Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

Hanna-Barbera's TV special "Alice in Wonderland, or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" doesn't promote fidelity to the source material; having to do a book report on "Alice in Wonderland," Alice falls through her TV set after her dog Fluff leaps into it and finds herself you know where, meeting several of Lewis Carroll's best-known characters while trying to find her pet.

It's less boring than the Disney version, but concerns about some dated trappings aside (will any children watching this today know who Hedda Hopper was?), Bill Dana's adaptation isn't as funny as it wants to be; Alice's trial for stealing the tarts - I told you it wasn't loyal to the book - is particularly tiresome. It also drags a bit when the focus is purely on Alice, and when she has to sing as well...

But all is forgiven when the cards are playing the game, when Fred and Barney's caterpillar come on, or when the Sammy Davis Jr-voiced Cheshire Cat is on screen. The latter isn't on for long, but he makes this worth tuning in for.

"I've gotta split..."

"What's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?

What's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?

Oh, I've got a feeling,

You won't like it here.

The potato chips are soggy

And they water the beer.

So what's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?"

This reworking of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, an hour-long (with commercial breaks) TV special by the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, known for their limited animation in TV series such as "The Flintstones," is amusingly clever in parts. The Alice here is told she must finish reading the Alice books for school before she's allowed to watch TV. While interacting with her dog, Fluff, however, she becomes concussed--entering a dream state whereby she follows Fluff through the family TV screen, down the hole of the boob tube, to Wonderland where she meets the game-playing rabbit and other creatures based on Carroll's narratives. A sign informs Alice, "Welcome to Wonderland" and, humorously, "This place is all right in my book -Lewis Carroll."

Fred and Barney from "The Flintstones" appear as actors in the role of the Caterpillar, which almost seems like a joke on the frequency of motion-picture stars appearing in odd roles in Alice movies ever since Paramount's star-studded production in 1933, which disguised, among others, Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty and Gary Cooper as the White Knight. If that weren't cheeky enough, the program ends with Alice breaking the fourth wall to wink through the real TV screen at us, the viewers. Unfortunately, the show also replaces most of Carroll's witty nonsense with songs that, with one exception, are tedious. It imitates the 1951 Disney theatrically-released cartoon, too, by concluding with Alice being homesick. On the other hand, I enjoyed the "Humphrey" (as in Bogart) Dumpty, who's a "hardboiled" "bad egg" locked in jail. Best of all, however, is Sammy Davis Jr. lending his voice to a cool (Cheshire) cat and singing the one catchy tune here, "What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?"

For years I had been asking people if they remembered a cartoon of Alice in Wonderland where Alice went through her TV set, fell down a "computerized" shaft on the other side, and met the white rabbit. They all politely told me I was nuts. Then, a couple of days ago, I happened to catch this on CN's Boomerang channel, and did a Snoopydance out of sheer vindication. I really *did* see this when I was a kid!

Admittedly, there's nothing that stands out about this typical Hanna-Barbara fare -- the most interesting bits (to a child of the time) would have been seeing Fred and Barney as the Caterpillar, and Alice having the same voice as Josie (of Pussycat fame). Still, the framework story is different: our Alice is assigned to read the book "Alice in Wonderland," then falls, hits her head, and dreams up this whole adventure through the TV set. In that sense, it's more like "The Wizard of Oz" than AIW.

Today's children would probably be bored by this show, since it hasn't aged particularly well, and runs for an entire hour. Also, the title song has a line about "watering down the beer" that wouldn't be used today. If you're in the mood for nostalgia, though, see if you can catch it on a Boomerang rerun.

This musical spoof of the Lewis Carroll classic,is set in modern times in this grand animated special that was produced by Hanna-Barbera,and was first shown as a prime-time special in full color for ABC-TV on March 30,1966. The sponsors for this hour-long special were Rexall Drugs and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. In this updated version,it follows the adventures of Alice and her dog Fluff in Wonderland where they meet an amusing assortment of characters,among them Hedda Hatter,a female counterpart of the Mad Hatter;Humphrey Dumpty,whose voice was patterned after that of actor Humphrey Bogart;and the White Knight a character that resembles Bill Dana's Jose Jimenez character(and rightly so). And speaking of the characters,the main character Alice was done by Hanna-Barbera stockplayer Janet Waldo(aka Judy Jetson). Other H-B stockplayers supplying voice talent were regulars Don Messick(the voice of Ranger Smith of Yogi Bear,Dr. Benton Quest of Jonny Quest,and other H-B characters),veteran voice stockplayer Daws Butler(Yogi Bear,Huckleberry Hound,and other Hanna-Barbera characters),Alan Reed(the voice of Fred Flintstone),Harvey Korman(Kazoo),Allan Melvin(Magilla Gorilla),Howard Morris(Atom Ant,and other characters)and Mel Blanc(not only the voice of Bugs Bunny but was also the voice of Barney Rubble of The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely of The Jetsons).

It also featured the voices of Zsa Zsa Gabor(Queen of Hearts);along with Hedda Hopper(Hedda Hatter),Howard Morris(White Rabbit),Mad Hatter (Harvey Korman),Alice's Father/Humphrey Dumpty(Allan Melvin),King of Hearts/March Hare(Daws Butler),Cheshire Cat(Sammy Davis, Jr.),White Knight(Bill Dana in his Jose Jimenez character),and the Caterpillar (Alan Reed/Mel Blanc). Directed by Alex Lovy and Produced by William Hanna and Joesph Barbera,the prime-time special "Alice In Wonderland,or What's A Nice Kid Like You Doing In A Place Like This",was a surprise hit when it first aired and it did very well in the ratings,a first for a animated prime-time special that was shown on a major television network. The title theme song,done by Sammy Davis,Jr. became a top-ten hit on the Billboard charts in 1966. However,do to the success of this prime-time special,ABC rebroadcast it twice in prime-time on November 19, 1967,and for the final time in March of 1969. That was the last time it was ever shown again on network television. Not a bad concept from Hanna-Barbera neither,since its about time this came to DVD.