In anticipation of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, to be released next Friday (March 5), I decided to explore other unique interpretations of Lewis Carroll’s famed and widely overdone fairy tale.   In Jan Svankmajer’s 1988 film Alice (originally released under the Czech title Neco z Alenky), viewers land inside Alice’s mind, where they are  bombarded with eerie and bizarre imagery in what becomes quite possibly the creepiest portrayal ever of Alice’s magical land.

Watching this film was one of the strangest hours of my life, comparable only to the act of watching one of your own nonsensical dreams fly out of your head and land in video form on your television.   The plot features just one actress (Kristýna Kohoutová) as Alice, and a few live animals, leaving the rest to the art of  stop motion (an extremely creepy and effective choice).  Most of the story follows Alice following the White Rabbit (he’s late, he’s late!) who’s stop motion face often triggers brief, uncontrollable laughter.  And when it comes time for Alice to shrink, she morphs out of her human body into the queen of all possible creepy – a tiny, beady-eyed stop motion doll!

Svankmajer also places a heavy emphasis on sound by accenting small noises and eliminating most other noise, a production choice that forces viewers to focus solely on the film’s visuals (many of which will never leave their heads).

In this portrayal, Lewis Caroll’s famously unanswerable riddle, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” takes a backseat to other mysteries, like, “Why is a sloth-like fox cleaning all of the tea cups at the Mad Hatters table?” Or, “Why did a crying baby, tossed out a window in a blanket, suddenly turn into a piglet?” And also, “Why do most of the animals have regular bodies but skeleton heads?” Or maybe, “Why does the White Rabbit both eat and bleed sawdust?” (Just to name a few.)

But these beyond bizarre events only add to the story’s magic – after all, Wonderland always has been the epitome of imagination.

I can see where some people might feel bored as the story drags on, but I believe the film’s painfully slow pace benefits its mission. Stunted action and repetitive patterns help create the feeling of insanity – an emotion with which Alice is all too friendly.

But because many of us know the young girls story, we become impatient for the next scene. Our need to move quickly through the story comes only from our over-familiarity with the tale.  That being said, a person who knows nothing of Alice’s travels through Wonderland would have absolutely no idea what was going on (probably an even more enhanced experience).

My only qualm: failure to include the Cheshire cat.

Regardless, Wonderland enthusiasts and apathetic film-goers alike will be deeply affected by this hilarious, dark, and trippy Alice classic.