Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1982) User Reviews

A good sledgehammer strike of a cartoon...

[AndreiPavlov · 10/10 · 24 August 2007]

...right against the glossy lollipop of usual Disney animation. Don't get me wrong - I enjoy quite a few glossy Disney works (cf. one of my comments dedicated to "Darkwing Duck").

Pale, insane, dark, surreal, uncouth, crude, but artistically wonderful. Every single voice delivered goes from a talented actor or actress. Every piece of music played and song performed catches attention and does not leave it at ease. If you are accustomed to smooth colourful mermaid-like TV serial adventures, stay far away from this one. An unprepared brain could get damaged by this harsh art.

"Alisa v Strane Chudes" contains 3 mini-chapters and "Alisa v Zazerkale" - 4 ones. Before the actual tale begins, a few words are spoken about Mr Lewis Carroll.

Alisa is a daring, clever, not very cute (she is no "Britney Spears" or "Barbie" type), but definitely interesting, and very lonely character. She can stand up for herself and she is not a cry-baby - that's for sure. I cannot say I like her, but I watch her animated adventures with a kind of awe.

The two, known to me, Russian DVD releases include both the titles: "Alisa v Strane Chudes" (1981) and "Alisa v Zazerkale" (1982). One of the releases contains mono sound only but that's alright - it becomes to the bleak colour palette of the production perfectly.

As to me personally, I prefer to watch it in almost black-and-white with the selected EAX advanced sound effects. A fine example of weird intoxicating escapism.

This cartoon reminds me of the golden age of our cinema when our actors had fascinating voice talents and used those talents right. My favourite parts are Alisa's lasting fall ("Alisa v Strane Chudes") and the sitting of the court ("Alisa v Zazerkale").

Quite possibly, the best animated version of Mr Lewis Carroll's novel.

10 out of 10. Thank you for attention.

Fine adaptation of the great book: hugely superb to Disney's

[sergey_smirnow · 25 December 2002]

Believe me, this cartoon is great. Unlike that sugar-coated and over-simplificated Disney version, it retains genuine sense of wonder and delicious weirdness so prominent in the book. I remember watching Disney's Alice in still tender age of 11, on big screen no less, and it completely failed to impress me compared to Russian cartoon that popped up occasionally on TV.

Carroll's work is not for children only, nor is it easy to adapt onscreen; while Disney carefully removed all the more serious issues, Russian version has them all, including several rather grim existential/death jokes. Again, Disney's Alice is just another Snow-White, while Alisa is more like Carroll and Tennison perceived her: cute, curious, caring, innocent and strong.

Cut-out animation is top of the line, in fact, it eerily resembles some modern high-budget anime; add to this superb voice work and fine electronic soundtrack from the beginning of 80's - and you have a great work of art.

I surely hope "Alisa" finds its way to "Masters of Russian Animation" series. This masterpiece surely deserves much wider recognition.

On par with the previous, no improvement sadly

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 13 November 2017]

"Alisa v Zazerkale" or "Alice in the Land in the Other Side of the Mirror" is a Soviet Russian-language animated short film from 1982, so this one has its 35th anniversary this year. Pruzhanskiy and Zagdansky collaborated on this sequel to the Soviet take on the original Alice in Wonderland tale. This one here is a bit longer, but otherwise there are many similarities, especially in terms of animation style and also in terms of the absurd, over-the-top characters that are once again frequently animals. The comedy is so-so, the play on words about the "lion's share" wasn't too bad, but otherwise it was pretty mediocre. And perhaps Carroll's style and approach are just not very satisfying to me as I was never a big AiW fan either, not even of the traditional more known Disney version. Anyway, back to this one here. There is even more focus on queens this time and Alice herself becomes one eventually. And some slightly famous characters like Humpty Dumpty are included too. As a whole, I was as unimpressed by most of the production values in here as I was by the first. The voice acting is one of not too many pros here, but the soundtrack for example is weaker too compared to the first. I give it a thumbs-down and suggest you don't watch it unless you really really love Alice in Wonderland or old Soviet animation.