Alice in Chinatown

There is not a lot of plot in this Walt Disney made film, the 22nd of his Alice cartoon series.

The story begins much like the very popular Fleischer Brothers 'Out of the Inkwell' cartoons with Koko the Clown, as you see Julius (a Felix the Cat knockoff) and Alice coming alive out of an ink bottle. Soon Julius comes upon a drawing of a VERY stereotypical 1920s Chinese man (which is bound to offend many today) and soon they begin fighting. Soon other Chinese men join in as does Alice. Lots of knives are thrown and the cartoon is incredibly violent...with lots of stabbing and little in the way of plot. Because of the lack of plot, I'm scoring this one a 3...as there are clearly many better Alice cartoons than this one.

Alice Chops the Suey (1925)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Alice and Julius find themselves in Chinatown when a bad man kidnaps Alice and throws her into a bad. Julius must follow them and try to get his friend back before it's too late. ALICE CHOPS THE SUEY is best remembered because its opening sequence borrows what people saw in OUT OF THE INKWELL where a human hand is drawing the cartoon where it comes to life. It seems a lot of people really bash Walt Disney for this early sequence but I thought it was the highlight of the film. It was quite funny seeing a partially drawn Julius trying to get his other body parts so that he could move around. This leads to another good sequence where his skin is stolen and used for the bag to throw Alice in. The rest of the film is rather bland as the chase isn't all that exciting and there aren't enough laughs to keep it interesting.

As a rule I like all of the Alice Comedies, but some more than others. I rate my Alice Comedies accordingly, and many aspects are taken into consideration. "Alice Chops the Suey" is a non-plotter. It begins by ripping off the usual "Out of the Inkwell" opening by having a human hand pull out Julius and Alice out of an inkwell (duh). The duo is then harassed for no apparent reason by a giant Mandarin Rat and his gang. To save on compositing Alice into the cartoon, the movie has Julius the cat hide Alice in a black bag which he carries for the remainder of the cartoon, most of which is spent outsmarting the Fu-Manchu-like hordes of rats. A definite low point in the series.