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Alice in Wonderland More at IMDbPro »
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| Index | 13 reviews in total |
17 out of 18 people found the following review useful:
Precious Rarity, 21 January 2005
Author:
Peter Alan Roberts from Los Angeles
Like that other 1903 "adaptation" Uncle Tom's Cabin, this very short movie is a succession of illustrations brought to life before a static camera. The Great Train Robbery of this same year was a great cinematic step forward in its use of film as story-telling. Nevertheless, Alice is a gem that has survived the ravages of time miraculously if rather battered. It is very primitive, but that also lends it a great charm, particularly the procession of the cards and their chase of Alice, with its host of little children dressed up as cards and having great fun on a sunny day in the park. For those who are not Alice lovers, this may barely register, but aficionados may happily have it on a permanent loop filling one whole side of a plasma screen wall (in a few years time that is). It is a strong candidate crying out for restoration, even though a number of frames will remain missing, particularly of the dog, who would later gain fame in Rescued by Rover! Have a happy Wonderland!
15 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Lewis Carroll would have loved this!, 2 June 2007
Author:
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre from Minffordd, North Wales
Cecil Hepworth is a vitally important figure in Britain's early cinema,
but his achievements were compromised by the fact that he was a poor
businessman and poor planner. Prints of his most popular films -- such
as "Comin' Thro the Rye" and "The Joke that Failed" -- were sold
outright to exhibitors, causing Hepworth to wear out the original
negatives. In order to meet continuing demand for new prints, he was
forced to re-shoot these movies in their entirety! Hepworth probably
deserves credit for filming the first remake.
Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll, author of 'Alice in
Wonderland') died in 1898, in the very earliest years of Britain's
cinema, and there is no surviving record of him ever having seen a
movie. (Dodgson's vast archive of correspondence was burnt by his
family after his death, and his diary was censored: there may well have
been a movie review in there someplace.) Yet I'm 100% certain that
Dodgson would have been a cinephile. He was an expert and enthusiastic
amateur photographer, he had a deep love of the theatre, and the
'Alice' books contain several devices which seem more cinematic than
literary: Alice is subjected to the shot change, the jump cut, the
dissolve, and so forth.
Cecil Hepworth's 1903 film version of 'Alice in Wonderland' --
apparently the first movie version of that oft-filmed book -- was made
barely five years after Dodgson's death. Scantly nine minutes long,
this crude 'trick' movie necessarily shows only a few fragments of the
novel. The uncredited production designer (Hepworth himself?) has
clearly made considerable effort to base the sets and costumes on Sir
John Tenniel's beloved illustrations, so it's strange that the central
character looks nothing at all like Tenniel's Alice: the actress cast
here has long black hair, and her pinafore is nearly ankle-length.
Quite impressively, Alice actually falls into a genuine hole in the
ground. To show her plunging vertically (as in the novel) would have
been technically difficult to stage, so we see her creeping through a
slanting shaft, in an impressive cutaway shot (the cinema's first)?
Some of the special effects are achieved through simple jump cuts, much
less flamboyant than what Georges Melies was doing in France at this
time. Alice's growth spurt in the White Rabbit's house is amusingly
staged by placing the actress intentionally too close to the camera, in
an undersized set.
I was impressed by one elaborate bit of pageantry in an exterior shot.
Alice stands on a broad greensward (apparently a partial matte shot)
while the 52 members of the pack of cards parade past her, one suit at
a time.
The print which I viewed had neatly typeset intertitles, but was an
acetate print several generations removed from the original ... so I
can't tell if these titles date back to Hepworth's original 1903
production, or were added later. Oddly, the opening title makes a point
of telling us that Alice's adventure is a dream: this was only implied
in the first chapter of the original novel. More significantly, the
dominant figure at the Mad Tea Party is identified in a title here as
'the Mad Hatter'. This usage is now quite common, but it never appears
in Carroll's original novel: nowhere in the text of 'Alice in
Wonderland' is the word 'Hatter' immediately preceded by the word
'mad'. The expression 'mad as a hatter' refers to the fact that
19th-century hatters often developed nervous tics from exposure to the
highly toxic vapours of mercuric nitrate. Men's hats in Victorian times
were made of felt; 19th-century hatters cured the felt by a process
called 'carroting' which left a carrot-coloured residue. Since the
Hatter in Carroll's novel is never explicitly cried 'the Mad Hatter',
I'm surprised to find evidence that this popular mis-usage may have
been in place as early as 1903. I wish I could establish the origin of
these title cards.
Hepworth's production of 'Alice in Wonderland' is extremely crude by
modern standards, and leaves out most of the plot of Carroll's book, as
well as the wonderful wordplay. But this film was an extremely
ambitious undertaking for its time, and it achieves nearly all of what
it set out to accomplish. I'll rate it 9 out of 10.
17 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Alice almost doesn't live here anymore--9/10., 24 January 2005
Author:
Clark Richards from United States
Much in the same way as 'The Blacksmith Scene' from 1893, the first
filmed version of 'Alice in Wonderland' from 1903 plays out more as a
curious look into the history of film making at that time and the
importance of film preservation for today, than a credible film
adaptation of the book. However, in its initial release to the public,
the film was popular, and at a staggering eight minutes in length, it
was the longest movie to date. There are some nifty special effects of
Alice shrinking and growing in the doll house, and there's an excellent
commentary track on the DVD that talks about the people involved in the
production of the film. However, through years of neglect and the
natural decline of the nitrate on the film, there are more gaps, breaks
and white scratches on the film that make its viewing somewhat
difficult. No copies of the film have survived through time, the one
used for the DVD is the original and it's in terrible shape.
You can find this movie, warts and all, on the DVD of 'Alice In
Wonderland' from 1966 directed by Jonathan Miller, who's version while
clean, starring a stellar cast, and looking beautiful, could also be
described as viewing that is 'somewhat difficult'.
I'm giving the movie a 9/10. It was a 3, but I took this pill and it
grew to a 9.
Clark Richards
10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Like a trailer, 5 November 2004
Author:
alicespiral from Blackpool England
The remnants of this silent movie was added to Jonathan Miller's Alice DVD as a Bonus.It has to be viewed as an historical document and hardly for entertainment value. But May Clarke deserved a better fate than being called "ugly".I have a photo of her on one of my Alice sites and she's at least attractive enough. This was the final film of the 3 she made,all before 1904 so there's no evidence of what her speaking voice was like. In answer to that rather ignorant remark I don't think any movie studios at this time employed children but the age of Alice should not be brought into question when you realize many older actreses played her.The child star was yet to be invented and all actors came from the stage When you think of it this Alice silent is now over 100 years old
6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
A fascinating piece of early film lovingly restored by the BFI..., 25 March 2010
Author:
cgyford from Ankara, Turkey
British film pioneer Cecil M. Hepworth ("Rescued by Rover" & "The
Egg-Laying Man") teamed-up with fellow film pioneer Percy Stow for the
first big screen adaptation of the classic children's book by Lewis
Carroll which has since been innumerably remade.
Alice (May Clark) follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit-hole to
Wonderland where she shrinks and grows, gets directed to the Mad
Hatter's Tea-Party by the Duchess's Cheshire Cat and disrupts the Royal
Procession in a series of entertaining early effects.
Production secretary May Clark never entirely seems at ease in the role
and is outclassed by the professionalism of co-stars Cecil M. Hepworth,
Mrs. Hepworth, their cat and first British film star Blair the dog
("Rescued by Rover").
The film-makers have done a surprisingly successful job of brining the
original illustrations by Sir John Tenniel to life with some truly
pioneering effects and although much was lost when the original reels
were melted down by the receivers there is still plenty to enjoy.
"Until she remembers the magic fan."
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
The First Alice Film, 7 December 2008
Author:
JoeytheBrit from www.moviemoviesite.com
A copy of this film can be found on YouTube, complete with a commentary by Simon Brown for the BBC. I imagine Brown's commentary adds immeasurably to the entertainment value of this the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic children's tale. The film itself assumes that the audience is familiar with the story. For its time it is an incredibly detailed interpretation, even though it really just provides snapshots from the story with no coherent narrative to speak of. The quality of the print - the only one in existence - is extremely poor, but still good enough to give the audience a positive impression of the effort British film pioneer Cecil Hepworth obviously put into it.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
The 1st Wonderland On Screen, 9 November 2010
Author:
Rodrigo Amaro (rodrigo882008@hotmail.com) from São Paulo, Brazil
This is the first film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic book
"Alice in Wonderland" and it was released more than 100 years ago (I'm
not joking, just do the math!). It is a impressive film, with a strange
sense of narration (conidering that even back in 1903, to watch this
movie you really had to know Alice's story because it is very
confusing, I got lost in some parts, trying to understand what was
going on) and interesting editing effects, wonderful transition
moments, one scene cuts and dissolves into another, brilliant effects.
You can find this short film on the net, YouTube but unfortunately the
remaining copies are too grainy, sometimes it's almost impossible to
watch it. But everything is there: Alice, the rabbit (that guy dressed
as rabbit scared me for some awkward reason), the Mad Hatter, the cards
and many others.
It was a very ambitious movie during its time, and now might look a
home made movie from the early days of films. It's good anyway. 6/10
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
I can't believe this has survived this long..., 10 January 2010
Author:
jermypotter from United States
I just discovered this film the other day and was surprised at how
interesting it was. Yes if it were to be made today it would be shot on
the spot, but nobody expected anything from movies back then and I'm
sure the people who originally saw it thought it was great.
I also admire the actors for having to rely solely on body language to
tell the story and express what's going on, because obviously it's a
silent film and has no sound.
I especially think that the costumes, props, and backgrounds look
pretty good, even though the card procession was obviously shot in on a
park road. :)
I just appreciate it for what it is, one of the first films ever filmed
and some pretty good looking effects.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Nifty silent adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic book, 4 April 2010
Author:
Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This ten minute silent movie presents an extremely condensed version of Carroll's immortal book, but still manages to be quite faithful to the source material (for example, Alice uses a magic fan to make herself shrink after she grows to giant size in the White Rabbit's tiny house). The special effects shots of Alice growing and shrinking are admittedly rather primitive by today's more sophisticated standards, but are effective and impressive for their time just the same. Cecil M. Hepworth's tinted black and white cinematography delivers a few pleasing visuals such as Alice going down an actual hole to venture into wonderland. The sets and costumes are very fanciful and elaborate. Attractive brunette May Clark makes for a fetching Alice. This charming relic offers a neat glimpse into the state of cinema back in its early 20th century infancy: While it may seem kind of plain and rough around the edges to modern audiences, it nonetheless qualifies as a cool piece of celluloid history that both hints at and plays around with the magical possibilities of this wondrous art form.
2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Not so great in its current form..., 12 October 2009
Author:
planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
I don't know if this film exists in another form other than the public
domain one that is available on the internet. My review is based solely
on this public domain print. If there is a restored print available,
please, please, please see that one instead, as the public domain one
is severely degraded--much more so than usual. This is because older
films were made on nitrate stock that would begin degrading (turning to
powder, liquifying or even exploding over time) almost immediately.
Many early sound and silent films simply no longer exist due to this
decomposition. ALICE is so badly degraded that many portions of the
film are almost unwatchable.
As for the film apart from that, like many of the films of these early
years of cinema, they've taken a literary classic and replicated scenes
from it--not the entire film. As most films were five minutes or less
(often much less), the fact that this is about eight is actually
unusual--making this "full-length" at least for the time. In many ways,
it was like a highlights clip. The costumes and sets, for 1903, were
very good but when compared to films of the middle and late silent era,
it would appear very crude and incomplete. If I were comparing it to
other 1903 era films, I'd give it a 7 or 8, but given the severe
decomposition, it's probably not worth seeing for the average person
and more of interest to film historians and devoted fans.
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