1999, Spain/France
Animation, Family, Fantasy
::Flick Quickie::
Czech director Jan Svankmajer achieved his dream of the perfect mixed-media film through the canvas of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. In 1988's Alice, Svankmajer utilizes marionettes, stop-motion photography, and live-action characters to create a looking glass world that Carroll would be proud of. Darker than Disney and more creatively pleasing, our title character stalks not a cute, fuzzy, woodland creature, but a rabbit that was killed, stuffed, and comes back to life with the occasional loss of sawdust. Characters range from mischievous skeletons to rooms of hole-digging socks, and the rabbit tunnel is transformed into a writing desk (perhaps answering the question, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?").
DVD extras include the director's clay-squashing short, "Darkness, Light, Darkness."