Alice in Wonderland

Despite its emphasis on admittedly jaw-dropping instances of animation, Alice in Wonderland remains curiously uninvolving for the duration of its sporadically interminable 75 minute running time – as the film has been infused with an aggressively plotless sensibility that grows more and more grating as time progresses. The movie, which follows Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) as she tumbles into a strange world called Wonderland, moves at a moribund pace that’s exacerbated by its decidedly episodic structure, with the hit-and-miss nature of Alice’s various encounters ensuring that one’s interest tends to ebb and flow from start to finish. And although the film certainly boasts a handful of genuinely compelling interludes (eg Alice’s encounter with the Mad Hatter and the March Hare), Alice in Wonderland is, for the most part, dominated by weird-for-weirdness’-sake segments that would feel right at home within an abstract art installation. It is, as a result, not surprising to note that the movie tends to come off as a watchable yet thoroughly forgettable piece of work, with the pervasively less-than-engrossing vibe ensuring that the film ultimately stands in sharp contrast to other Disney releases of that era (eg Peter Pan, Cinderella, etc).

*1/2 out of ****