Softwing
Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??
GetPapa
Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible
Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Jemima
It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Alice's Spooky Adventure" is a black-and-white silent film from 1924 and it runs for slightly under 6.5 minutes. The title character is played by Virginia Davis who actually still lived until a couple years ago, which is pretty impressive as this film, as of today, is already over 90 years old. Little Alice ends up in a spooky house, has an accident and dreams the most bizarre stuff about a cat that she has to help when it gets haunted by a bunch of spooky ghost creatures. Still nothing about this short film is creepy and it is really about the comedy, even if I would not call it a funny movie at all. Little Virginia elevates the material here and she was a good decision for the title character. But this film (and the whole series) is probably only known today because the man behind it was a certain Walt Disney in his early 20s. He does not shine here (yet). i don't recommend the watch.
MisterWhiplash
I hadn't seen much of the Alice shorts but decided to check some out on YouTube. This was the first one, with the premise that Alice, hanging out with a second-rung Little Rascals group, sees that one of the boys throws a baseball through a window to a spooky house. None of them want to go in, so Alice volunteers. She goes inside, falls asleep (or does she's hit on her head, it's one of those), and then is witness once again to the world of cartoon creatures. She helps one of them, a cat, and then has to fight off some of the ghosts who chase the cat and then her. And it ends with her... getting arrested somehow (!) How cruel!This is crude stuff, and has its charms every now and then - the ghosts at one point play, no kidding, Mah-Jong at a table - but the animation is repetitive (you can tell the ghosts and certain cat movements are done over and over, probably to save on extra animated drawings), and there's an odd racist beat at the start. Or maybe it isn't racist, but... what is one to make today of the fat white kid talking about "Spooks" in the house and then pointing for the little black kid next to him to go in (he shouts "Spooks!" and then runs away).Is he calling the kid this word? Or is it just about the kid going in there to face off against them? Why not ghosts? It's one of those things, I guess, one should note is of the period, and maybe could be questioned if one is watching it carefully. But it's hard to shake off, and is the kind of thing that makes me not want to watch this too soon - this despite the fact that the pace is good and sharp, the ending is strangely dark, and the drawing of the cat and the ghost caricatures are fun.
MartinHafer
Among Walt Disney's earliest films were his Alice cartoons. These were cute little comedies which featured Alice (Virginia Davis) making trips into the cartoon world. For the 1920s, it was pretty spectacular seeing live characters interacting with cartoons like they did in these films, though I have no idea why the current ratings for these films on IMDb are so low--they are full of charm and hold up well today despite being silent and in black & white."Alice's Spooky Adventure" looks a bit like an Our Gang short when it begins, as Alice is out playing with a bunch of boys who look a lot like Joe Cobb, Farina and the rest. When a baseball is hit and crashes through the window of a supposedly haunted house, none of the boys are willing to retrieve it, so brave Alice does this. Inside the house, she accidentally gets conked on head and enters the cartoon world where she meets some adorable ghosts. Later, in a VERY dark sort of ending, a cop catches her breaking in to the house and and final scene was a total shock--you just have to see it for yourself!! Overall, yet another cleverly made and very entertaining Alice film.
