given. And that’s all without mentioning the tea party.
Alice in Wonderland, then, is delightfully bizarre. There is little that holds these interludes together. Alice traipses through many of them initially when trying to find the White Rabbit and rushes through the remainder when trying to find her way home. The final courtroom scene and race back to reality also unite the disparate personalities of this bonkers little burg. But for the most part, the film indulges in silliness and weirdness for their own sake, which is neither a crime here nor in wonderland.
It’s not hard to see, then, why this one became a favorite of the psychedelic set. The film is awash in an array of colors, from the bluish hues of the seaside bunch, to the springtime tones of the floral chorus, to the puffs of multi-colored smoke spewed by the multi-legged aficionado. Visual puns abound with a host of interesting character designs. The lines between animals and tools blur. Card-like citizens of the Queen of Hearts’s kingdom bend and flop and cascade with an appropriate elasticity. And Alice herself moves with a child’s grace and chagrin through it all.
The piece de resistance of the whole production comes in the famed tea party. There, the film not only reaches its apotheosis of ridiculous wordplay and entertaining vindications of Caroll’s efforts to twist and bend language to suit his own purposes, but finds a visual outlandishness to match. The physics-cracking pouring of a literal half a cup of tea, or unbirthday celebrations where cakes emerge from empty space, or pocket watches “fixed” with butter and jam (but never mustard!) give the film its high point of enjoyable craziness, no small feat given the other contenders.
And yet, despite the sense of goofiness for its own sake, the proceedings carry the whiff of satire that’s only perceptible in the broadest of terms for modern audiences. I’ll cop to having little, if any, understanding of the social and political eccentricities of Victorian England, which Caroll’s novels, and by extension, their adaptations, inevitably seem to be holding a fun house mirror too.
That said, even a century and a half later, plus the added mediation of a new method of presenting the story, it’s not hard to comprehend the subtle critique beneath all that dreamlike nonsense. Upper crusty types blithely “solve” problems by enlisting (or gobbling up) the less well-heeled. Rulers demand to be feted and coddled, responding violently to minor transgressors, whilst henpecking their partners. Trials are shows and shams, made into venues for more parades of gobbledygook and sentences that bear no relation to crimes or verdicts. Even without knowing the specific references, the broader thrust of that social criticism still comes through clearly.
The only major weakness from a lean and amiable release is that, stacked on top of one another, each new serving of absurdity starts to lose some of its novelty. Disney’s team rights the ship by the end by smushing all of Alice’s woebegotten acquaintances together into one raucous escape. But after a while, the surfeit of silliness sloughs off some of its senationalness through sheer repetition.
Still, that mild sense of exhaustion works with the low key themes of the film. Alice wishes for a land free from the responsibilities and structures of being a proper young woman. Then, when confronted with them, she finds that shaggy reality is less hospitable than she imagined, and yearns to go back to the more stollid but nevertheless safe world (and adorable cat) that she once knew. The audience is in far less peril than Alice and she grows and shrinks in size and faces corresponding shifts in might and mercy. But it’s easy to reach the end and share her sense of having had one’s fill of such freewheeling foolishness.
That foolishness, though, is the point of Alice in Wonderland. The film doesn't much care to tell a story, or develop its characters, or progress from one thought to another. It just wants to entertain, and capture the imaginative free-associating glory of dreams, and let foolishness rule the day, or at least the hour. That’s more than worth a trip through the looking glass.
One of my all-time favourite Disney movies. This movie is so colourful and whimsical that every child should definitely watch it! The characters are fun and lovable and I find myself in a dream land everytime I watch it!
A suitably madcap ride through the trippy underground scene with Alice, if not an especially deep or meaningful one. I'm sure we can all identify the most famous beats, or at least vaguely recall them with a little nudge - cheshire cat, late for a date, eat me, drink me, off with their heads - but what of the larger narrative? Uh, something about a rabbit hole, a caterpillar with a hookah and a trial? It's okay, I forgot the particulars of the over-arching storyline, too. Those are tough to remember because they don't exist. The whole film is just an assortment of scattered episodes, loosely related by a loopy shared disposition and the presence of one well-dressed, blonde-haired little lady. Alice basically tumbles into a new room, encounters strange sights and sounds, causes a mess, fails to resolve anything and then tumbles out the exit.
The creative team does their part to make those interludes stimulating, using wild, colorful animations, fittingly offbeat character designs, strangely beautiful songs and raucous vocal performances, and that's worth a lot. Prime Disney feature animation is deserving of one's time, even without the support of a well-composed story. As a whole, well, there's a reason this found such widespread appreciation as a head film. Nice to gaze at, but the viewer must provide their own context.
It is a Disney Classic for a reason. However, nearly 75 years later it does show its age. The IP has transcended everything that this film is. The remakes and spin offs will surely be more relevant going forward for younger generations, but this one was still fun to revisit.
Rating: 3/5 - 75% - Worth Watching
This is an average movie, I find it rather boring.
For me it's the worst animated classic. No plot, characters random and bit psycho. In general very psychodelic
Alice in Wonderland" from 1951 is an absolute classic and one of my all-time favorites too! It's a whimsical and magical journey filled with imagination. The characters are so charming, and the songs are delightful. It's fascinating to know that it has the most songs of any Disney movie. This timeless animation will forever hold a special place in the hearts of Disney fans, including mine! :tophat::rabbit2::mushroom::notes:
It could be better.
I like the way they represented Wonderland, but the story falls short. The ending was very rushed.
For anyone saying it doesn’t have a plot or it doesn’t make sense. Watch it on shrooms. The whole movie is a visual representation of tripping on LSD and theres lsd references all throughout the film. (Alice literally eats a mushroom to shrink or grow) One of the most beautiful movies ever crafted, with beautiful themes. 9.5/10
Level "Excellent" • 8 :heart: • Recommended.
No matter how many versions you've watched, nothing compares to this wonderful animation! They say that Alice is a children's story but when I was a child, I confess, I didn't understand anything about this crazy movie and I was even a little afraid, especially of the Laughing Cat, who today is my favorite character. Also a favorite for me is this wonderful story that is for children but, in my opinion, mainly for adults. This animation is impeccable, beautiful and very fluid, I think it gives a bath in current animations even. It's worth watching with the kids for fun or alone to reflect! Love it too much!
Português
Não importa quantas versões você tenha assistido, nada se compara a esta animação maravilhosa! Dizem que Alice é uma história infantil mas quando eu era criança, confesso, não entendia nada desse filme maluco e tinha até um pouco de medo, principalmente do Gato Risonho, que hoje é meu personagem favorito. Favorita também para mim é esta história maravilhosa que é sim para crianças mas é, principalmente na minha opinião, para adultos. Esta animação é impecável, lindíssima e muito fluida, acho que dá um banho em animações atuais até. Vale a pena assistir com as crianças para se divertir ou sozinho para refletir! Amo demais!
Disney brings Alice in Wonderland to life in an exciting animated feature. Based on the series by Lewis Carroll, Alice follows the White Rabbit into a fantastical world called Wonderland where she meets all manner of strange and exotic creates. The animation is quite impressive and is extraordinary vivid with bright, rich colors. Plus, a number of original songs have been composed for the film that are both fun and whimsical. Alice in Wonderland is an imaginative and magical adventure, and another delightful Disney animated classic.
I was so surprised I hadn’t seen this before, then I noticed the date. I think I can be excused for having not been born in time to see it. It’s a PG version of the strange and drug riddled imagination of Lewis Carroll which turns his nonsensical rhymes into songs. Always a pleasure to hear the voice work of Ed Wynn. Because it’s a Classic Disney Animation and entirely in keeping with of the cultural lenses of the 50s, I give this film a 7 (good) out of 10. [Animation]
I used to watch this as a kid. I honestly can't remember it being this weird.
There isn't anything particularly bad about 'Alice in Wonderland', but it's always a film that I've found a chore to watch - nothing has ever hit with me.
Everything about this is fine, from the animation to the voice cast to the characters to the world itself. I think it's just lacking that extra little oomph. I appreciate a lot of its elements, which is probably why I do enjoy the 2010 remake from Tim Burton; which adds a dimension to things.
The parts of this 1951 production that I do like are the adventure aspects, it does feel as if you're visiting a wonderland; perhaps, though, they could've made the world feel more lived in and more vast, it does feel quite localised in parts.
A load of people love this film, and I can respect why, but it has never entertained me personally.
I felt like i had to watch this after watching that abomination of a movie (2010).
and it pretty much released me :innocent:
I've seen multiple celluloid adaptations of Lewis Carroll's classic book, including the 1999 telefilm, the live-action Disney flick and its sequel, as well as SyFy's Alice miniseries.
Out of all of them, this has to be the worst.
While the animation was great, the songs were positively ingratiating, the heroine was unlikable and annoying, and it strays from the book quite a bit, but not in a good way.
This is definitely not among the best that the House of Mouse has to offer; then again, I've always been a bigger fan of their live-action productions, such as George of the Jungle or Lizzie McGuire.
Little kids may like this movie, but, this thirty-year-old viewer felt like he was being subjected to an episode of Barney and Friends.
It's so weird and strange but that's kinda what makes it charming. Plus it looks great, the animation and colors still look fantastic.
Beautiful and fun. A great Disney animation.
Shout by DeletedBlockedParent2018-11-19T22:26:15Z
The movie is a little to boring in my taste and very confusing