A movie by Czech
animator, Jan Svankmajer, which is based on the popular children's book by Lewis Carroll.
In this extremely surrealistic adaptation of everyone's favorite drug induced children's tale Jan Svankmajer creates a world of make-believe that could terrify children and most adults into madness. Using a mixture of live action and stop-motion animation he flings Alice into a dingy place full of taxidermied creatures, shattered pottery, rusty drafting tools, and lots of sawdust.
Most of the characters from the book are present but in very unexpected forms. The white rabbit takes the form of a real taxidermied rabbit, the Mad Hatter is a decaying marionette, and the caterpillar is a sock with dentures and giant glass eyes which it sews shut when it sleeps.
Adding to the nightmarish atmosphere of the film, the soundtrack consists of long silences broken up by the louder than life sounds of ratchets, grating metal, and splintering wood. These sounds are intensified by the lack of any kind of musical score.
This is truly one of the best versions of this story that I've ever witnessed.