Product Description: This exceptional theatrical version of Lewis Carroll's 1865 classic features a combination of live characters and puppets, created by master puppeteer Louis Bunin. The cast includes Carol Marsh as Alice along with Stephen Murray, Felix Aylmer, Ernest Milton, and Pamela Brown (in live sequences and as voices of the puppets). Directed by Dallas Bower, this lively and fun production includes some wonderful musical numbers that will be enjoyed by all ages.
From a former student of Lou Bunin 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.
Poor technical quality 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.
Alice in Wonderland Thank goodness this came out. I've been wanting to see it since 1992. Although the print quality looks like it was dubbed from a VHS tape at amateur level. This 1950s colour movie tells the story well. Peter
Alice in--British Production A work of art...Carol Marsh was Beautiful and talented. Brings back fond memories.....I was in the seventh grade when I saw it in the theater...
had potential and has at least some potential this poor little film sadly overshadowed by the disney one at it's time, though the film itself is very...spastic and a some points doesn't really make much sense.
for one, though I do love the opening with oxford and the liddel children ( I believe this sequence was actually filmed in france) is very interesting and well written and the acting is just fine. however I have to say even though Carol Marsh, who plays Alice, is a good actress and appealing...she's just too old to be a little girl, not only that the bit before entering wonderland is really not at all helpful to the story it's just... there and you wonder when you get to the wonderland sequence if whoa! is this really the exact same movie? the wonderland sequence though very original and each puppet is well constructed and animated wonderland has dull..colors and some characters have barely any color at all, not only that the sets though original just don't fit in with the look of the movie after seeing the opening in oxford...I'm sure this purely from a budget issue having to build both the Alice enlarged sets and the miniature puppets sets...not to mention Alice's dress looks like it cost a pretty penny. the other thing that bothers me is this story evolves from the rabbit cahsing Alice and getting involved with the knave of hearts and really you ultimately get VERY lost not only that after the tea party, it cuts to some bizarre lobster dance having NOTHING to do with the story as ive said about other parts of the film its just... there . this film almost seems like just a showcase to show how good Mr. Bunin was at doing stop motion animation, which if you're looking for that sort of thing then you will enjoy this movie for it's artisticness. now for the PROS... THE MUSIC is wonderful! very bizarre and almost stravinskey like especially when Alice is chasing after the white rabbit, and really fits in with the "not knowing what will happen next" aspect of wonderland which I really love, and some of the songs I don't mind very much either however some are just...not nessecary at all. If anything is memorable to me about this film would be Carol Marsh singing, "I'm Upsidedown" which is a nice little song she sings floating on the bottle, Also the Rabbit's song about his interference with the queen, "Play the Game" is very beautiful, and most of the music seems VERY operatic as does the music which is great I think.
overall it is a fun little film, it does pay a lot more homage to the book then the disney version does which I do like and also captures the fear AND the colorfulness of wonderland that the disney movie lost, would I reccomend you buying it though? If you look around you won't find it anywhere to rent so might as well...it is a pretty neat little treasure
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