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".

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...

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.

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.

I understand avid Carroll fans and parents of young children might be disappointed in this film since it seemingly has so little to do with the Jabberwocky poem. But from an art/film theory perspective this film is brilliant. Knowing that this is not a narrative, but a semi- experimental stop motion short animation before watching it might help people critique it by its own standards.

There's been a recent surge in considering children's literature, fairy tales, and fables in regards to contemporary social anthropology. I personally study this through visual arts but it's very relevant for scholars varying from gender studies to linguistics. Reading authors like Carroll and relating its historical context to contemporary studies is the sort of thing I geek out on. Svankmajer, through some incredible stop motion animation, has certainly veered off the original poem. In doing so he's developed not a narrative, but a bazaar world that is unsettling and repetitive.

Part of the original appeal of the Jabberwocky poem (and much of Carroll's writing) was that he used so many gibberish words. They allowed for ideas of different or parallel worlds. The Jabberwocky is often discussed as a personal foe, what we most fear, and the vorpal sword is the tool by which we overcome that fear -- if indeed we do overcome it. This broad notion means that the jabberwocky doesn't have to be a dragon or a monster, it can be public speaking or a fear of rejection. In the case of Svankmajer's film, childhood itself is scary.

The content of the film may be a problem for children viewers. I particularly find the blade dancing in the table cloth and eventually stabbing itself quite "adult". And there are indeed savage notions of dolls eating other dolls. But this isn't meant to be a kids film. It's *visually* beautiful but its subjects are entirely uncomfortable, dark, and bordering on morbid. Just as traditional fairy tales were quite gruesome, Svankmajer is returning to the horror of a childhood nursery -- even if the horrors are in the imagination. Ideas of dolls and objects coming to life are common themes in children's stories, from the Nutcracker to the Velveteen Rabbit. Children seem to intuitively imbue these items with life of their own. As adults we find it creepy, disturbing, haunting, and warped. Stop animation is a very effective visual display of this imagination. The repetition in the toys and their keenness to destroy each other is very un-childlike. It's far more similar to the harsh monotony of adult life. Other interpretations of the film discuss it as quite angsty -- the line in the maze trying to break free and once it does it scribbles all over the portrait of the old man (the authority figure) and then exits out the window and on to freedom. I'm not sure I fully agree with this reading of the film, but it's one of many ideas to consider.

I admit that it's relationship to lewis Carroll is a tad nebulous but its significance in animation and visual technique is overt. I'm approaching this as an academic not as a parent, but I think the film is pretty damn amazing.