Alice In Wonderland; Cinderella; The Swan Lake Story

Although kids today may be more drawn to Alice in Chains (the band) than Alice in Wonderland (the classic), the striking dance fantasy Alice in Wonderland, performed by the Prague Chamber Ballet and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, should catch the eye of one or two. The lead title in V.I.E.W.'s Kids' Cultural Collection series for children, the shot-on-video production of Alice combines colorful costumes, energetic choreography, and very imaginative video special effects set to a score by Viktor Kalabis. Not a literal recreation of Lewis Carroll's beloved story, this half-hour ballet is more an inspired ode in which Alice, after chasing her cat through the looking glass, encounters one richly performed ballet piece after another. Highlights include an exceptional bit of videography in which human playing cards create a kaleidoscopic pattern, and a remarkable blackboard where figures and squiggles come to life. Recent winner of a Parent's Choice award, Alice in Wonderland will hardly find favor with all children, yet this is not your basic fusty ballet video--it's more like video art, and deserves an audience, young and old.After Alice, I eagerly turned to the remaining pair of children's dance videos only to be sorely disappointed. Cinderella is an aged piece of badly made celluloid set to Prokofiev's music, in which the Berlin Comic Opera Ballet performs an adaptation of Perrault's classic fairy tale. While the dancing is excellent, the video quality is awful--film scratches, flicker, poor lighting, and focus problems are but a few of the real highlights of Cinderella.The Swan Lake Story, featuring the State Ballet of Oregon performing Tchaikovsky's classic ballet (the soundtrack is by the London Philharmonic Orchestra), is better than Cinderella but suffers from amateur dancing and the ill-judged decision to cut between the dancers on stage and the dancers in the great outdoors. The technique is not only disorienting, it's a little silly. Men in tights do not belong in a forest unless they happen to be stuck in a bad Mel Brooks movie.Alice in Wonderland is highly recommended for ages 5 and up. Cinderella and The Swan Lake Story are not recommended. (R. Pitman)