Alice in Wonderland (1950)

This is one in a series of reviews that will eventually be posted for every Alice in Wonderland title available on Amazon. When the Tim Burton rendition of AIW with Johnny Depp was due out in 2010 I thought it might be a good time to go back and watch the benchmark Walt Disney production from 1951, which I saw -or assumed I saw- as a child. It was a chance to get reacquainted with the many varied characters from the story as sort of a warm up for the Burton film. Upon viewing the Disney classic I was astonished to realize that I had likely never seen more than a few clips (at most) of that beautifully rendered Alice in Wonderland. So much seemed brand new. Nor did I have a memory of ever seeing any other "Alice" production. Then I realized that I had never read the book! Wait a minute. Where then did my memory of the Alice story come from? The curiosity sparked by that question ultimately led me over the next two years to accumulate every version of Alice in Wonderland still in existence. Well over 40 by the way!This general commentary continues over in the review sections for both the 1951 AIW production from Walt Disney ( Alice in Wonderland (Masterpiece Edition) ) and the 2010 production starring Johnny Depp ( Alice in Wonderland ). As these are the two most well known Alice's, rather then attempt to add yet-another-review for those two films, it seemed like it might be a more fun use of the provided space to muse a bit on the popularity and remarkable longevity of the story spawned by Lewis Carroll in 1865, as well as to share with you a bit of what I picked up while watching these 40 or so renderings of Alice in Wonderland. All other Alice productions listed by Amazon have a specific review for that title.Review of this 1950 version...Comparisons between this American-French production of Alice in Wonderland to its famous Disney contemporary are inevitable, but they are two very different approaches to the material. This movie is animated, but not in the cartoon style of the Disney production. It's a live action / animated hybrid with Carol Marsh (age 23 at the time) as the only live person in the "Wonderland" portion of the film (unless you count the pig). The other characters were what all the descriptions of the movie note as "puppets", although these are not hand puppets, nor are they marionettes. Rather they are film maker and puppet master Lou Bunin's moveable clay or rubber-like figures that are photographed in stop-motion sequences aka "Gumby" style.Alice's foray into Wonderland starts out in an interesting way that only a few "Alice" productions have undertaken; We are actually with Lewis Carroll (as Charles Dodgson) and his male companion as they row the three Liddell girls down river to a picnic spot, where Alice Liddell herself falls asleep and has her Alice in Wonderland experience. In a sort of a Wizard of Oz approach, all the humans Alice Liddell has been interacting with in daily life become voices for the characters in Wonderland. An opening title even states that Lewis Carroll drew his Wonderland characters from real people from his work life at Oxford. I liked this approach.Carol Marsh walks through a Wonderland built with 2-dimensional cardboard looking sets that pale in comparison to, say, the 2-dimensional looking sets in the 1933 version with Cary Grant. But Alice and the animals she meets bring the sets to life nicely. Marsh is perhaps an adequate singer, but a very good dancer. Watch for her short dance after singing the Father William song for the caterpillar. She is obviously trained in ballet, and it was a pleasure to watch her moves (I was reading a description of the movie on IMDB.com and it was noted that Carol actually free fell 30' to a net in order to pull off the falling down the rabbit hole sequence. She was offered a double but chose to perform the fall herself. There are several other interesting notes on the film at IMDB).So, yes, this is a fun film. A lot of work went into animating the puppets, and a few of the sequences such as the court scene when all the characters break out in song are a real delight. Be prepared to view a notably deteriorated print however. The film is not well preserved. But it's absolutely worth a view although I think adults will enjoy the movie more so than children. There are several Alice versions far more kid friendly than this one though. Note: They took as many liberties with the story here as Disney did with its production.(Speaking of stop-motion photography, there are some other Alice movies shot in this same manner. One production is from famous stop-motion film maker Jan Svankmajer made in 1988 ( Alice ). It's a dark, creepy, even morbid [adults only] telling of the Alice tale. Also, several amateur shorts can be found on YouTube. Search on "alice in wonderland stop motion".)---------------All the Alice reviews in this series are on Listmania:1) Click on my user name (Everone's_a_critic)2) Click on 'Listmania!'3) The click on See 'Entire List'.

Walt Disney productions sought to block the release of this little hidden gem of a movie. It is not a perfect film but that resides in the problem of the director choosing bad film quality for this Alice which results in strange looking colors and sadly a bad print of an excellent film. It is almost the perfect Alice even though Carol Marsh is too old for the part she has an excellent singing voice and she acts well even though the characters are not there she is addressing. The animation is amusing and the characters funny. Much more of the whimsy and nonsense is in this version which is missing from others. Are the characters supposed to be disturbing in Carroll's novel ? In all honesty they should not be and unlike say Swankmejors excellent film the real story has much more humor which sometimes gets lost in some film versions ,however, in this version that humor is there and actually works. It should be noted though the queen of hearts in the original story never successfully beheads anyone which is part of the irony that in many versions the queen does behead her victims and in this film the threat seems to be real. What is sad about this film is that it is incomplete and needs to be restored fully. Otherwise it is an excellent film.

A lot of people have commented on the age of the actresses in the numerous Alices available. Carol Marsh was 22 or 23 when she made this film and at times she looks 25. Still, she does a creditable job even if I'd preferred a young girl in the role. (In fact I don't believe there are many Alices played by anyone under the age of 12.)The image quality is mediocre at best and I kept thinking while I watched it how much more enjoyable it would have been otherwise.I liked the use of puppets portraying the strange creatures she encounters which I feel brings the film closer in spirit to the book where Alice interacts with talking animals, something that would have delighted young girls who are at least one of the target audiences of the book.So 4 stars of Ms. Marsh, 3 at best for the quality and 5 for the puppets.

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)

I mainly write this review to warn any collectors like me. It's hard to tell but this version of Alice in Wonderland and the green DVD titled Lou Bunin's Alice in Wonderland are the same film. For some reason they have a different date showing which makes it difficult to realize and I only now just noticed this one only mentions Lou Bunin in an Editorial Review and nowhere else.Anyway if you already have Lou Bunin's Alice in wonderland then you have this one as that is what this one is too.I should also note that the green DVD titled Lou Bunin's Alice in Wonderland is also the one I recommend as the transfer on that appears to be from the original film whereas this one appears to be transferred from a VHS tape. So, the quality is better on the green one.

First, the film is charming - although it takes a while to get going. I love this kind of animation, so I'm completely biased! it's really dated in many ways - but then, what isn't?However, ignore the misleading cover. This film has NOT been remastered digitally or otherwise, except in the sense that it's been transferred to a DVD disc! It's basically old VHS quality - both sound and vision.If you can get it cheap, I'd recommend it.