ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1949)

Available in an assortment of running times (73, 81, 91 minutes); the longest from the original French cut returns a reel of scattered footage . . . in French.  (see LINK below*)  But if you can deal with the unstable AnscoColor, the unsteady picture quality and the hop, skip & jump narrative continuity, you’ll be rewarded with something that comes within spitting distance of a Lewis Carroll vibe.  Casual viewers may not be able to get past all the technical problems, just as the film producers couldn’t get past Disney’s legal team, hoping to protect the upcoming 1951 release of their ALICE by suppressing this upstart.*  All for a title that’s proved inimical to film adaptation.  (Disney alone three times: too domesticated in that 1951 cartoon feature; then twice from Tim Burton: commercially buoyant but artistically DOA in 2010 & 2016.)  So, daunting artistic & historical obstacles to overcome in this maddening marvel, largely the work of stop-motion puppeteer/filmmaker Lou Bunin who makes it work with his wildly stylized puppets, and by not trying to tame the material.  He takes Carroll’s logic-defying stream-of-conscious story as is.  Perhaps more Edward Lear/Gilbert & Sullivan than Charles L. Dodgson, if delightfully so in the musical numbers.  Bunin’s creepy Wonderland inhabitants feel truer to the original’s logical nonsense.  A hit and miss first half (note the WIZARD OF OZ influence) yields to a wilder/more musical second half that really takes off with British Music Hall flavor; and Carroll’s curdling, nasty tone.  If he’s kidding, he’s kidding-on-the-square when he has the Queen shouting ‘Off with their heads!’  A proper digital restoration might prove revelatory.*

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Note that while Live-Action English dialogue sequences were handled by Dallas Bower, the French equivalents were directed (apparently) by Marc Maurette.

LINK:  *No proper restoration, but this ‘fan cut’ version shows the way.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kafS_Cy4CjE

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Hollywood's most famous film suppression saw M-G-M stop distribution (and try to destroy all prints) of the 1940 British version of GASLIGHT (later retitled ANGEL STREET), before their 1944 version came out.  Both very fine films, though critical consensus sides with the underdog.  Mistakenly  so.