I love this movie so much

Redundant and unnecessary.

A different way of telling a story

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Paramount's all-star adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice stories, directed by Norman McLeod and featuring many great character actors and a few big name stars (many with their faces inexplicably covered -- bet that went over well in 1933). It's pretty fun to watch, especially for classic film fans who will likely recognize the different faces and voices behind the masks and makeup. The sets, costumes, and effects are all very impressive for the period. The music is nice, too. The only negatives are that the pace is a little slow, it has a stagy quality at times, and the bizarreness is both a plus and a minus. Sometimes it's charming, sometimes it's a bit creepy, but at all times it's interesting. There really wasn't anything else like this being made in 1933, when live action fantasy films in general were rare. It definitely warrants a look if you're a fan of Carroll or classic Hollywood.

This movie is almost legendary, with an alleged star studded cast of people who actually weren't quite stars. We had seen bits and pieces over the years, but never watched it from the beginning until it was on TV recently. The sad fact is, it's not nearly as good as it should be. Movies were supposedly entering into their golden age at this point, but maybe they weren't quite there yet in 1933. This version of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale is dull and leaden, without magic and without an ounce of charm. It starts out with an invented character, a sour-faced old aunt who sets the dark, scolding tone. Alice falls asleep and goes not only through the looking glass but also down the rabbit hole in a confusing set of sequences. Someone thought it was a good idea to try to replicate the famous John Tenniel illustrations from the book, resulting in a lot of grotesque, amateurish looking papier-mâché heads covering up all the characters. The tone shifts throughout, with stylized creatures like the frog and the fish mixed in with real life ducks. Scenes come and go in a hodgepodge, none of them very funny or light of touch. We wanted this to be better from beginning to end, but alas. Nobody has ever really captured "Alice in Wonderland" correctly except for Lewis Carroll himself.

When i was a kid and would watch this i always thought it was weird and disturbing. when i was really little i remember being sort of afraid of it. now i think it's a hoot.I've always liked black and white films and feel they achieve stark images with lots of contrast. it's even weirder when the film is a fantasy and features a variety of effects and gimmicks, then it really brings out the dream-like qualities of the black and white.I've never thought this film was as fun or delightful as 'The Wizard of Oz' movie, but i've changed my opinion of it and have found a new respect for the film. it isn't as sweet as 'Oz', but it's a lot weirder and freaky. even though i have always really liked Charlotte Henry(little Bo Peep from 'Wooden Soldiers') her performance doesn't have the touching depth of Judy Garland's Dorothy.the only thing here that i found i was still afraid of was W.C. Field's Humpty Dumpty. i just can't get used to it. it's just plain horrifying.the decades of time have softened the shadows and edges of this movie and taken away a lot of it's nightmarish effect. instead of nightmarish, it now seems quaint and kooky.

In the depths of the Great Depression, Paramount mounted this spectacular fantasy with a galaxy of top flight stars and just missed creating a classic. Like the stage ALICE IN WONDERLAND Eva LeGallienne had mounted the year before at her Civic Repertory Theatre in New York - only just closed when the film opened - which appears to have inspired this production, the sets and costumes are drawn heavily from the classic and by then in public domain illustrations from the original book by John Tenniel.The result is a dazzling world - starting with Alice's Victorian drawing room where she is waiting out a snow storm with her cat, Dinah and her aunt before beginning her explorations Through the Looking Glass (the film combines both of Lewis Carroll's most famous books) and continuing through most of the most famous incidents from the books in live action fantasy form. Only "The Walrus and The Carpenter," delightfully rendered by Max Fleischer's cartoon studio (one would love to have seen the cut footage of the similarly popular "You Are Old Father William" poem!) was deemed too hard to portray with live actors - the baby oysters lured from their bed for culinary conversation - "Shoes and ships and sealing wax" and all that. You've probably seen this cartoon edited from the film and issued separately! This was a separate Hollywood production, despite similarities with the Broadway play with music, and didn't use the any of that show's Richard Addinsell song score (recorded by RCA during the stage show's 1947 revival) but turned Dimitri Tiomkin loose on it, and it's nice to see that film's premiere composer could also turn out a nice enough song or two too. This was a first class production all the way - and like MGM's WIZARD OF OZ six years later, didn't make money in it's initial release - or initial RE-release in 1935. Lacking ...OZ's Technicolor and popular song score, this ALICE IN WONDERLAND didn't even carve out its classic niche when television came in, and is now almost lost - supplanted in the popular mind by the fine 1951 Disney animated version of the story, but is well worth seeking out for lovers of Lewis Carroll, classic fantasy or classic film.Technicolor or not, songs or not, the film still has elements which dazzle and only a few serious drawbacks for the "short attention span" set. Charlotte Henry is a fine, natural Alice (in an all too brief career of only 31 films, before retiring during WWII, she also did the Laurel & Hardy BABES IN TOYALAND in 1934 and the best of all the Chans, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA in 1936 as Boris Karloff's daughter!) and she is ably supported by a cast of great actors - not all of whom have the luxury of costumes revealing their faces like Ned Sparks' Caterpillar, Edward Everett Horton's Mad Hatter or Edna May Oliver's Red Queen, but the voices of rising stars like Cary Grant (a wonderful singing Mock Turtle) and old pro W.C. Fields (Humpty Dumpty) won't really require seeing the faces in their "Tenniel come-to-life" costumes.The problem, if any, comes in the mad whirl of crazy fantasy that takes Alice deeper and deeper into Wonderland (and its sequel) and after a while can lose the audience's interest as they try clinging to a thru-story line. Stick around though, for Gary Cooper's appearance around an hour into the film as The White Knight (only the name is type casting)! It is one of the greatest treats in a motion picture packed with them - and arguably one of the crowning gems of Cooper's career. Quite wonderful.Modern audiences may cringe a bit in the opening scene seeing Alice, in a highly starched - and highly FLAMMABLE - dress and apron climbing on the grate in front of a burning fireplace to look in the mirror over the hearth, but someone at the studio did notice (and probably hoped the audience wouldn't). When Alice returns, the fire is out. After 75 years though, the fire is far from out on this fascinating extravaganza. If you get a chance to see it, grab it.