Alice in Wonderland (1951)

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

Directors:

Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (adaptation) (as Lewis Carrol), Winston Hibler (story)

Stars:

Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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	...	Walrus / Carpenter / Dee / Dum (voice) (as Pat O'Malley)
Bill Thompson	...	White Rabbit / Dodo (voice)
Heather Angel	...	Alice's Sister (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)

Storyline

Alice is a daydreaming young girl. She finds learning poems and listening to literature boring. She prefers stories with pictures and to live inside her imagination. One day, while enduring just such a poetry reading, she spots a large white rabbit...dressed in a jacket and carrying a large watch. He scurries off, saying he's late, for a very important date. She follows him through the forest. He then disappears down a rabbit hole. Alice follows, leading her to all manner of discoveries, characters and adventures.

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Plot Keywords:

sudden change in size | rabbit | cat | dream | cheshire cat | 

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Taglines:

'Tis Brillig...'Tis Brilliant...'Tis Out of This World!

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film omits the character Mouse from the original novel. He is most notable in the novel for telling the story of the Fury, famous for the phrase: "I'll be judge, I'll be jury," Said cunning old Fury: "I'll try the whole cause, and condemn you to death."'

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Goofs

Towards the end of the scene with the flowers, the flowers are asking Alice what kind of flower she is. There's a shot from above, looking down on Alice. Behind her, we see her shadow on the ground. Although Alice is moving a bit, the shadow is perfectly still.

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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 crown 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."
[...]

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Alternate Versions

The 1954 TV screening on the The Magical World of Disney series was edited down to a one hour running time, and contained an introduction from Walt Disney at the start. This introduction appears on the Region 1 Masterpiece Edition of the film.

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Connections

Referenced in Press Your Luck: The Legend (2020)

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Soundtracks

'Twas Brillig
(1951) (uncredited)
Written by Don Raye and Gene de Paul
Performed by Sterling Holloway

User Reviews

Underappreciated and overlooked

Right from the stunning (hand drawn!) opening sweep of a verdant riverbank on a lazy summer's day, "Alice in Wonderland" is one of the most beautifully animated of the Disney films of the 1950s. Unfortunately, this film has always been one of the most maligned in the Disney canon.

Many books on the subject of Disney's animated films will often only devote a paragraph or two to the film, and in that short paragraph it will invariably mention how "Alice" was a financial flop, how Walt Disney himself wasn't very fond of it, how it's a chilly film. I don't find this film chilly, I find it refreshingly free of sentiment or cliche that can often weigh down other Disney films.

To start with, we have Alice. Unlike Cinderella or Snow White, Alice has a lot of personality. Who among us hasn't been very frustrated that Cinderella just took all the abuse from her stepmother and sisters and was powerless? Alice, on the other hand, is not one of the "shy little violets" and operates on more than just one emotion; she gets mad, befuddled, disgusted, amused, angry and, best of all, she stands up to adults (how odd for the 50's) and tells them when they are being ridiculous. This film has a subversiveness that may have been unintentional in showing how the world of adults, with its rules and logic, can be purely nonsense and that a child can be the only sane person in the lot. (To be fair, this sentiment is in keeping with Lewis Carroll's original books.)

Alice is beautifully voiced by Kathryn Beaumont (who did a similarly excellent job as the voice of Wendy in "Peter Pan" a few years after.) The real appeal of Alice here is that unlike many other Disney heroines,Kathryn Beaumont was a young girl when she recorded the voice and therefore, Alice looks and sounds like a girl of a certain age. Contrast that to Mary Costa's voice and the animated figure of Sleeping Beauty who looks as if she could be a 1950s pinup model despite only being 16.

The story itself is a wild trip through an ever shifting dreamscape most notable for the wild color schemes that anticipate the 1960's motifs. This is not implying that "Alice in Wonderland" is one big drug reference; it is not. Many people who worked on this film have commented that it felt like the film was getting away from them, that the characters took on lives of their own. This is evident as the film just gets wilder and wilder as it goes on with the introductions of the most bizarre and colorful characters Disney ever brought to life.

The only real flaws in the film include a scene when Alice breaks down and berates herself for never following her own advice, this moment stops the film cold in the middle of what has been a non-stop thrill ride. The extremely abrupt ending of the film is a very strange choice. I think even an extra 20-30 seconds between Alice and her sister at the conclusion of the film would have made the film a little stronger.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alice in Wonderland

Filming Locations:

Walt Disney Feature Animation - 500 S. Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1