Alice in Wonderland

For a lot of people on this site, this is either one of thew best Disney movies or one of the worst. There is about 40 animated Disney movies and my personal favourite will always be the mad world of Wonderland. I don't actually know why but to me this is what i always thought about as a child, a mad world where simply nothing made sense. It goes like dynamite at only seventy two minutes and in that they have an array of entertaining characters and fourteen entertaining songs. To me it is the genius of Disney creating an entertaining look at a child's world. I think it is because of the Jungle Book that this is not as popular as some of the Disney Classics but you can't help but smile when you watch the Queen of hearts and the Mad Hatter being their own creative self's in the wonder of this amazingly clever gem

Despite the hostile reviews from many other Disney fans, I like Alice in Wonderland. Maybe it's because I've never read the original Lewis Carrol novels, or because some people take novel translations too seriously. The only other Alice movie I saw was the one aired on NBC in 1999, which also has its share of defense and offense. I liked that one (only because it included a lot of what wasn't used here), but this Disney version has always been my favorite. But then again, many of the original crew who worked on this movie--even Walt Disney himself--hated this movie. I wonder why? Disney usually does a marvelous job of creating quality cartoons & movies. I can see some of what got people ticked off, but if the characters in Alice in Wonderland were so unlikeable (the major gripe of many viewers), how did Disney let it be so? Perhaps given the amount of time they put into making this film (about 10 years, excluding the WWII Era), the Disney artists could only do so much before wearily going with one thing, and seeing what happens.

This film is somewhat different from most Disney movies. Alice is the only true hero, two characters (Alice's sister and Dinah) barely make their mark in the story, and practically every character Alice meets in Wonderland are real psychos, whom by the end of the story, are all against her (a million to one). But just about all of the characters (even Alice herself) were having mood swings. A few of those whom Alice encountered were doing such things as to entertain her, while others were either doing things to persecute her, get her in trouble, or just tick her off. I can see (to an extent) why Alice was the unhappy camper on some levels, because she didn't get the wonderland as she had envisioned, but instead one big nitemare. The whole idea was for Alice to find a way to escape from the boring real-world, then decide between staying with her fantasies, or going back to reality. After all, there's always an equal but opposite reaction for every action.

There were numerous shots of Alice sedately giving attention to some of the characters' strange habits, rather than enjoying her trip, and others in where she was either mad or sad to be the main passive victim in the story. This all led up to a scene in where Alice begins her trek home, and leads a melancholy moment when she gets lost in the Tulgey Woods. Things didn't get much better for her when she met the Queen of Hearts...

All of the characters were individually twisted, but most were strangely funny. The Tweedle brothers' story of the Walrus and the Carpenter was pretty weird (as were the bros themselves), and the flowers seemed friendly at first, but when they realized that Alice wasn't a flower, they instantly turn on her (notice how the Rose didn't do much to help her). The caterpillar was smoking from a hookah (a popular drug reference during the 1970's), and got easily p***ed at anything Alice did to him (such as laughing at his expense when his arms or legs weren't in unison). The Mad Hatter and March Hare both had an unusual way of hosting a tea party (the part where they destroy the White Rabbit's watch was really funny).

The Cheshire Cat seemed to be a nuisance the first time, then a brief friend, and later became a troublemaker. The Queen of Hearts was big, fat, ugly, and screamed at almost anything out of line (That must have really put a strain on Verna Felton's voice!), while the King of Hearts was small, meek, and practically powerless (the polar opposite). There was also a ton of other strange characters taking unexplained hostility towards Alice, but I found most of those incidents to be the main vein of humor in this film. While many of these characters were unfriendly for the bulk of the film, nothing came to be as scary as did a couple scenes from Pinocchio. But based from this lengthy paragraph, this overload on story structure is probably another reason (along with the twisted character developments) as to why Alice in Wonderland came to be hated by critics, movie-goers, and the Disney crew upon its first release.

Two of the more positive things about Alice in Wonderland are the artwork and the music. The background arts are pretty stylish (thanks to Mary Blair), and many designs I didn't catch until just recently seeing the movie again.

The character designs and animation are also beautiful. The designs on Alice (the lone protagonist) were an overall visual standout (thanks to the then-teenage Kathryn Beaumont), and the designs of most of the Wonderland characters were great, too. I also liked the animation of the cards heralding the Queen's arrival (excellent choreography & colors). Most of the songs were wonderful, particularly "In a Golden Afternoon". These are the two elements that kept some Disney fans' attention to a strange movie, even to this day.

Overall, Alice in Wonderland is a good movie, and I can see some of why a lot of people hate it. I just wish that there was more to the "real-world" frames to the story, as in the time Alice was with her big sister and Dinah. The opening scenes could've used more impact on the main idea, while the closing scenes shouldn't have been so abrupt. During her trip, Alice made several references to Dinah, although the cat's barely visible role was being Alice's best friend. The beginning of Alice's nitemare (when she was chasing the White Rabbit) doesn't get much of a response, but the interesting parts begin once she meets the Doorknob. The ending (when the Queen of Hearts calls Alice to be killed, while every Wonderland character she met turned against her) was what reminded those who hated this movie that it was all a bad dream. More thankfully for everyone, the movie had a happy ending (as per usual for any Disney movie). But as I was saying earlier, there was a lot of what most people hated that I thought was funny, but I too felt that the story need a little more polishing. While I'm against the recent round of sequels Disney has been making, I'm a little curious of what they have planned for Alice in Wonderland. But as Alice said in the movie: "Curiosity often leads to trouble."

Many kids have grown up on this Disney version of Alice in Wonderland (like most other Disney movies), and it'll still be that way for years to come. Again, despite the hatred this movie has gotten for more than 50 years, I still like it.

...and certainly "Pinocchio" had a more popular and memorable song score, but for my money I'd pick "Alice In Wonderland" as one of Walt Disney's top achievements in animation. From Lewis Carroll's story, and filled with knock-out colors (pinks and blues and reds on inky blacks), this episodic tale would not have worked so well if the direction hadn't been so graceful, setting a light, jovial mood, and the songs so tongue-trippingly clever. Alice herself (voiced by Kathryn Beaumont) is lovely and funny, the supporting characters appropriately manic, and the quiet moments gently even out the craziness (as with the Tulgey Wood/"Very Good Advice" sequence). Disney certainly runs hot ("Pinocchio", "Bambi") and cold ("The Sword and the Stone"), but this fantastic journey into nonsense, from a practically-unfilmable book, is endlessly interesting from a visual standpoint. ***1/2 from ****

Alice one day while bored by the riverbank sees a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocket watch. Out of curiosity Alice follows the rabbit down a rabbit eventually winding up in Wonderland a place of utter ridiculousness inhabited by characters who are stupid, crazy, or both.

Released in 1951, Alice In Wonderland adapted from the books Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll had been a long gestating project as far back to the day's of Disney's Laugh O Gram studios in the 20s where the works loosely inspired Disney's early Alice Comedies. Attempts had been made by Disney to adapt the story to feature length with a preliminary outlines produced prior to the release of Snow White that were ultimately scrapped due to mitigating circumstances. While adaptations of Alice in Wonderland have been made before and since the 1951 Disney film, few, if any, of them have been as well regarded with the Disney version being the most fully realized version of the literary nonsense of Lewis Caroll.

Much like the source material, the story in Alice in Wonderland is less a straightforward narrative and more an excuse to showcase surreal imagery counter balanced against the normality and grounding of Alice who serves as our straight man to nonsense and insanity of Wonderland and its crazed inhabitants. Kathryn Beaumont voices the titular Alice and serves as an effective audience proxy whose down to earth no-nonsense delivery and insatiable curiosity makes her both an effective story engine to move the journey along as well as give the audience a grounding agent to give meaning, purpose, and weight to the surreal encounters of her journey.

Artistically speaking this is Disney's animation at its most unrestrained. Much like Three Caballeros Alice in Wonderland never sits still always keeping itself moving forward to the next bizarre head scratching tangent animated with the intensity of a technicolor fever dream. Unlike Three Caballeros however, the movie wisely gives us a grounding element with Alice and gives breaks in between the more outlandish tangents so the movie never gets exhausting. The animation used to bring Wonderland to life is very striking as Wonderland itself is very dark with many scenes having pitch black or dark black drops that work in contrasting against the purposefully more colorful and energized inhabitants. Every character and encounter stands out be it the petty, jealous, bad tempered Red Queen, the giddy gleeful mania of Mad Hatter and March Hare, or the seeming omnipotent Chesire Cat who's as powerful as he is crazy. Every encounter Alice faces leaves an impression with even the smallest (quite literally in some cases) leaving an impact.

Alice in Wonderland is a classic example of Disney animation and nonsensical story telling perfectly combined into an unforgettable experience. While not Disney's first attempt at feature length narrative nonsense, it's without question the best example of it produced on this scale up to this point and makes welcome viewing for any animation enthusiast.

When I was six, I had my tonsils out. The anaesthetist used ether and I hallucinated. My mother had bought me two comic books. One was Krazy Kat and the other the Disney "Alice in Wonderland." If you wanted something to set you up for delirium try those on for size. When I finally saw the movie, I was reminded of those subconscious images. This is an excellent animated film. I love its hard edge and portrayal of Lewis Carol's characters. It also features some wonderful songs. The Queen of Hearts is maniacal and the Mad Hatter diabolical. All the images of random craziness are in here, brought to life with artistic skill, making them unforgettable images.