Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Alice - Adventures in Wonderland" )

directed by William Sterling
UK 1972

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, from the Lewis Carroll classic, is a major disappointment. Superior stylistic settings and often terrific process effects are largely wasted by the limp, lifeless pacing of adapter-director William Sterling.

The secret of family-film conception is providing interest to all age groups. Some such films forget teenagers and adults in favor of catering strictly to moppets. This film largely forgets all audience segments in favor of static tableaux and one-two-three-kick direction, and even the John Barry-Don Black score of 16 tunes is confined to key largo.

Excerpt of review from Variety Staff located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 23, 1973 (UK)

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DVD Review: Oracle Home Entertainment/Eureka - Region 0 - PAL

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Oracle Home Entertainment/Eureka Region 0 - PAL
Runtime	1:31:42
Video	2.35:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 5.62 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Oracle Home Entertainment/Eureka Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 2.35:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: March 8th, 2010 Keep Case Chapters 16

Comments

There's not much to say about this release from Oracle. The film itself, while aspiring high, falls flat. With a few exceptions, the musical numbers are uninteresting, and the story feels like a rush to cram in as much as Lewis's material as possible before breaking to another song, and still keep the running time to a point manageable to children. It's an understandable enterprise, but the end result doesn't work so well. While it's good to see some of the biggest stars in British comedy (two of the three Goons, Dudley Moore, etc.) make appearances here, they're often hidden behind makeup and given little to do. The only bright spot is the performance from the lovely Fiona Fullerton who does a decent job in her role as Alice.

As you can see from the screen captures, the print used here is just a mess. The best that I can say for it is that it's presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, but that's where the praise ends. The video is very soft and hampered by the fact that the transfer is interlaced and often features visible combing. The audio is competent enough, but the mono soundtrack doesn't really do much for the listless songs.

Overall, I recommend staying away from this release and instead checking out one of the better adaptations of the Alice stories.

- Brian Montgomery

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