Jabberwocky (1977)
Directed by Terry Gilliam
After the death of his father, young Dennis Cooper goes to town where he has to pass several adventures. The town and the whole kingdom is threatened by a terrible monster called 'Jabberwocky'. Will Dennis make his fortune? Is anyone brave enough to defeat the monster?
4 connections found
View:
4 connections, in both directions
What critics compared Jabberwocky to
The real inspiration, despite all statements to the contrary, seems to have been Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem, Jabberwocky.
The movie cobbles together both of Lewis Carroll's Alice books and his fantastical-beastie poem ''Jabberwocky.''
The script takes mostly from Carroll’s Alice sequel Through the Looking-Glass, along with the poem “Jabberwocky,” and while Burton has all the moving parts in order (little ones will definitely hide their eyes from the Bandersnatch), the pacing drags and misses some of the wonderment and magic of the Carroll’s vision.
As the stoned larva helpfully explains, a girl named Alice is prophesied to slay the the Jabberwocky on the fateful Frabjous Day, deposing the wicked Red Queen and returning the crown to her pale sister.
Seems the Red Queen ( Helena Bonham Carter ) is the scourge of Underland, and somebody named Alice is supposed to slay her pet monster, the Jabberwocky, on the “frabjous day.”
Terry Gilliam ("Jabberwocky"/"Time Bandits"/"The Fisher King") directs an imaginative satire on modern technology in the near future that blends together science-fiction (with Big Brother references to Orwell's 1984), scathing black comedy and fantasy.
The movie is of some interest to fans of Brazil — it’s an early example of Gilliam sharpening his claws on bureaucracy — and the sets by Millie Burns are authentically grungy.
It's a clear calling card and proof that the director had the stuff to go on and make better films like Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989) and 12 Monkeys (1995).
Like Gilliam's "Jabberwocky," "Time Bandits," "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and "The Fisher King," "12 Monkeys" doesn't look much like other movies, which in this era of copycat filmmaking is certainly a blessing.
His first film, the Pythonesque Jabberwocky (1977), was a full-throttle wallow in medieval muck, complete with an eager fast-food vendor peddling rats-on-a-stick.
From "Jabberwocky" to "Time Bandits" to "Brazil" to "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," the former Monty Python member demonstrates both his brilliance and his penchant for sabotaging his own narrative.