Jabberwocky

If you've seen any of Jan Švankmajer's work, then you should have an idea of what to expect in his adaptation of Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky". "Žvahlav aneb šatičky slaměného Huberta" emphasizes the more disturbing aspects of the story. It's worth remembering that what we now think of as children's stories were not always so cute. Švankmajer's version contains all manner of contorting objects, including a line looking to break free from a maze (what it does at the end might get seen as a swipe at Czechoslovakia's Soviet-backed regime). It's not any masterpiece, but I recommend it, as I do the rest of Švankmajer's work. The Czech title means "Jabberwocky, or Straw Hubert's Clothes".

This film is impossible to describe. It is a melange of incredibly evocative images with some haunting music. There is little direction to the events. I'm sure one could analyze individual parts and connect them. There is a recurring maze that is at the center, followed by a huge black cat who is quite destructive. But one should just soak in the images and let it go at that.

As the poem Jabberwocky is read out, various toys come to life and dance all around the room and through the furniture. The only thing that seems to be able to stop their fun is a black cat who periodically turns up to overturn them or burst through them.

I saw this short film as part of a collection and I was interested in it because I had seen the very recent film Otesanek by Svankmajer and was curious to see what he had been like over 30 years ago – but more of that later. This film opens with the poem Jabberwocky being read out – this I liked because it is a rhythmic and enjoyable little piece. However the visuals bare little or no relation to the words, although this is not a major problem, just something that struck me as odd that the poem should have been selected in the first place. Instead the visuals are an enjoyable mix of toys moving and all manner of weird things occurring; I would have struggled to place this as being Czech if I hadn't known the director but it is unmistakably Eastern European in origin.

This to me was part of its problem – that I could recognise it as being Svankmajer's work. Baring in mind that the only other film I saw of his was from the late 1990's, I did have to wonder why the animation looked the same 30 years earlier and why he had not manage to adapt or mature his style over several decades – it is rare to see this as most people grow over the time. This is not so much a criticism as it is an observation but it did distract me from the short for a while.

The short itself is interesting but it is all a bit weird ad the animation is not THAT great (even for the period). It is very Eastern European in its rough nature so I guess if that's not your style then don't bother with this. However it is still worth seeing due to the sheer imagination behind it and the number of strange images it throws into your face. It may not be that good but it is interesting and enjoyable in a rough sort of way. The only thing that really bugged me was the fact that Svankmayer seems to have just stayed where he was in the 1970's – but I reserve judgment until I get the chance to see more of his work.

The standard evaluation of this short stop-motion animated film, "Jabberwocky," other than those who, perhaps wisely, throw up their arms in bewilderment, seems to be that besides the introductory recitation of Lewis Carroll's words it has little to nothing to do with the poem. But, I think it has more do with its literary source than do other "Jabberwocky" inspired movies, namely Terry Gilliam's "Jabberwocky" (1977) and Disney's 2010 "Alice in Wonderland," both of which were concerned with rendering the poem's plot. How utterly dull and obtuse of them. Better to do what Humpty Dumpty did in "Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Saw There," by explaining the enigmatic poem full of nonsense words by further obfuscating it in perhaps added connotations. That's essentially what this disciple of eggheads, a surrealist animator and admirer of Freud and Carroll, Jan Svankmajer, does here.

Early on, we're treated to some familiar images for Svankmajer, including a cupboard, with its opening doors, and insects infested in food, both of which parallel nicely with the imagery of his later, feature-length "Alice" (1988) film and the books' motifs with doors and consumption. I suppose the central narrative, however, if one can claim anything here to be a "narrative," involves a mirrored, dream-like critique on the societalisation of children, like Alice. The child, first represented by the backside being spanked, comes to be depicted by the dolls. Small dolls are borne from bigger dolls, bells ring, they play house, cook and are cooked up, are ground up, ironed out and put in their gilt cage. All the while, some bearded figure of patriarchy sits atop the wall looking onward as the scarecrow son of a boy's outfit dances about the room before going off to war with toy soldiers. Eventually, children's attire is replaced in the cupboard by the suit of conformity. This is far more Carrollian than most other supposed adaptations of the Alice books, or the films of Gilliam, let alone Disney.

Forget the lessening lessons; give them something clever in pictures and amusing nonsense to play with. That's what Carroll did and so, too, Svankmajer. The line trying to get out of the maze, which upon each failure to do so is punished by the black cat knocking over the toy blocks is the highlight.

Jabberwocky is one of the apotheosis in the complexity of animation and amount of work. Very atmospheric with strange music and weird old toys from the east of Europa. See it again and again with the same pleasure.

Watch the dancing knife, i still ask myself how they do this...