I've reviewed hundreds of movies on IMDb over the years (and, more recently, at Letterboxd), but this will be the first write-up on pornography. This X-self-rated "Alice in Wonderland," however, was a product of an era when adult films were chic, influenced by the sexual revolution and counterculture, released theatrically and sometimes considered for their artistic or mainstream-entertainment values--the so-called "golden age of porn." It's been released in soft and hardcore versions. And the thing is a hybrid: part pornography, or at least sexploitation, and part cheeky musical comedy. And weird--it's a porno adaptation of a children's book, after all; as one of its tagline's claims, it gives a different meaning to the bedtime story.
Granted, Lewis Carroll's Alice books, nowadays, may be more enjoyed by adults than kids, for their witty nonsense and imaginative queerness. There's even a considerable amount of literary criticism, although I don't necessarily agree with much or any of it, regarding sexualized readings of the texts (a lot of it's psychobabble). There are also at least two other pornographic films that reference the Alice books that I've since seen, "Alice in Acidland" (1969), although that one is more of a cross between an old-fashioned stag film and sexploitation, and, a film that's mature in more than just the carnal sense, "Through the Looking Glass" (1976). I suppose, then, that the filmmakers could've chosen a worse source to exploit for sex. Indeed, reportedly, they originally wanted to adapt "The Wizard of Oz," the original book of which, although influenced by the Alice stories, is purely kiddie stuff. That may be why, in stark contrast to film versions of Carroll's book, it made for one of the most-celebrated films ever in 1939, and it's probably also why it would make for a lousy porno (I decline to confirm that suspicion). Regardless of whether it was originally written for a little girl, there's already somethings inherently sophisticated about the Alice books; it's largely about a child's encountering of the adult world, including the focus on her growing and shrinking suggesting her own aging--and by way of hunger and consumption of tarts and other edibles, including some with written prescriptions of "eat me" and "drink me," which is all just ripe for sensual interpretations.
Thus, it's not that much of a stretch here to have another naive Alice, but this time with the emphasis on her confusion with the world of copulation--her virginity. A librarian (who checks in Carroll's book in one of the two scenes to reference it visibly), she rejects the advances of William. He, by the way, may be a sly reference to Lewis Carroll, for he wears a shirt, as Alice points out, that bares another name. He has a pseudonym, in other words. I guess it would be too on the nose had his real name, instead, been Charles, with a shirt labelled Lewis, although I doubt a porno that misspells Carroll's name in the credits would do such intentionally (but, then, Disney misspelled his name in 1951, too, and Walt really was a fan of the Alice books). Regardless, another clever thing here is what happens after Alice enters the mirror while following the White Rabbit. When she shrinks, her clothes do not. That's my favorite gag in the entire picture. Besides that, there's a bit of fourth-wall breaking and a chase sequence edited in a staggered fashion, plus a lot of coitus and déshabillé.
Problem is there's nothing left of Carroll's clever wordplay and even most of the episodes are bowdlerized. Besides sex and talk about sex, it's replaced with rhyming, singing and dancing. Some of it's not bad. I don't think there's any chance of confusing this with great cinema, though. Not that sexual intercourse can't effectively underlie filmmaking; "Last Tango in Paris" (1972), for instance, did so reflexively. The scenes here, however, are filmed much like many bad mainstream love scenes: slow, overly long, and they bring the plot to a halt, including dissolves and ridiculous symbolic nature imagery. This "Alice" seems more akin to other sexploitation fare and, perhaps, enjoyable on a so-bad-it's-good level. After all, Jesús Franco, for one, apparently, transitioned between adult and exploitation cinema easily. To a lesser extent, it seems the guy behind this did, too.
Granted, Lewis Carroll's Alice books, nowadays, may be more enjoyed by adults than kids, for their witty nonsense and imaginative queerness. There's even a considerable amount of literary criticism, although I don't necessarily agree with much or any of it, regarding sexualized readings of the texts (a lot of it's psychobabble). There are also at least two other pornographic films that reference the Alice books that I've since seen, "Alice in Acidland" (1969), although that one is more of a cross between an old-fashioned stag film and sexploitation, and, a film that's mature in more than just the carnal sense, "Through the Looking Glass" (1976). I suppose, then, that the filmmakers could've chosen a worse source to exploit for sex. Indeed, reportedly, they originally wanted to adapt "The Wizard of Oz," the original book of which, although influenced by the Alice stories, is purely kiddie stuff. That may be why, in stark contrast to film versions of Carroll's book, it made for one of the most-celebrated films ever in 1939, and it's probably also why it would make for a lousy porno (I decline to confirm that suspicion). Regardless of whether it was originally written for a little girl, there's already somethings inherently sophisticated about the Alice books; it's largely about a child's encountering of the adult world, including the focus on her growing and shrinking suggesting her own aging--and by way of hunger and consumption of tarts and other edibles, including some with written prescriptions of "eat me" and "drink me," which is all just ripe for sensual interpretations.
Thus, it's not that much of a stretch here to have another naive Alice, but this time with the emphasis on her confusion with the world of copulation--her virginity. A librarian (who checks in Carroll's book in one of the two scenes to reference it visibly), she rejects the advances of William. He, by the way, may be a sly reference to Lewis Carroll, for he wears a shirt, as Alice points out, that bares another name. He has a pseudonym, in other words. I guess it would be too on the nose had his real name, instead, been Charles, with a shirt labelled Lewis, although I doubt a porno that misspells Carroll's name in the credits would do such intentionally (but, then, Disney misspelled his name in 1951, too, and Walt really was a fan of the Alice books). Regardless, another clever thing here is what happens after Alice enters the mirror while following the White Rabbit. When she shrinks, her clothes do not. That's my favorite gag in the entire picture. Besides that, there's a bit of fourth-wall breaking and a chase sequence edited in a staggered fashion, plus a lot of coitus and déshabillé.
Problem is there's nothing left of Carroll's clever wordplay and even most of the episodes are bowdlerized. Besides sex and talk about sex, it's replaced with rhyming, singing and dancing. Some of it's not bad. I don't think there's any chance of confusing this with great cinema, though. Not that sexual intercourse can't effectively underlie filmmaking; "Last Tango in Paris" (1972), for instance, did so reflexively. The scenes here, however, are filmed much like many bad mainstream love scenes: slow, overly long, and they bring the plot to a halt, including dissolves and ridiculous symbolic nature imagery. This "Alice" seems more akin to other sexploitation fare and, perhaps, enjoyable on a so-bad-it's-good level. After all, Jesús Franco, for one, apparently, transitioned between adult and exploitation cinema easily. To a lesser extent, it seems the guy behind this did, too.