What a weird film! So much wrong with it, but so much right about it. Wanted to see this version for years after catching part of it on TV in the 1950s. I've just managed to achieve my goal through a reconstructed edition on Youtube. Having said that, the colour wasn't very good. It needs a proper digital restoration.
Let's be honest, this is always going to trail behind the Disney version which is warm and cosy. Bower's film trends all of the Victorian attitudes towards children and you feel at times as if you've had your knuckles rapped!
Carol Marsh is far too old to play Alice, and yet she does it perfectly. Possibly Jean Simmons could have filled the part, but we'll never know. Anyway, like most of the live cast, she has long faded into obscurity. In the framing segment, my favourite was Pamela Brown as the malapropistic Queen Victoria; absolutely right for the role. And to think it was her portrayal that held up the release of the film, being considered disrespectful. Says a lot about deference in 1949 doesn't it!
Unfortunately, the animated puppets are unappealing, having rather grotesque faces. The best characterization was the White Rabbit, a real unlikeable mean so-and-so. Also, since the opening credits tell us that Carroll based his characters on real Oxford people. I think it would have been better to have the same actors in the framing sequence, in costume as the Wonderland characters; like in The Wizard Of Oz. The scenery is what you would expect. Looking very much like stage props with lots of hidey-holes for the puppets to use. The songs aren't up to much, apart from the fish-footmen sequence which I found highly amusing; Marsh seems to have a good voice; but it's really an uncredited Adele Leigh. Having Lewis Carroll in the scenario was a good idea. But, he comes across as a rather weak character. Not having the courage of his convictions when he has the opportunity to ask The Queen about removing the noisy bell at his Oxford college. Also, I don't understand why there is an American narrator.
Worth watching for being faithful to the book and for comparison with other movie and TV versions. But, it's never going to be the one you remember.
