Curiously, this "Alice" abounds in references to Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," but its narrative hardly has anything to do with that classic children's literature outside of a vestige of a circular plot. While, having recently read the stories and been since seeking out related films, I enjoy the unexpected placements throughout of lines from the Alice books, but besides that and characters adopting names from those in the literary source, minus the animal or otherwise grotesque costumes, this is an otherwise flimsy, if still somewhat fun and decidedly light, rom-com musical with an even more flimsy assassination subplot. The original screenplay, such as it is, deserves little credit, then, in my estimation, although the episodes get appreciably more disconnected near the end. As for the music, while Lulu has, of course, a powerful voice, the lip syncing by Sophie Barjac, as the film's Alice, is inconsistent. The best part is that the camera sometimes joins in the picture's dancing--moving and cutting along with the movement of the figures, from the Rabbit's tap dancing to the a more free-flowing form of dance following the "talk in song" at the party at the residence of Queenie. "Now, change the glasses, please."
The beginning with the (White) Rabbit as a jogger in white clothes and late for an important date is a nice start to the Carrollian references, although this descends into a meet-cute and budding romance with the adult Alice and the even more inane assassination subplot, which never does seem to make any sense, but does bring the Queenie (or Hearts) into things and, less so, her pal, the non-hat-wearing Hatter. Moreover, I wish Alice's ex-lover, the Cheshire Cat, was never portrayed in the picture; not only because his scene adds nothing, it would've been an amusing allusion to the character's invisibility methinks. And how is there a woman here named Mona, but not Mabel, the girl who was a source of some of Alice's identity confusion in the book. I also thought the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, Alice's friends here, were played more like Tweedledee and Tweedledum from the second book, "Through the Looking-Glass," which would've made the chess prop in their scenes apt, with chess being the game of the sequel, as opposed to the pack of cards of the original. The Duchess as a gay hairdresser was rather surprisingly amusing, though. The Caterpillar as a crabby cabbie less so. On the other hand, long before "The Matrix" (1999) and all its "Alice in Wonderland" references, this Alice also takes the red pill. Although there are no costumes or settings based on John Tenniel's illustrations, there is a slight mask motif. Overall, however, most of the nonsense isn't found in quoting Carroll or Tenniel, but in the musical, which is all over the place: tap and ballroom dancing, hints of country, mostly rock and roll, and, curiouser and curiouser, disco.
The beginning with the (White) Rabbit as a jogger in white clothes and late for an important date is a nice start to the Carrollian references, although this descends into a meet-cute and budding romance with the adult Alice and the even more inane assassination subplot, which never does seem to make any sense, but does bring the Queenie (or Hearts) into things and, less so, her pal, the non-hat-wearing Hatter. Moreover, I wish Alice's ex-lover, the Cheshire Cat, was never portrayed in the picture; not only because his scene adds nothing, it would've been an amusing allusion to the character's invisibility methinks. And how is there a woman here named Mona, but not Mabel, the girl who was a source of some of Alice's identity confusion in the book. I also thought the Gryphon and Mock Turtle, Alice's friends here, were played more like Tweedledee and Tweedledum from the second book, "Through the Looking-Glass," which would've made the chess prop in their scenes apt, with chess being the game of the sequel, as opposed to the pack of cards of the original. The Duchess as a gay hairdresser was rather surprisingly amusing, though. The Caterpillar as a crabby cabbie less so. On the other hand, long before "The Matrix" (1999) and all its "Alice in Wonderland" references, this Alice also takes the red pill. Although there are no costumes or settings based on John Tenniel's illustrations, there is a slight mask motif. Overall, however, most of the nonsense isn't found in quoting Carroll or Tenniel, but in the musical, which is all over the place: tap and ballroom dancing, hints of country, mostly rock and roll, and, curiouser and curiouser, disco.