Viewed in
2010
Premise
A Disney animated version of Lewis Carroll's book.
Loved
Card soldiers animation. The Dormouse.
Liked
The Merry Unbirthday song and the Chesire Cat.
Hated
The plot.
Thoughts
I expected to really enjoy this, considering I like animation and trippy movies. However, I was sorely disappointed.
There were some very bizarre and interesting characters, such as the bouncy Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the nonsensical Mad Hatter, and the famous, mischievous Chesire Cat. My favorite of all would be the hilariously drunk Dormouse.
As expected, the animation was quite excellent, and was probably very difficult, considering the different and deviant visual styles that was required. I found the scenes with the armies of card solders to be spell-binding and awesome. Astounding considering there were no computers back then.
What brought this movie down was the stupid plot. It literally had only four meaningful moments, everything else was just a piling on of wacky creatures. As much as I like the weird characters and animation, there still needs to be rhyme and reason for their existence and actions. I became bored very easily as I realized they lacked any of that. After that, it felt like a 20 minute bit stretched beyond watchable.
I never read the book, so if this seemingly lack of plot was just like the original source, then I might give it more leeway (and in turn probably would hate the book).
While I enjoyed the animation and some cool moments, the lame story completely wrecked my experience. I do not understand the hype of this "classic". You may think I am criticizing it too much as an adult, but my inner child was not impressed.
What I would change
Chopped it up into five minute shorts, made them into some sort of weekly adventure series.
Random
Is that a hookah?! Shame on Disney for promoting drug use!
Anyone else notice that the King looked like Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast?
