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:

The all-cartoon Musical Wonderfilm!

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Did You Know?

Trivia

Despite its popularity in the late 20th and 21st centuries, the Cheshire Cat appears to have failed to capture readers and artists' imaginations in the original era of publication. It rarely appeared in art and literature until the 1950s. The Disney version of the character is considered a likely source for its popularization.

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Goofs

At the tea party, when the March Hare smashes the White Rabbit's pocket watch with a hammer, the image briefly changes to black and white.

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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

On the JeemTV showing, in the Middle East, many shots were censored from the film including the use of tobacco, such as the Dodo's pipe, the Walrus' cigar, and the Caterpillar's hookah. These shots were edited to remove the tobacco product in question by cropping, slowing down the video, or by removing the scene completely. Other shots removed included the male dandelion mating with the female flower, the shot of the horsefly being swatted away by the Rose, and the dog worm barking at the cat worm during the "All in the Golden Afternoon" sequence.

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Connections

Version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972)

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Soundtracks

Old Father William
(1951) (uncredited)
Written by Oliver Wallace and Ted Sears
Performed by J. Pat O'Malley

User Reviews

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.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 September 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alicia en el país de las maravillas

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