Alice (1988)

Director: Jan Svankmajer

Starring: Kristyna Kohoutova

More info: IMDB

Plot: A memorably bizarre screen version of Lewis Carroll's novel 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland', mixing one live actor (Alice) with a large variety of stop-motion animated creatures, ranging from the complex (the White Rabbit) to the incredibly simple (the Caterpillar, consisting of a sock, a couple of glass eyes and a pair of false teeth). The original story is followed reasonably faithfully, though those familiar with this director's other films won't be the least bit surprised by the numerous digressions into Svankmajer territory, living slabs of meat and all. As the opening narration says, it's a film made for children... perhaps?

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? I wouldn't deny myself, I suppose.

I'll say this much, ALICE is not a movie to watch late at night when you're sleepy. Alice is the only human, there's very little dialogue and, most detrimentally, there's no score. I think it was the lack of music that put me to sleep. It's a good movie and the stop motion animation is outstanding. There's so much of it and, for a guy like me who LOVES stop motion, it's an 86 minute visual feast. Being a Czechoslovakian film, the English dub is perfectly fine since there's not much dialogue. Check out the YouTube clips and then head over to Netflix and put it into your watch instantly queue...just don't wait until 11 pm to do it.