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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Lewis Carrol's "Alice in
Wonderland" isn't so much fairytale as it is
scathing political satire. That the novel just
happens to feature such immortal and cartoonish
characters as the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat was
good for masking Carroll's acidic intent on
debasing the British aristocracy and parliament.
In eschewing Carrol's intentions, Walt Disney
gives us spectacle without substance; a series of
highly imaginative and magnificently rendered
vignettes that, unfortunately fail to provide a
cohesive plot for dear sweet Alice to meander
through. At best, the film appears as something of
a "Silly Symphony" travelogue of moments that
barely hold ones attention as a collective whole.
At the time of its release "Alice" was much
criticized for "lacking heart," but actually the
opposite is true. There is great warmth in the
Kathryn Beaumont's vocal realization of the young
Alice. There are also poignant moments of
introspection that result in Alice's realization
that she cannot stay in Wonderland but rather,
must return to the world that belongs to her.
However, having omitted many of the novel's best
loved characters, and truncated certain story
elements while completely omitted perhaps the
novel's best segment, "the Jabberwacky," few die
hard Carrol-philes forgave Disney for his
intrusion on the hallowed ground of the novel's
literary legacy.
The transfer on Alice is, in a word, stunning! A
rich, fully saturated spectrum of color that is
bold and well defined. While the previously issued
DVD suffered from some picture instability and age
related artifacts, this version is "practically
perfect in every way." The audio has been cleaned
up and remixed to 5.1 surround. The songs benefit
richly from the remastering effort with robust
spread across all five speaker channels, quite
uncharacteristic in most movies of "Alice's"
vintage.
There are tons of extras to sift through. There's
a Charlie McCarthy featurette, some studio junket
stuff and a few short subjects that are introduced
by Katharine Beaumont. There's also the Mickey
Mouse short "Through the Looking Glass" which was
previously made available as part of the 'Mickey
in Living Color' DVD and a really, really dismal
virtual adventure in Wonderland that I can't
imagine appealing to anyone outside of the
pre-school set. One oversight: there's no
comprehensive "making of" for this Disney film --
a genuine shame that leaves the other extras sort
of out in the cold, presented without any kind of
overview and underlying unity -- sort of like the
film itself.
If you've always been a fan of this movie then
this is definitely the version to get. For me,
there's still something tragically lacking in
"Alice" that not even a wonderland of extras can
make whole! |
