This is the second, known Alice film, ever to be seen in movie theaters. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910), starts out well and then the quality begins to drop, as the plot moves along. There is a reason for this though. It was something, that made the Alice films more of a special effects driven story, than a story found in the literary nonsense genre of literature. This is an Edison production and it is the first American version of Alice in Wonderland. The director, Edwin S. Porter, who brought us the legendary, the Great Train Robbery (1903), brings this adaptation to theatrical life.
What afflicts this film the most, is the same problem, that troubled the 1903 film. Being a silent production, a lot of Alice's story and the characters she meets, can't be used, because these aspects of the story are heavily driven by dialogue. It was a problem that plagued the Alice silent film attempts of the pre-sound era. It was becoming clear, that this story needed the invention of sound film. It was such a problem for this film, the last few minutes of the film begins to drag. There are some nicely framed shots and you do see the camera move, slightly. The special effects are pretty good for a 1910 film and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1910), does show a slight improvement on the first film, seen seven years earlier, especially with some of the costumes.
6.2 (D+ MyGrade) = 6 IMDB.
