Being a fan of Jan Svankmajer's stop-motion artwork, it breaks my heart to admit that this film was not nearly as enjoyable as I thought it would be.

While the animation is fascinating and lends itself to the twisted nature of the story, the lack of any dialogue makes it become redundant, and thus the novelty wears off after about 15 minutes.

The only human in the film is the young actress playing Alice, whose wooden performance and lack of any expression whatsoever (made worse by the poor dubbing) undermine the eeriness of the events unfolding before her.

A film worth watching once, particularly if you're in the mood for something unconventional and weird. Not the kind of film you could watch over and over.

Renowned Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer turns his hand to the feature film with 'Alice', and the result is not quite what you might expect.

Despite some possibly disturbing or at least disconcerting imagery, 'Alice' isn't really a shocking, Dada distortion of 'Alice in Wonderland' - in fact you could argue that it follows the original story at least as faithfully as Disney's 1950's version. It's just that the characters and objects of the story are replaced with bizarre objects or assemblages of objects (I loved the room filled with socks that burrowed through the floorboards).

It really isn't as dark and sinister as some people might have you believe. In fact I found myself having a chuckle at quite a few scenes. I think this is one thing that seperates Svankmajer from his disciples such as the Brothers Quay. Svankmajer's tongue is rarely far from his cheek, whereas the Quays tke themselves terribly seriously.

At the beginning of the film Alice (who is alternatively a real actor and a surprisingly well animated doll) follows a stuffed white rabbit which smashes out of the glass case in her room, leaking sawdust. From there on, most things follow the original story quite closely. It's just Svankmajer's surrealist imagery which replaces the more familiar characters and objects we have come to know.

But there, perhaps, is the point. 'Alice in Wonderland' is essentially surreal. Has Svankmajer disorted it, or restored it to its original weirdness for a late 20th century audience?

'Alice' isn't quite a masterpiece, but it's an intriguing, and surprisingly funny excusrion from Jan Svankmajer.

A few things haven't changed from 'The Flat', 20 years earlier. Knobs and handles inevitably break off when you try to open things with them, chickens still make their inexplicable appearance, people still get trapped inside rooms, and food should never be trusted to behave like normal food.