Alice in Wonderland

***Alice in Wonderland*** is the 13th animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Productions in the Disney Animated Canon and was released to theaters on July 26, 1951 by RKO Radio Pictures. Lewis Carroll's books *Alice's Adventures in Wonderland* and *Through the Looking-Glass* had only a few adaptations before this movie; this adaptation solved the problems of the setting by using animation (the next adaptation wouldn't come until 1972, two decades later). The film features the voices of Kathryn Beaumont as Alice (also the voice of Wendy Darling in the later Disney feature film, *Peter Pan*) and Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter. Made under the supervision of Walt Disney himself, this film and its animation are often regarded as some of the finest work in Disney studio history, despite the lackluster, even hostile, reviews it originally received, especially in the UK. Even those that have made the film, including Walt Disney himself, didn't like the film, though it did receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.

It gained popularity in the 1970s due to the "drug" culture fandom at the time, it was released in 1974, and then again in 1981. By the 1980s, the initial consensus proved to be outdated. One of the biggest cult classics in the animation medium, the film gained critical praise and became one of the most popular Disney films of all time, as well as one of the most commercially successful Disney films (ironically considering it's initial disappointment). Today it is not only universally considered the best film adaptation of Lewis Carrol's novel, but one of Disney's greatest classics.

In Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights is somewhat different to the original versions, the unit in this version has changed. The unit consisted of these floats:

Ladybug (Retired in 2015)

Dancing Flowers

Alice on the Cheshire Cat

Inchworm (Retired in 2011)

Dancing Butterflies

Mr and Mrs. Snail (Retired in 2015)

In the 2011 Renewal, the Inchworm was removed from the parade, as were the Ladybug and the Snails in the 2015 Renewal. The Dancing Butterflies were removed in the 2017 Renewal and then lastly, the Dancing Flowers were removed in 2019, which was when the main float was refurbished, which now consisted of Alice sitting on a teacup with a new look of the Cheshire Cat.

## Plot

The film opens on a golden summer day in the park in England. Alice is listening to her sister read aloud from a history book, to which Alice vocally expresses her boredom. Wandering off without her sister noticing, Alice lays down on a riverbank wishing that she had a world of her own. Suddenly Alice sees a white rabbit wearing spectacles, a red waistcoat and carrying a large, golden pocket watch. He frantically exclaims how late he is, which sparks Alice's curiosity and causes her to follow him down a rabbit hole. As Alice crawls deep inside, the rabbit hole dips suddenly down, causing her to fall into it. Unable to do anything about the situation she was in, Alice slows down her fall. Amazed at what just happened, her dress inflates and Alice continues to float down the rabbit hole wondering what would happen to her. Without anything else to do, Alice decides to admire the decorations and knick-knacks adorning the walls of the rabbit hole. She lands upside down with her dress deflating and follows the rabbit into a large hallway with a tiny door at the other end barely big enough for Alice's head. The Doorknob tells her that drinking from a bottle marked "Drink me" will help her (she is startled to find that the bottle and the table it is sitting on have appeared out of nowhere). Alice drinks the bottle's contents and starts shrinking until she becomes the right size, but the Doorknob reveals that he's locked. Frustrated, Alice is told by the Doorknob that a cake marked with the words "EAT ME" will help her reach the key that's mysteriously appeared on the now giant glass table (Mr. Doorknob appeared the key on the table with his magic for an unknown purpose, making Alice feel very stress and upset why he do such a thing, and the box of cookies also has materialized out of nowhere). This time when Alice starts eating the cake, she suddenly expands until her head and legs are cramped in the hallway.

Alice begins to weep hysterically that her massive tears flood the room, which splash like huge puddles. The Doorknob points out that the "DRINK ME" bottle still has some fluid inside, so Alice stops crying and sips some the best she can at her height. Alice suddenly shrinks and becomes so small that she fits inside the bottle. She and the bottle both travel through the doorknob's keyhole mouth and out to the sea formed from Alice's tears. A group of animals, led by a dodo, engages in a caucus race (a race without a real ending or winner) to get dry. Alice spots the White Rabbit and follows him into a secluded glade in the middle of a thick forest. She meets Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, two fat brothers who take particular delight in reciting poems and songs. They perform a poem for Alice called "The Walrus and the Carpenter," which tells of the two titular characters luring some oysters to their lair and subsequently eating them all. Alice sneaks away as they attempt to recite another poem for her, and she comes upon the White Rabbit's house, with its owner inside.

Before Alice has a chance to ask him why he is so frantically late, he berates her, thinking her to be his housemaid, Mary Ann, and orders her to fetch his gloves from his bedroom. Inside, Alice decides to eat another cookie, resulting in her growing so large that she gets stuck inside the house, her arms and legs sticking out the windows and doors. She tries to pull herself out but is too big. The White Rabbit pleas for the help of the Dodo to get her out, thinking her to be some sort of ferocious monster. The Dodo summons a chimney sweep lizard named Bill to rip the house's chimney off. Bill's scampering down the chimney causes soot to rise and Alice to sneeze, shooting Bill up towards the sky. The Dodo then attempts to burn the house down using some of the White Rabbit's broken furniture, much to his dismay. Alice frantically looks for a solution to her dilemma and finds one in the form of a carrot in the White Rabbit's garden. After eating, Alice shrinks down to three inches in size. The Rabbit runs off again, this time into a garden of flowers. Because of Alice's size, the flowers are as tall as trees to her. Initially, they are eager to entertain her, but when she reveals that she is not a flower, they suspect that she may be a weed and throw her out in a panic.

Alice gets over her annoyance at their rudeness quickly when she sees a blue caterpillar blowing smoke rings in the air. Each ring takes the form of a letter or symbol that the Caterpillar is saying. Despite her best efforts to ask him how to grow tall again, the Caterpillar continuously interrupts her, instructing her to recite various bizarre poems. He grows angry at her displeasure of being the same height as him and turns into a butterfly in a rage, though not before giving her cryptic advice about the mushroom she is sitting on. Alice breaks off two pieces from either side of the mushroom. She takes a bite of the first piece, which causes her to grow so tall that her head sticks out of the trees and alarms a nesting mother bird that thinks she is a serpent. She then takes a bite of the second piece and shrinks back down to three inches high. Alice finally grows back to her normal size with a small lick of the first piece and decides to put both mushroom pieces into her pockets.

Wandering through the woods, she meets the Cheshire Cat, an eerily grinning feline that can disappear and reappear at will. Alice tries her best to ask him where the White Rabbit has gone, but her attempts are futile as he speaks vaguely and in riddles. He finally points her in the direction of the March Hare's house. It is here that Alice sees a long tea table set up outside with the March Hare himself accompanied by a Mad Hatter and a Dormouse. She finds out that they are celebrating their unbirthdays, which is a day of the year when it is not one's birthday. Alice is briefly included in the celebrations before they manically dash about the tea table, offering Alice tea but never giving her any. When the White Rabbit shows up, the Hatter and Hare attempt to fix his pocket watch but end up destroying it in the process. After they've literally thrown him out of the tea table, Alice tries to run after him but finds that he has disappeared again. Soon Alice gives up trying to track the White Rabbit down and decides to spend her time trying to get back home. She finds herself more and more lost in a forest called Tulgey Wood, filled with bizarre creatures that either snap at Alice or pay no attention to her. She breaks down crying and finds the Cheshire Cat again. He opens a door in a tree that leads to a seemingly neverending hedge maze, telling Alice that the Queen of Hearts could possibly help her.

She meets some giant playing cards painting white roses red since the Queen only prefers red and will behead them if she discovers their mistake. Alice tries to help them, but the White Rabbit appears and heralds the arrival of the Queen, her significantly shorter husband, and her massive pack of cards army. The Queen has a ferocious temper and is prone to having anyone beheaded at a moment's notice, to which she applies to the card painters who unsuccessfully painted the white roses. Randomly switching between bipolar moods, she invites Alice to play a game of croquet with her, using flamingos as mallets, hedgehogs as balls, and card soldiers as goals. The Queen actively cheats during the game and beheads anyone who dares stand in the way of her victory. The Cheshire Cat appears and attaches the beak of the Queen's flamingo mallet to the bottom of her dress, resulting in her toppling over and revealing her underwear. The Cat disappears in time to make it look like Alice was the prankster, but before the Queen can order her execution, the King suggests they have a trial.

The Dormouse, the March Hare, and the Mad Hatter all come forth as witnesses that add nothing whatsoever to the trial at hand. When the subject of unbirthdays arises, everyone in the courtroom celebrates the Queen's. Thanks to some more mischief by the Cheshire Cat, pandemonium ensues. Alice suddenly remembers that the mushrooms were still in her pocket and shoves both pieces into her mouth, growing to gigantic proportions. At this size, Alice scolds the Queen for her rash behavior but then starts shrinking back to her normal size all too soon.

The Queen orders for her guards to execute Alice, which results in a frantic chase through Wonderland. Various characters Alice met on her journey appear and inexplicably join the Queen and her guards in their pursuit. Coming back to the Doorknob, Alice is told by him that he's still locked and that she's already on the other side. Looking through the keyhole, Alice sees herself asleep in the park. At that point, Alice realizes that everything in Wonderland is all just a dream. She urgently bangs on the door as the mob draws closer until she gradually awakens to the sound of her sister's voice. Both Alice and her sister return home, and Alice is still in thought of her crazy dream.

## Cast

* Kathryn Beaumont as Alice
* Ed Wynn as Mad Hatter
* Richard Haydn as Caterpillar
* Sterling Holloway as Cheshire Cat
* Jerry Colonna as March Hare
* Verna Felton as Queen of Hearts
* Pat O'Malley as The Walrus and the Carpenter, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, and the Curious Oysters
* Bill Thompson as White Rabbit and Pat the Dodo
* Heather Angel as Alice's Sister
* Joseph Kearns as The Doorknob
* Larry Grey as Bill the Lizard, Card Painter
* Queenie Leonard as Bird in a Tree, Snooty Flower
* Dink Trout as King of Hearts
* Doris Lloyd as The Rose
* James MacDonald as Dormouse, Flamingos
* The Mellomen as Card Painters
* Don Barclay as Other Cards
* Lucille Bliss as Sunflower and Tulips
* Pinto Colvig as Flamingos
* Tommy Luske as Young Pansy
* Clarence Nash as Dinah and Tulgey Woods Creatures
* Marni Nixon as Singing Flowers
* Norma Zimmer as White Rose

## Production

### Development

The history of Walt Disney's association with Lewis Carroll's *Alice* books (*Template:WikipediaLink* and *Template:WikipediaLink*) stretches all the way back to his childhood. Like many children of the time, he was familiar with the *Alice* books and had read them as a school boy.

In 1923, when Disney was still a 21-year old filmmaker trying to make a name for himself by working at the Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, making the unsuccessful short cartoon series by the name of *Newman Laugh-O-Grams*. The last of *Newman Laugh-O-Grams* was called *Alice's Wonderland*. which was loosely inspired by the *Alice* books. The short featured a live-action girl (Virginia Davis ) interacting in an animated world. Faced with business problems, however, the Laugh-O-Gram Studio went bankrupt in July 1923, and the film was never released to the general public. However, Disney left for Hollywood and used the film as a sort of pilot to show to potential distributors. Margaret J. Winkler of *Winkler Pictures* agreed to distribute the *Alice Comedies*, and Disney partnered with his older brother Roy O. Disney and re-hired Kansas City co-workers including Ub Iwerks, Rudolph Isling, Friz Freleng, Carmen Maxwell, and Hugh Harmen to form Disney Bros. Studios (later Walt Disney Productions). The series began in 1924 before being retired in 1927.

In 1932, Walt began toying with the idea of making an animated feature film and repeatedly turned to the idea of making a feature-length animated/live-action version of *Alice* starring Mary Pickford, and even purchased the rights to Sir John Tenniel's illustrations (still under copyright at the time). However, these plans were eventually scrapped in favor of *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*, mainly because Disney was put off by Paramount's 1933 live-action adaptation. However, Disney did not completely abandon the idea of adapting *Alice*, and in 1936 made the Mickey Mouse cartoon *Thru the Mirror*.

In 1938, after the enormous success of *Snow White* Walt Disney revived the idea of making an *Alice* feature and officially registered the title *Alice in Wonderland* with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America and hired storyboard artist Al Perkins and art director David S. Hall to develop the story and concept art for the film. A story reel was complete in 1939, but Walt was not pleased as he felt that Hall's drawings resembled Tenniel's drawings too closely making them too difficult to animate and that the overall tone of Perkins' script was too grotesque and dark. Realizing the amount of work needed for *Alice in Wonderland*, as well as the economic devastation of the World War II and the production demands of *Pinocchio*, *Fantasia*, and *Bambi*, Walt shelved production on *Alice in Wonderland* shortly after the screening.

In 1945, shortly after the war ended, Disney once again revived *Alice in Wonderland* and assigned British author Aldous Huxley to re-write the script. However, Walt felt that Huxley's version was too much of a literal adaptation of Carroll's book. Background artist Mary Blair submitted some concept drawings for *Alice in Wonderland*. Blair's paintings moved away from Tenneil's sketchy illustrations by taking a modernist stance, using bold and unreal colors. Walt liked Blair's designs, and the script was re-written to focus on comedy, music, and the whimsical side to Carroll's book.

Disney toyed with the idea of having a live-action/animated version of *Alice in Wonderland* (in a similar fashion to his *Alice Comedies*) that would star Ginger Rogers and would utilize the recently developed sodium vapor process. Lisa Davis Waltz (who would later voice Anita Radcliffe in *One Hundred and One Dalmatians*) and Luana Patten were also considered for the role of Alice. However, Walt soon realized that he could only do justice to the book by making an all animated-feature, and in 1946, work began on an all-animated version of *Alice in Wonderland*.

### Writing

Through various drafts of the script, many sequences that were present in Caroll's book drifted in and out of the story. However, Walt insisted that the scenes themselves keep close to those in the novel since most of its humor is in the writing.

One omitted scene from the 1939 treatment of the film occurred outside the Duchess' manor, where the Fish Footman is giving a message to the Frog Footman to take to the Duchess saying that she is invited to play croquet with The Queen of Hearts. Alice overhears this and sneaks into the kitchen of the manor, where she finds The Duchess' Cook maniacally cooking and the Duchess nursing her baby. The cook is spraying pepper all over the room causing the Duchess and Alice to sneeze and the Baby to cry. After a quick conversation between Alice and the Duchess, the quick-tempered Cook starts throwing pots and pans at the noisy baby. Alice rescues the baby, but as she leaves the house the baby turns into a pig and runs away. The scene was scrapped for pacing reasons.

Another scene that was deleted from a later draft occurred in Tulgey Wood, where Alice encountered what appeared to be a sinister-looking Jabberwocky hiding in the dark, before revealing himself as a comical looking dragon-like beast with bells and factory whistles on his head. A song, "Beware the Jabberwock" was also written. However, the scene was scrapped in favor of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" poem.

Another cut scene in Tulgey Wood shows Alice consulting with the White Knight, which was meant to be somewhat of a caricature of Walt Disney. Although Walt liked the scene, he felt it was better if Alice learned her lesson by herself, hence the song "Very Good Advice."

Other characters, such as the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon were discarded for pacing reasons.

### Music

In an effort to retain some of Carroll's imaginative verses and poems, Disney commissioned top songwriters to compose songs built around them for use in the film. A record number of potential songs were written for the film, based on Carroll's verses—over 30—and many of them found a way into the film, if only for a few brief moments. *Alice in Wonderland* would boast the greatest number of songs included in any Disney film, but because some of them last for mere seconds (like "How Do You Do and Shake Hands", "We'll Smoke the Monster Out", "' Twas Brilling", "The Caucus Race", and others), this fact is frequently overlooked. The original song that Alice was to sing in the beginning was titled "Beyond the Laughing Sky". The song, like so many other dropped songs, was not used by the producers. However, the composition was kept and the lyrics were changed. It later became the title song for *Peter Pan* (which was in production at the same time), "The Second Star to the Right".

The title song, composed by Sammy Fain, was later adopted by jazz pianist Bill Evans and featured on his Sunday at the Village Vanguard.

On the orange disc of "Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic" includes the song "In a World of My Own." It was not included on "Disney's Greatest Hits."

## Compared to the books

### Characters not in the film

* The Duck, Lory, and the Eaglet
* The Puppy
* Mouse (not to be confused with dormouse)
* The Duchess, the Cook, the Baby and the Footmen (Frog & Fish) (seen in Deleted Scene "Pig and Pepper" on 2010 DVD)
* The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle (Both, however, did appear in Disney produced Jell-O commercials based around Alice in 1957.)
* The White Knight and the Red Knight
* The Lion and the Unicorn
* The Executioner (Seen in the Disneyland Ride)
* The Gnat and the Snapdragonfly
* The Red Queen and the White Queen (although many of the Red Queen's lines were given to the Queen of Hearts and they featured in the live-action remake, Alice in Wonderland (2010 film)
* Hatta and Haigha
* Lily (the White Queen's daughter)
* The White King
* The Red King
* Humpty Dumpty
* Jabberwocky

### In the book

* When Alice falls down the rabbit hole in the book, there is no mentioning of her dress acting like a parachute.
* When Alice goes through the small door, the door does not talk, and Alice does not fall into the bottle.
* Also, Mr. Doorknob never appears the table with his magic, or for the bottle to be on the table first instead of the key. The Doorknob also did not make the "Eat Me" box appear. But there is a mention of the fact that Alice didn't see this two things when she enters in the Doorknob Room, so perhaps they actually appeared (but without help from Mr. Doorknob).
* In the book, inside the "Eat Me" box, are cookies (although some retellings change it to a slice of cake), while they are chocolate bombons in the film.
* Having a Caucus Race to get dry, and Alice gives prizes, but the Dodo gives Alice her own items back to her as a prize.
* Tweedledum and Tweedledee's poem, *The Walrus and the Carpenter*, is slightly different.
* Alice gets stuck in The White Rabbit's house, after she takes another taste from a bottle, she does not take another bite from an "Eat Me" cookie.
* Alice grows a lot bigger in the movie than in the book. In the book, she fills the room she is in, while in the movie she fills the whole house.
* In the book, Alice bumps her head on the ceiling while still drinking from the bottle, thus implying that she wouldn't have grown to giant size if she had stopped drinking. The movie makes her growth be instantaneous.
* In the book, the Lizard gets sent flying because Alice puts her giant foot on the chimney and kicks the Lizard out. The movie changes it to Alice sneezing while giant-sized, and her sneeze being so powerful that she blows the Lizard away.
* The Caterpillar requests *Old Father William*, not *How Doth the Little Crocodile*.
* One common misconception is that Disney completely changed the mushroom scene. They didn't change as much as everyone thinks. In the book, the Caterpillar does indeed say that "one side will make you taller, while the other will make you smaller". And, after eating the mushroom, Alice shakes her hands and ends up shaking the tree tops, indicating that she did indeed grow to giant size. Her neck stretching was simply meant to convey the process of Alice growing to giant size. In the book Alice grows to giant size in a similar way that Mike Teevee does in *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*, with all of her limbs stretching as she grows taller and bigger. Disney changed the way she grows so all of her body grows to giant size at once, which ended up fueling the misconception that only Alice's neck grows in the book.
* The Mad Hatter was simply called 'the Hatter', not 'the Mad Hatter'.
* The Mad Hatter and the March Hare's never-ending tea party was originally a result of the Mad Hatter's falling out with Time, and it always being six o'clock, time for tea.
* The White Rabbit does not attend the tea party.
* It is the Mad Hatter's watch that is broken, not the White Rabbit's. It is broken because the March Hare has put butter in it with a bread knife.
* Alice goes directly from the tea party to the Queen's garden, without getting lost in Tulgey Wood.
* The gardeners are the two, five and seven of spades, but in the film they are the ace, two and three of clubs. In the book, spades are gardeners and clubs are soldiers.
* Alice hides the gardeners so that they will not be beheaded, but in the film this does not happen.
* The Gryphon tells Alice that executions ordered by the Queen are rarely carried out. There is no mention of this in the movie, where the Queen is portrayed as much more of a tyrant than Carroll intended her to be.
* The Queen orders the execution of the Cheshire Cat (which fails as he only presents his head, and the executioner comments that he cannot behead a head without a body).
* The Queen of Heart's trial is about the Knave of Hearts of stealing her tarts, and Alice takes on the role of a witness.
* Contrary to popular opinion, the Knave of Hearts does appear in the Disney version, but he is reduced to a fleeting cameo at the end of the March of the Cards; also he is presented as an actual playing card, in contrast to the King and Queen of Hearts who in the film are presented as human, albeit grotesquely sized.
* In the book, Alice slowly grows to giant size for no explained reason without eating the mushroom (Most likely due to this being just a dream so anything could happen). Her growth continues through most of the trial.
* At the end of the trial after Alice grows larger she doesn't get smaller again and there is no nightmarish chase scene towards the end, before Alice wakes up, although the cards do rain over her in both.
* Alice in the movie is far more effective at using her giant size to fend off the Card Soldiers.