Today I finally get round to watching the DVD I’d bought of Jan Svankmajer’s Alice, and I was not disappointed, a great antidote to the saccharine sweetness of the Disney version, Svankmajer’s story is decidedly darker. Cleverly using the stop motion which he is renowned for, Svankmajer takes the viewer into a subverted universe existing entirely within the playroom. For instance the caterpillar becomes a threadbare sock with false teeth and glass eyes who sews his eyelids shut to go to sleep, while the rabbit is a taxidermist model who we see smashing his way out of the glass cabinet that contains him at the beginning of the film.

This may not seem like the most desirable thing to watch on a lazy Sunday morning, and it may be too surreal for some, but I certainly enjoyed it.

And some more of his work: