Also see my other "Alice in Wonderland" ranking, Through the Looking-Glass: A Ranking of Films Reflecting Lewis Carroll's Alice Books.
The two Alice books, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel "Through the Looking-Glass" by Charles Dodgson, under the pen name of Lewis Carroll, besides remaining the greatest writing in the history of children's literature, have provided for many motion-picture adaptations and even more cinematic allusions. Despite these films tending to (but not always) ignore the class-based Victorian age in which the books were written, the texts continue to provide cinema imaginative visuals, which are sometimes inspired by John Tenniel's illustrations, poems and songs for musicals, and the amusements of the literary nonsense genre, as well as for parables on…
Also see my other "Alice in Wonderland" ranking, Through the Looking-Glass: A Ranking of Films Reflecting Lewis Carroll's Alice Books.
The two Alice books, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and its sequel "Through the Looking-Glass" by Charles Dodgson, under the pen name of Lewis Carroll, besides remaining the greatest writing in the history of children's literature, have provided for many motion-picture adaptations and even more cinematic allusions. Despite these films tending to (but not always) ignore the class-based Victorian age in which the books were written, the texts continue to provide cinema imaginative visuals, which are sometimes inspired by John Tenniel's illustrations, poems and songs for musicals, and the amusements of the literary nonsense genre, as well as for parables on the transition between childhood and adulthood, sexual interpretations (including for porn), and psychedelic drug-induced trips, and there's also the witty wordplay, parody of nursery rhymes and games of logic (from an author who was also a mathematician, as well as perhaps more relevant to film adaptation, a photographer).
I'm breaking these up into two rankings. This one includes mostly straightforward adaptations, paratextual reworkings, sequels based in the books and parodies that mostly focus on the texts, as well. The other and longer ranking is about films that significantly reflect or reference the Alice books but are otherwise not adaptations or are largely about things other than the books.
Links to my reviews of the films in the notes. Also note that one film, "Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy," I wanted to include on this list has no entry at letterboxd as of yet due to the site's prudishness towards pornography and despite a proposal years ago to include notable porn films to the database (see here and here). It's ranked #14 on my corresponding IMDb list, and here's a link to my IMDb review for it. (EDIT: Letterboxd has since added the title, and I've added it to the list.)
Also note that I've skipped some of the more kiddie-looking, usually TV, adaptations, but feel free to suggest any titles you think I shouldn't continue to miss.
My average rating of ranked movies: 2.4 stars.
