Issue date: 10/30/09 Section: News

A scene from Maggie Taylor's "It's always tea-time" is on display in the Tarble Arts Center as part of Taylor's exhibit :Almost Alice: New Illustrations of Wonderland" running through December 20. (Eric Hiltner/The Daily Eastern News)

Students were taken to the dark side of "Alice in Wonderland" Thursday night as viewers took a seat in the Doudna Fine Arts Center's Lecture hall to view Jan Svankmajer's film "Alice."

Robin Murray, an English professor, presented the film based off Lewis Caroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

"Tarble's director, Michael Watts, contacted English professors who taught children's literature, young adult literature, and or film courses to see if they might like to coordinate with the event," Murray said. "Since the topic for my film and literature course was graphic novels, adaptation, and animation, "Alice in Wonderland" was a logical fit."

Murray opened the event with a brief introduction before starting the film.

"Without further ado, sit back and watch the film," Murray said.

The lights dimmed as more students took their seats. The opening scene of the film showed Alice sitting by a brook, but the reality side of this film did not last for long.

As Alice sits in her room, the peacefulness of a child's play place is disturbed when a stuffed white rabbit pulls its paws from the floor of a display case, puts on a hat, jacket and gloves, and breaks free from the glass case with a pair of scissors.

At the start of the film, students could see that "Alice" was not going to be the same as Disney's "Alice in Wonderland."

"It's a lot darker," said Candace Manning, a graduate art major.

The movie continues as Alice goes through the rabbit hole, or down a mine shaft, into a dark world of taxidermy animals, socks, playing cards, bowls of sawdust and a series of battered white doors.

The tea party scene of "Alice" is given an even darker feeling as Alice opens the door and is immediately yelled at by the Mad Hatter telling her there is not any room.

The characters of this scene are toys; the Mad Hatter being a wooden marionette and the March Hare, a wind up toy whose button eye comes lose from time to time.

The Mad Hatter and March Hare are not the only things that make this version of "Alice in Wonderland" dark.

The croquet scene takes a nightmarish turn when the White Rabbit actually clips off the heads of the cards with a pair of scissors at the Queen of Heart's demand.

The film ends when Alice is brought back into reality; waking up in her room, surrounded by a pile of playing cards.

The viewer is left with the question of whether Alice's journey was a dream or a reality when Alice looks around the room to see the broken display case and the stuffed rabbit, who is nowhere to be found.

"I thought it was um...I'd rather have been painting," Manning said as the lights of the lecture hall were turned on.

Manning was not the only viewer who rather have been doing something else than watch "Alice" as some viewers snuck out of the film early.

At film's end, Murray asked what viewers thought of the film. Her questioning was met with negative feedback, and silence when she asked if anyone liked the film.

The lecture hall remained quiet until one student expressed his approval for the film while a few others stayed quiet about their critical opinions.

Lauren Curta, a graduate art student, felt differently about the film than the majority opinion.

"I thought it was really weird," Curta said. "I kinda liked it."

Justin Bither, a graduate art student, came to view the film on the big screen for the first time.

"I liked it," Bither said. "I'd seen it before. I like darker things."

In contrast to the dark film "Alice", the Disney version of "Alice in Wonderland" will be screened at 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 in the Tarble Arts Center Atrium.

Sam Bohne can be reached at 581-7492 or DENnewsdesk@gmail.com.

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