This remarkable version of Alice In Wonderland is far removed from past
childhood romps through Carroll's classic. As Svankmajer makes clear
at its start, this is a film aimed at adults; its intent is to revive the
power of imagination to transform external reality. His Alice, the
only human appearing in the film, encounters sea-faring rodents,
nail-sprouting rolls, skeletal reptiles and a host of inanimate
objects with psychotic intent. The brilliance of the animation alone
makes Alice worth seeing but Svankmajer's greatest triumph lies in his
capturing, where others have failed, the essence of Carroll's absurd
and macabre vision.
