Alice in Wonderland

***Alice in Wonderland*** is a Disney animated film featured on ABC's *Once Upon a Time* and *Once Upon a Time in Wonderland*. It was written by Winston Hibler, Ted Sears, Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Milt Banta, William Cottrell, Dick Kelsey, Joe Grant, Dick Huemer, Del Connell, Tom Oreb and John Walbridge; and directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson & Hamilton Luske. It was released on July 28, 1951.

*Alice in Wonderland* is based on "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass", two stories written by Lewis Caroll.

## Plot

On the bank of a tranquil river, a little girl named Alice grows bored of listening to her older sister read aloud from a history book of William I of England. When her sister chastises Alice's daydreaming, Alice tells her kitten Dinah that she would prefer to live in a nonsensical dreamland called Wonderland. Alice and Dinah spot a waistcoat-wearing White Rabbit passing by, and Alice gives chase as he rushes off saying that he is "late for an important date". Alice follows him into a rabbit hole and falls into a labyrinth. Her dress catches her fall like a parachute and she begins to float, then she floats upside down and her feet catch on a bar to break her fall. She sees the White Rabbit disappear into a tiny door and tries to follow, but the door's talking knob advises her to alter her size using a mysterious drink and food. She drinks from a bottle marked "Drink Me", and shrinks down to the proper size to open the door. But when Alice learns the door's locked and she's too small to reach the key atop the table, a box of "Eat Me", "Try Me", and "Take One" cookies (cakes) appear. But once Alice takes a bite, she grows into a giant, filling up the entire room. She then begins to weep large tears that splash like big puddles, causing the room to flood. The doorknob then tells Alice there's a little liquid left in the bottle, so she stops crying, drinks the last drop and eventually manages to shrink into the bottle and passes through the door's keyhole and into Wonderland. She meets several strange characters including the Dodo and Tweedledee and Tweedledum who recount the tale of "The Walrus and the Carpenter".

Alice eventually finds the White Rabbit in his house, but before she can ask what he is late for, she is sent to fetch some gloves after being mistaken for his housemaid. She eats a cookie and grows into a giant again, getting stuck in the rabbit's house. She tries to pull herself out, but is too big. The White Rabbit, the Dodo, and chimney sweep Bill the Lizard believe Alice to be a monster and plot to burn the house down. Alice escapes by eating a carrot and shrinking down to the size of an insect. She meets and sings with some talking flowers, but they chase her away upon accusing her of being a weed. Alice is then instructed by the hookah-smoking Caterpillar to eat a part of his mushroom grow back to her original size. Alice decides to keep the remaining pieces of the mushroom on hand.

Alice meets the Cheshire Cat who advises her to visit the Mad Hatter, March Hare and the Dormouse. The three are hosting a mad tea party and celebrate Alice's "unbirthday", a day where it is not her birthday. The White Rabbit appears, but the Mad Hatter and the March Hare destroy his pocket watch and throw him out of the party. Fed up with all the wonderlandians' rudeness and wackiness, Alice abandons her pursuit of the White Rabbit and decides to go home, but gets lost in the Tulgey Wood. The Cheshire Cat appears and leads Alice into a giant hedge maze ruled by the tyrannical Queen of Hearts and her smaller husband, the King of Hearts. The Queen orders the beheading of anyone who enrages her, and invites Alice in a bizarre croquet match using flamingos and hedgehogs as the equipment.

The Cheshire Cat appears again and pulls a trick on the Queen which she accuses Alice of doing, and Alice is put on trial. Just then, she remembers that she still has the remains of the Caterpillar's mushroom. She eats it and grows to an enormous height which the King claims is forbidden in court. Now a gigantic size, Alice feels free to speak her mind and in doing so she openly insults the Queen. However, she had hastily eaten both sides of the mushroom and shrinks to her normal size. She is forced to flee after the Queen orders her execution. Alice becomes pursued by most of Wonderland's characters until she finally reunites with the Doorknob, who then tells her she is having a dream, forcing Alice to wake herself up. The film ends as Alice, her sister and Dinah head home for tea.

## Show Adaptation

* Similar to the original novel, Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole into Wonderland. While the novel focuses on Alice's adventures there, the show adaptation only briefly alludes to her time in Wonderland after she returns home to her father. Only when Alice, at an older age, returns to Wonderland a second time is this world and its inhabitants actually featured.
* Unlike the novel and the film, the events Alice experiences in Wonderland are real.
* Alice does not have an older sister or a cat named Dinah. Her only sibling is a younger half-sister named Millie.
* The only edible item on the show capable of shrinking or making her grow in size, that Alice eats is a mushroom. The growth drink and shrinking cookies/cakes are never featured or mentioned.
* The Mad Hatter is not a native of Wonderland, and he became trapped in this world after being tricked by a Queen, the younger daughter of the Queen of Hearts. In the *Once Upon a Time in Wonderland* spin-off, he does not make an appearance and is only mentioned in passing by the White Rabbit.
* Lizard is female.
* Alice and the Queen of Hearts never have an on-screen interaction. Instead of Alice, the Queen of Hearts befriends the Red Queen.
* Rather than Alice, Knave is sentenced to execution on the Red Queen's orders.

## Characters Featured

* Alice
* Carpenter
* Caterpillar
* Cheshire Cat
* The Dodo
* Dormouse *(mentioned)*
* Knave of Hearts
* Knave of Hearts
* Lizard
* The Mad Hatter
* March Hare
* Mome Rath
* Queen of Hearts
* King of Hearts
* Tweedledum
* Tweedledee
* White Rabbit