Curious Alice — The 1971 Anti-Drug Film Based mostly on Alice in Wonderland That Oddly Made Medicine Look Like Enjoyable

The Rea­gan pres­i­den­cy was prob­a­bly the gold­en age of anti-drug mes­sag­ing. America’s college children had been informed {that a} mind was like an egg and medicines had been like a fry­ing pan. The First Girl informed America’s college children sim­ply to “Simply Say No.” The mes­sage was stu­pe­fy­ing­ly sim­ple. Medicine, like Com­mu­nism and tax­es, are dangerous.

Dur­ing the ear­ly Nineteen Seventies, how­ev­er, that anti-drug mes­sage was way more con­fused. Take for examination­ple Curi­ous Alice, a visu­al­ly stun­ning, deeply odd film concerning the per­ils of drug abuse that makes the stuff appear like lots of enjoyable. Cre­at­ed by the Nation­al Insti­tute of Males­tal Well being in 1971, the movie reveals younger Alice learn­ing Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Gained­der­land in a solar­ny dap­pled mead­ow earlier than nod­ding off.

She quickly finds her­self plung­ing down the rab­bit gap and in a received­der­land … of medication. The King of Hearts is hawk­ing hero­in. The Mad Hat­ter is journey­ping on LSD. The hookah-smok­ing Cater­pil­lar is stoned out of his gourd. The Dor­mouse is in a bar­bi­tu­rate-induced stu­por and the March Hare, who seems just like the Trix Bunny’s ne’er-do-well broth­er, is a fid­get­ing tweak­er. “You ough­ta have some pep capsules! Uppers!” he exclaims. “Amphet­a­mines! Velocity! You are feeling tremendous good.”

The film was report­ed­ly intend­ed for eight-year-olds. Whereas it’s in contrast to­ly that your aver­age third grad­er goes to soak up Alice’s mor­al­iz­ing about acid, they may nearly cer­tain­ly reply to the movie’s journey­py, Mon­ty Pythonesque ani­ma­tion. The ani­ma­tors clear­ly had a blast mak­ing this film, however their efforts didn’t precise­ly trans­late into an effec­tive mes­sage. After the film got here out, the Nation­al Coor­di­nat­ing Coun­cil on Drug Edu­ca­tion slammed the film, name­ing it con­fus­ing and coun­ter­professional­duc­tive. As an grownup, how­ev­er, the film is lots of enjoyable. So test it out above.

Word: An ear­li­er ver­sion of this publish appeared on our website in 2014.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Reefer Mad­ness, 1936′s Most Unin­ten­tion­al­ly Hilar­i­ous “Anti-Drug” Exploita­tion Movie, Free On-line

The First-Ever Movie Ver­sion of Lewis Carroll’s Story, Alice in Gained­der­land (1903)

Artist Attracts 9 Por­traits on LSD Dur­ing Fifties Analysis Exper­i­ment

The Orig­i­nal Alice’s Adven­tures In Gained­der­land Man­u­script, Hand­writ­ten & Illus­trat­ed By Lewis Automotive­roll (1864)

Jonathan Crow is a author and movie­mak­er whose work has appeared in Yahoo!, The Hol­ly­wooden Reporter, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions.