I've been reading a lot of other people's comments on Alice films lately, along with my own viewing and writing, and have seen several speak of the nightmarish quality of various adaptations and reworkings of Lewis Carroll's children's literature. For the most part, I don't see it and tend to chuckle at such claims--especially for the more kiddie and TV versions. Even Jan Svankmajer's "Alice" (1988) I appreciate more for its dedication to surrealism and creativity in adaptation and not as anything horrific. But, this, "Alice in Not So Wonderland," from the Brothers Quay, also stop-motion animation and very much in the tradition of Svankmajer--this is haunting. From a three-minute movie, one shouldn't expect much more of a reaction than that.
Much of the creepiness of this little production lies in the black-and-white Gothic look of it, the rather ugly doll, the score, and the sometimes obfuscated imagery more suiting of a nightmare than the dreams of the books. And what we have here, really, is a Looking-Glass World, with the tea-cup allusion to Wonderland, although the two Alice books are frequently conflated in adaptations. This is a cry for help from the reflection of Alice trapped inside the mirror. It's claustrophobic and otherwise unsettling.
