Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Directors:

Clyde Geronimi
Wilfred Jackson
(more)

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (novels)
Winston Hibler (story) ...
(more)

Release Date:

28 July 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Musical

Tagline:

A world of wonders in One Great Picture

Plot:

Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.

Plot Keywords:

Rabbit | Queen | Card | Croquet | Alternate Dimension

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Kathryn Beaumont	...	Alice (voice)
Ed Wynn	...	Mad Hatter (voice)
Richard Haydn	...	Caterpillar (voice)
Sterling Holloway	...	Cheshire Cat (voice)
Jerry Colonna	...	March Hare (voice)
Verna Felton	...	Queen of Hearts (voice)
J. Pat O'Malley	...	Tweedledee / Tweedledum / The Walrus / The Carpenter (voice) (as Pat O'Malley)
Bill Thompson	...	White Rabbit / Dodo (voice)
Heather Angel	...	Lorina - older sister of Alice (voice)
Joseph Kearns	...	Doorknob (voice)
Larry Grey	...	Bill (voice)
Queenie Leonard	...	Bird in the Tree (voice)
Dink Trout	...	King of Hearts (voice)
Doris Lloyd	...	The Rose (voice)
James MacDonald	...	Dormouse (voice)
Bill Lee	...	Card Painter (voice) (as The Mellomen)
Thurl Ravenscroft	...	Card Painter (voice) (as The Mellomen)
Max Smith	...	Card Painter (voice) (as The Mellomen)
Bob Hamlin	...	Card Painter (voice) (as The Mellomen)
Don Barclay	...	Card (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marni Nixon	...	Singing Flowers (voice) (uncredited)
Norma Zimmer	...	White Rose (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Clyde Geronimi
Wilfred Jackson
Hamilton Luske

Writing credits
Lewis Carroll		(novels "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass") (as Lewis Carrol)
Winston Hibler		(story) &
Ted Sears		(story) &
Bill Peet		(story) &
Erdman Penner		(story) &
Joe Rinaldi		(story) &
Milt Banta		(story) &
William Cottrell		(story) (as Bill Cottrell) &
Dick Kelsey		(story) &
Joe Grant		(story) &
Dick Huemer		(story) &
Del Connell		(story) &
Tom Oreb		(story) &
John Walbridge		(story)
Aldous Huxley		uncredited

Produced by
Walt Disney	....	producer

Original Music by
Oliver Wallace

Film Editing by
Lloyd L. Richardson		(as Lloyd Richardson)

Production Management
Ben Sharpsteen	....	production supervisor

Sound Department
Robert O. Cook	....	sound recordist
C.O. Slyfield	....	sound director
Harold J. Steck	....	sound recordist

Visual Effects by
Blaine Gibson	....	effects animator
Ub Iwerks	....	special processes
Dan MacManus	....	effects animator (as Dan Macmanus)
Joshua Meador	....	effects animator (as Josh Meador)
George Rowley	....	effects animator

Animation Department
Hal Ambro	....	character animator
Ken Anderson	....	color and styling
Dick Anthony	....	background artist
Mary Blair	....	color and styling
Bob Carlson	....	character animator
Les Clark	....	directing animator
Claude Coats	....	color and styling
Tom Codrick	....	layout artist
Don DaGradi	....	color and styling (as Don Da Gradi)
Marc Davis	....	directing animator
Phil Duncan	....	character animator
Norman Ferguson	....	directing animator (as Norm Ferguson)
Hugh Fraser	....	character animator
Don Griffith	....	layout artist
John Hench	....	color and styling
Hugh Hennesy	....	layout artist
Ray Huffine	....	background artist
Ralph Hulett	....	background artist
Ollie Johnston	....	directing animator: "Alice" and "King of Hearts"
Bill Justice	....	character animator
Milt Kahl	....	directing animator: "Alice in croquet party", "Dodo"
Ward Kimball	....	directing animator: "Tweedledee and Tweedledum", "Cheshire Cat", "Mad Hatter", "The March Hare", "The Walrus"
Hal King	....	character animator
Eric Larson	....	directing animator
John Lounsbery	....	directing animator
Don Lusk	....	character animator
Brice Mack	....	background artist
Fred Moore	....	character animator
Charles A. Nichols	....	character animator (as Charles Nichols)
Lance Nolley	....	layout artist
Cliff Nordberg	....	character animator
Kendall O'Connor	....	layout artist (as A. Kendall O'Connor)
Charles Philippi	....	layout artist
Thor Putnam	....	layout artist
Wolfgang Reitherman	....	directing animator
Art Riley	....	background artist
McLaren Stewart	....	layout artist (as Mac Stewart)
Frank Thomas	....	directing animator: "Doorknob" and the "Queen of Hearts"
Harvey Toombs	....	character animator
Judge Whitaker	....	character animator
Thelma Witmer	....	background artist
Marvin Woodward	....	character animator

Music Department
Jud Conlon	....	music arranger: vocal arrangements
Joseph Dubin	....	orchestrator
Al Teeter	....	music editor
Edmundo Santos	....	lyrics: Spanish version (uncredited)

Other crew
Walt Disney	....	presenter
Charles Palmer	....	story editor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Walt Disney Productions

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (1951) (worldwide) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1954) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• RKO Radio Pictures (A/SIA) (1952) (Australia) (theatrical)
• RKO Radio Pictures (1952) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• RKO (1953) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Sascha Filmverleih (1953) (Austria) (theatrical)
• Walt Disney Productions (1975) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) (2004) (worldwide) (DVD)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (2005) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Brazil) (VHS)
• Gativideo (19??) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Walt Disney Home Video (worldwide) (VHS)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2010) (Argentina) (DVD) (special edition)
• Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (2010) (USA) (DVD) (2-Disc Special Un-Anniversary Edition)

Also Known As:

"Alicia en el país de las maravillas" - USA (Spanish title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Denmark:A (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:All | USA:Approved (PCA #15112) | USA:G | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:G | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Iceland:L | Peru:PT | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:G (1973) (re-rating) | Brazil:Livre

Filming Locations:

Walt Disney Studios, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

The English novelist Aldous Huxley worked with Walt Disney on early scripts for this project in late 1945. The original idea was for a cartoon version of Alice embedded in a flesh-and-blood episode from Lewis Carroll's life. Huxley's mother, Julia Arnold, was one of the little girls that Carroll used to enjoy photographing, and to whom he told the Alice stories. The project was close to Huxley's heart, but Disney found his work too intellectual, and it was not used. Huxley received no credit on the finished picture.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The Queen yells at Alice, "Your way!" and Alice falls down. As she hits the ground, her right hand and part of her dress disappear for a few frames.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Alice's sister:[reading from a history book] "... leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand..." Alice.
[camera zooms out to show Alice sitting in a tree, playing with Dinah and making a chain of daisies]
Alice:Hmm? Oh, I'm listening.
Alice's sister:"And even Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, agreed to meet with William and offer him the crown. William's conduct at first was moderate."
[Alice laughs as her daisy chain falls on her sister's face]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Knife of Ice (1972)

Soundtrack:

The Walrus and the Carpenter

Pretty Good Adaptation With Enjoyable Characters and Scenes

For material that does not lend itself very easily to cinema, this is a pretty good adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" with some enjoyable characters and sequences. It succeeds, at least in a basic way, in capturing part of the manic but imaginative nature of Lewis Carroll's story.

Much of the language, poetry, and ideas that make the original story so captivating cannot really be conveyed very easily in a movie, and so it would be nearly impossible for any cinema version of Alice to be completely satisfying to those who love the book. Instead, this version simply tries to make the characters come to life, and to use the animation to recreate the feel, if not the depth, of Alice's experience.

The animation drives most of the movie, and at times it is pretty imaginative. Some of the voices work very well, too, with the likes of Ed Wynn and Sterling Holloway fitting the animated characters quite well.

Carroll's stories are so enchanting and creative that it is no surprise that there have been so many efforts through the years to capture the magic of the Alice stories on film. None of the cinema versions has yet come close to matching the books, yet the material itself has made most of them worth watching. In this one, the overall production has a definite Disney style to it, which makes it different from the original, but as a movie it works pretty well.