The 1903 version by Cecil M. Hepworth and Percy Stow is pretty impressive, and can be found on one DVD with another excellent adaptation, and one of my personal favorites, the 1966 version by Jonathan Miller. The 1972 version by William Sterling called “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” is rather convential, but worth checking out. You might also be interested to watch Bud Townsend’s 1976 version “Alice in Wonderland: An X-rated Musical Fantasy” together with your girlfriend.
i must find myself to watch Alice X-Rated version with or without a girlfriend ;)
i personally love Jan’s surreal imagery and iconoclastic execution and the Disney production has been a long-time top 5 Disney animation favorite.
i will also be on the run for the 1966 TV version AND the 1903 one (!), however…everyone should be avoiding of the stardust, comprehensive yet ultimately didactic 1999 mini-series version.
i like the one with WC Fields
You might like Maya Deren’s At Land.
The recent Syfy miniseries “Alice” was excellent, too.
Personally like the Disney as much if not more than the Svankmajer. One of my all-time favorite Disney’s, and scary as hell.
Also, personally think the 3D trailer for Burton’s looked amazing. Perhaps he somehow decided not to be terrible anymore. Time will tell.
Really Ben? I thought the new trailer looked worse than his usual brand of terrible.
Really, but I wasn’t paying a ton of attention to the content….I was too busy looking at the depth design which was really incredibly vivid, I thought.
As far as…vision, I guess, and design…I have to give credit where it’s due, but it’s not practical, to me, to film Alice in Wonderland that way. It’s so over the top, and so utterly ridiculous, it sort of loses the fear, and the true dark mystery behind the story. Not sure if that makes sense.
Not even design in general (set, costume, color)….just the sense of depth alone was more vivid and fascinating. Made me think for the first time that there might be something to this 3D stuff.
Too add to my previous post, you might also enjoy Celine and Julie Go Boating.
I’ve liked all the Svankmajor films I’ve seen. But—even including his—I don’t find “Alice in Wonderland” to really be very good material for a film. The books are charming, but that particular charm doesn’t seem to ever make it to screen. So I’d suggest that filmmakers forget Alice and just concoct their own fantasy world in which to tell stories of their own choosing.
Is that actual X-rated version available, or just an expurgated version? I thought I read somewhere that you could only find it cut down to R. That would probably take all the fun out of it. A naughty Alice needs to be really naughty.
The version I saw was definitely pr0n.
This is why every adaptation of the novel that doesn’t get into the satire of the source is a stylistic production-design exercise.
This is why the Burton film is so frustrating. How easy would it be to fit a contemporary satire into that world. Are these times not RIPE for satire?
“Is that actual X-rated version available, or just an expurgated version?”
There are a few versions circulating – Think the Arrow edition is the uncut film and Original Theatrical Edition is the R rated cut (could be wrong though) but even the uncut version is pretty tame. More of a silly and fun flick.
Here’s the Trailer (clean)
The 1903 version I mentioned above can now be watched for free on The Auteurs.
Polanski’s What? was an adaptation, not a very good one, but it is a satirical take on it.
Jake Howell
I recently watched Jan Svankmajor Alice and loved it, and got to thinking that I hadn’t really seen any other Alice In Wonderland movies, just that and maybe the Disney one. What are some of your favorites?