Film "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" based on the novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.Film "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" based on the novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.Film "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" based on the novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.
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- ConnectionsVersion of Alice in Wonderland (1903)
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Book Illustrations Again
This short film from the Edison company is basically the same thing that Cecil Hepworth's did in 1903: a series of a few selected scenes from Lewis Carroll's book (suspiciously, most of the very same ones are picked here that were in the 1903 version: rabbit hole and doors; the Duchess, Cook and Baby; Cheshire Cat; Mad tea party; and, finally, meeting the King and Queen of Hearts) in the tableau style with title cards describing proceeding action. Most of it is static shot scenes, although there are bits of continuity editing in the scene with the doors (a few primitive match cuts and awkward angle changes) and a few trick shots in the Georges Méliès tradition to represent Alice's changes in size and transformations for the baby pig and Cheshire Cat. The thing ends with a spinning-cards shot and the dream framing.
The employment of children for non-Alice roles here is a bit amusing. A kid in the White Rabbit costume comes from off-screen rather suddenly, and a child as the Mad Hatter is odd. Alice also encounters the giant puppy, a scene that seems to be lost from the 1903 version (although, a title card for it remains, to suggest that it was originally there). While not a tremendous waste of time because it's so short, this "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is no more than a curiosity, which is curiouser and curiouser only because it seems to rip-off the Hepworth version, or perhaps they're both based on some theatrical tradition of adaptation, although the visual basis, of course, is John Tenniel's illustrations. Otherwise, it's motion-picture book illustrations of selected parts, with wordy title cards that, nevertheless, fail to capture the witty wordplay of Carroll, and a series of mostly static shot-scenes that lack a cinematic imagination for the material. It makes no effort at a self-contained narrative despite the story film being well established by 1910. The same year, the same production company adapted Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" in a cinematically novel way by enhancing the doppelgänger theme with a mirror motif, so the time in which this was made is no excuse--especially because it's also derivative of the same thing done seven years prior.
The employment of children for non-Alice roles here is a bit amusing. A kid in the White Rabbit costume comes from off-screen rather suddenly, and a child as the Mad Hatter is odd. Alice also encounters the giant puppy, a scene that seems to be lost from the 1903 version (although, a title card for it remains, to suggest that it was originally there). While not a tremendous waste of time because it's so short, this "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is no more than a curiosity, which is curiouser and curiouser only because it seems to rip-off the Hepworth version, or perhaps they're both based on some theatrical tradition of adaptation, although the visual basis, of course, is John Tenniel's illustrations. Otherwise, it's motion-picture book illustrations of selected parts, with wordy title cards that, nevertheless, fail to capture the witty wordplay of Carroll, and a series of mostly static shot-scenes that lack a cinematic imagination for the material. It makes no effort at a self-contained narrative despite the story film being well established by 1910. The same year, the same production company adapted Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" in a cinematically novel way by enhancing the doppelgänger theme with a mirror motif, so the time in which this was made is no excuse--especially because it's also derivative of the same thing done seven years prior.
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- Cineanalyst
- Aug 1, 2020
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- Приключения Алисы в Стране чудес
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- USA(Studio)
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- Runtime10 minutes
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- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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