Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1910)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Review

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a 1910 silent short film directed by Edwin S. Porter. It is a stupendous early adaptation of this work.

First and foremost, this film adapts the book superbly and so faithfully. I particularly liked how we got most of the major, famous sequences here such as the trial, the key, the tear flood etc. Of course being a short film at around fourteen minutes, it felt rushed, abrupt even at times and the editing is ridiculous as it cuts way too often for my personal taste. But the direction from Edwin S. Porter is reliably strong and I liked the intertitles used.

The acting is also fine and in particular the movie’s visuals are a joy to witness in such an old movie. It carefully follows the illustrations from the original book and in particular the costumes, the look of the characters and of course the production design are fantastic. Even some of the effects here are quite advanced. The movie truly looked modern and cool for its time which helped it feel like a fantasy world that it’s supposed to feel like.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is short and badly edited, but faithful to the source material and particularly visually arresting.