Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Mark Lediard, 2009) - Depict.org

This short film has an effective impact on the audience in the way that it takes an old fashioned classis children's entertainment film and makes it look as though it should be a nightmare. The flashing images and the randomness of the sequence make it look as though it were a dream, which Alice In Wonderland indeed is, yet it is not seen to be a negative experience for Alice. Whether the film makers intended this or not it is unknown but the character Alice in the short film is Chinese, whereas Alice in the story we all know is a blonde haired little girl wearing a blue dress and is very naive to the world. However, the Alice in this film looks a lot older and looks to have a lot less child-like tendencies. The "drink me" bottle is an adaption of the novel where she finds a very small glass bottle with a cork, whereas the short film has made it a modern day sports bottle.

The music adds a lot to the nightmare-like situation. The way Alice sits on the bed rocking dips into another analysis' of the novel that suggests Alice was infact crazy due to the things she was dreaming and saying. The image of the rabbit being seen as evil due to its demonic eyes leaves a lot to be considered, could it be suggesting that the rabbit is evil as he is the one who makes Alice fall down the rabbit hole and made this nightmare begin? When it switches to black and white, it shows that this is no longer reality, up until then, everything previous is possible. The end where she wakes up in a dream like scenery is significant to the novel when she wakes up in a tree at the end and has realised it is all a dream.

The audience it is aimed at I would say is those who have read the novel or seen the Disney adaptation of it, because if you had done neither, it would make no sense as ou wouldn't be able to make these links between the origianal and the short film. I think it was made to give an alternative view to the classic, like we frequently see on the internet when famous films are recut into shorter films to change their genre entirely. I assume this outlet was chosen as it is specifically for short films. I doubt any other outlet would have been suitable for it as unless the alternative audience knew it was a short film it may seem a little confusing.

The editing style of this film is very fast paced to keep up with the ever changing scenarios in dreams. It is different from that of a Hollywood film as they would have varying edit lengths as they have time to incorporate a character profile in their films whereas short films have to convey a message in a very short amount of time, so to cram, are often quicker paced. These are what makes it stand out as a short film. Other aspects are that it is very obviously low budget and unrecognised, I doubt many other people have seen it, as it is only able to be viewed on an unpopular website.

This particular film could touch on Tsvetan Todorov's idea of what a narrative should be like. He says that all stories begin in a state of equilibrium which is then disrupted, and then in resolution a new equilibrium is created. This is true to this short film as she begins in one place, goes through a major disruption in 'wonderland', then finsihes somewhere entirely different.

Parts of this film I aim to use in my own is the quick paced, almost desperation nature of it. I like how quickly it ploughs through the storyline and manages to cram a lot of information and story into a short amount of time.