Alice in Wonderland

Early on in Walt Disney's career, he had wanted to tell the story of Alice in Wonderland. As early as 1923 he had begun a series of short films , which featured a young girl in the role of Alice and integrated her live-action performance with animation. So it's no surprise that he wished to make a full-length film based upon Lewis Carroll's classic stories . What is a surprise is that, in 1951 when the film was finally released, Walt Disney was extremely disappointed. He felt that the film lacked an emotional center and that the characters were weak and unmemorable. Perhaps his discontentment was caused by his high expectations or maybe Walt simply didn't understand that the film was a masterpiece, but whatever the reason for his disliking the film, it has gone on to become a classic (of all of the films made while Walt Disney was alive this, Fantasia , Cinderella , Sleeping Beauty , and 101 Dalmatians are my favorites). The story, which combines elements from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Saw There , was unfairly criticized for deviating from Lewis Carroll's original text. But of all the film adaptations inspired by the Alice books, this is one of the most faithful to the spirit and essence of the books despite the many changes to chronology and the deletion of many sequences. Disney's Alice in Wonderland is a delightful, song-filled and beautifully animated adventure into a world of nonsense and absurdity. The story begins with Alice, who's grown tired of her lessons in history, daydreaming of a world of her own; a world where flowers talk, where animals behave like people and people behave like fools, a world where the laws of physics wouldn't apply. Suddenly her fantasy is intruded upon by a white rabbit, dressed in his finest and carrying an umbrella and pocket watch, who frantically intones, "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" Intrigued, for she has never met a talking rabbit before, Alice runs after the White Rabbit and crawls into his rabbit hole. Within the dark confines of the hole, Alice blindly progresses until she finds herself plummeting into a dark abyss. She falls and falls and falls, all the while taking notice of her strange surroundings. When she finally lands she continues her pursuit of the White Rabbit until she comes to a door. The Doorknob insists that Alice is much too big to fit through such a tiny door, so he suggests that she drink from the bottle on the table, which appears out of nowhere, and then will change size. Alice drinks from the bottle and shrinks until she's just the right height to fit through the door when the Doorknob tells her that he is locked and that the key is on the table far above them. This is remedied when a box of cookies magically appear and when Alice takes a bite she grows taller than ever before. Though she can now reach the key, she's no longer able to fit through the door and thus she begins to cry. Soon her tears form an ocean and when Alice drinks from the bottle and shrinks again, she lands in this ocean where she is eventually carried to shore. Now her adventures really begin as she meets one bizarre character after another. First she meets the sea captain, Dodo Bird and then the mischievous brothers Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Soon she catches up to the White Rabbit only to face greater obstacles. She encounters talking flowers who think she's a common weed, an erudite caterpillar that gives her lessons in grammar, and she meets the mysterious Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare. She discovers a kingdom of playing cards that are ruled over by the cruel Queen of Hearts, who demands obedience or else threatens beheading. Alice's Wonderland becomes a surreal nightmare and she barely manages to escape the only way she knows how, by waking up. This DVD contains a glorious restoration of the film as well as numerous bonus features including a Virtual Wonderland Party, two Sing Along Songs, Adventures in Wonderland set-top game, a newly discovered Cheshire Cat song, and the classic Mickey Mouse cartoon, Thru the Mirror. Also included is Walt Disney's first televised program One Hour in Wonderland, two theatrical trailers, two television introductions by Walt Disney, a behind the scenes featurette, an excerpt from the Fred Waring Show, deleted songs and storyboard sequence, and an art gallery. With all of these features this DVD deserves a place on your shelf of Disney favorites. However Walt Disney Home Entertainment has discontinued this wonderful 2-disc Masterpiece Edition of Alice in Wonderland so if you are fortunate enough to come across a copy, I would urge you to buy it as this will in all likelihood be the final DVD release of the film. The future versions will be in the Blu-ray format.

Love this movie!

This is not quite as I remember it from TV, but very good. Some sequences go on longer, some are brief. The Victorian prelude is shorter than for Peter Pan, and the art style is different. But a terrific adaptation, one of the best!

A hilarious Walt Disney's take on Alice In Wonderland. Great watching for the whole family.

Disney's Alice in Wonderland - I remember watching this when I was about 6 in the 60s. I even have the Alice in Wonderland watch with ceramic figurine it came on. I loved the story. Lots of great animation, music and voice talent. I watch it when I just need a brain break. Lots of fun sections. I miss my siamese cat that used to curl up next to me and watch too - lots of great memories for me. Good for all ages in my opinion. I purchase all my movies via stream anymore - watch when, where on what you want - no DVDs to store and carry a player for. win/win/win! Having said all of this, I never hesitate to update my reviews should new info seem useful. All of my reviews reflect my honest, personal experience with the reviewed item - your experience may be different. I am not influenced by any outside source. I receive/accept NO free products or discounts that are not available to all shoppers- ever. I am a verified purchaser - not a paid reviewer. I have been doing honest, trustworthy reviews for well over 25 years with Amazon - posting thousands and thousands of reviews. Those posts have been viewed over 8.2 million times to date, (proof of my thousands of reviews and status in years). BOTTOM LINE: I pay for all my stuff, just like you do - with hard earned dollars!

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. The DVD has some interesting extras, but again, I feel that the Disney studios still do not have a high regard for this film and just threw it together on DVD. I have heard that the LaserDisc version had many more interesting extras, and it would be my hope for this film to get a rerelease on DVD with some more extras restored.

This is one in a series of posted reviews for every Alice in Wonderland title available on Amazon. When the Tim Burton rendition of AIW with Johnny Depp was due out in 2010 I thought it might be a good time to go back and watch the benchmark Walt Disney production from 1951, which I saw -or assumed I saw- as a child. It was a chance to get reacquainted with the many varied characters from the story as sort of a warm up for the Burton film. Upon viewing the Disney classic I was astonished to realize that I had likely never seen more than a few clips (at most) of that beautifully rendered Alice in Wonderland. So much seemed brand new. Nor did I have a memory of ever seeing any other "Alice" production. Then I realized that I had never read the book! Wait a minute. Where then did my memory of the Alice story come from? The curiosity sparked by that question ultimately led me over the next two years to accumulate every version of Alice in Wonderland still in existence. Well over 40 by the way! This general commentary continues as a posted review for both the 1951 AIW production from Walt Disney (this title) and the 2010 production starring Johnny Depp, as these are the two most well known Alice's. Rather than attempt to add yet-another-review here, it seemed like it might be a more fun use of the provided space to muse for a bit on the popularity and remarkable longevity of the story spawned by Lewis Carroll in 1865, as well as to share with you a bit of what I picked up while watching these 40 or so renderings of Alice in Wonderland. All other Alice productions listed by Amazon will have a specific review of the relevant production with same title used throughout. To continue... I claim to be neither a Lewis Carroll nor an Alice in Wonderland expert. Rather, I went into this project naive... ignorant of the details of the story of Alice in Wonderland... ignorant of the poems within the story, and certainly ignorant of the comings and goings in Lewis Carroll's life that set up the circumstances allowing him to imagine the story of Alice in Wonderland (originally entitled "Alice's Adventures Underground", by the way). Watching that 1951 Disney rendition of AIW was a remarkable experience. It was fun to "remember" the story of Alice again, but also, it left me with a desire to see how else the Alice story has been rendered. The Disney film is of course animation. So how would Alice in Wonderland be portrayed in other mediums? What I learned is that AIW has been rendered in about every way you can imagine. Most familiar of course is the telling of the Alice story in film, with live action, animation, and various combinations of both. In fact since the invention of film at the turn of the 20th century not a decade has gone where at least one (and usually several) fresh renderings of the Alice story been told in moving pictures. Beyond that however the Alice story has been told in many forms: audio recordings, plays, ballets, operas, and musicals. It's been done with the use of puppets and marionettes, with stop motion "Gumby style" animation, in games, in home-brew backyard productions posted to YouTube, and as an Alice in Wonderland theme park. There's even been an X rated version done as a musical (quite good). A number of established shows have done a take on the Alice story; The Muppets, Sesame Street, The Care Bears, Betty Boop, Mickey Mouse, Barney, Scooby Doo, The Simpsons, Star Trek TOS, and even `Hello Kitty' took a shot at Alice. What's more, a wide variety of famous actors and celebrities have appeared in an Alice film. Stars from W.C. Fields to Cary Grant to Peter Sellers to Richard Burton... The Smothers Brothers, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Dudley Moore, Brooke Shields, Maryl Streep, Debbie Allen, Nathan Lane, Sammy Davis Jr., Ringo Starr, Terry Garr, and Whoopi Goldberg, just to name a few, have been involved in some sort of Alice production. And then there are the numerous Alice based endeavors, from Woody Allan's `Alice' with Mia Farrow, to Jefferson Airplane's `White Rabbit'. Why? Why is Lewis Carroll's story of a young girl who fell down a mythical rabbit hole so compelling? What gives the story such staying power? How is it that people of virtually all ages are so inexplicably drawn toward Alice and her land of wonders? I don't know. I've tried to steer clear of scholarly answers that address that question. There have been many attempts to do so. On the surface we can locate several plausible reasons that explain why Alice in Wonderland resonates with so many. We have a young, [seemingly] helpless girl. She's an underdog. Out of her element. A vulnerable character put in jeopardy. We ask, "what will happen next?", as the story takes one unexpected turn after another. And of course animals with human attributes in any story is compelling. Walt Disney discovered that innate attraction and made an industry of it. But do these answers get to the heart of the question? I happen to believe the explanation of Alice in Wonderland's universal appeal is that we, all of us, all human beings, young and old, have been to Wonderland ourselves. We go there in our dreams. We can all relate to the experience of logic and proportion falling away because it has happened to us. We understand how, in all the bizarreness of the wonderlands we fall into at night, that we rarely lose our heads. We should be really scared. Alice should be really scared. But somehow we accept what we see. Such is the worlds of dreams. Furthermore, how many of us have wondered if we continue to dream after we die? Are dreams what the afterlife is composed of? We don't fully understand the nature of dreams, so we contemplate upon them. Even the errant machine HAL in 2001 A Space Odyssey asked if he would dream after he was turned off. And now to return to the original question I postulated. How did I somehow know the story of Alice in Wonderland without having a particular recollection of reading the book? Or seeing a movie? One answer of course is that pieces of the story just leaked into my consciousness over the years. A movie clip here. A verbal explanation there. But could there be a deeper reason? It may have to do with "archetype". It is certain that Alice in Wonderland acts as a metaphor for dreams, but the Alice Stories seems to delve deeper... into a primal archetype --a "template" if you will-- out of which human circumstances arise. Because of that we recognize Alice's dilemma in a deep and fundamental way. To write the story of Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll had in some way become conscious of the meta-physical world. The world beyond normal perception. A world that is, as Rod Serling put it, "beyond that which is known to man". Whereas visual artists such as Hieronymus Bosch reflected their visions of the other-world in paintings, Lewis Carroll's palette was paper and words. I would not be surprised if Carroll had at some point and in some fashion become "experienced", in a Jimmy Hendrix sort of way. Anyway, enjoy every telling of the Alice story you can get your hands on. Each one is unique. It's fascinating to see how the core Alice story is manifested in different media. It's fun to see how the various animals are rendered. If you can, read the books first. If you can't, remember that anything to with a playing card motif, the King and Queen of Hearts, the Knave of Hearts, the stolen tarts, the Duchess, falling down the rabbit hole and the pool of tears, the White Rabbit, growing and shrinking, the Mad Hatter (and tea party), Bill the Lizard, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, the Dormouse, the Mock Turtle, and the Gryphon, -phew- all come from Alice in Wonderland. A motif based upon a chessboard, The Red King and Queen, the White King and Queen, the Red Knight and White Knight, the Jabberwocky, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, Humpty Dumpty, the Lion and the Unicorn, Hatta and Haighaa (a disguised appearance by the Mad Hatter and the March Hare), and the The Walrus and the Carpenter come from Through the Looking Glass. You'll find that many renderings of Alice in Wonderland combine elements of both books, and you know... Not everyone likes what's often been done turning the story of Alice on ear but I say, it's in spirit of fun there's really nothing at all to fear so what if Walt Disney brought forth Tweedledum and Tweedl-dee and introduced Alice to the Walrus and his carpenter bud-ee and all those talking flowers! Such beau-tees it's been done by others dontcha see all for the sake of cre-a-ti-vi-ty yeah, Disney took license with the main stor-ee added song and dance, and a touch of glee a lovely embellished for all to see this movie will last for an e-ter-ni-tee so yeah you-know-what? it's really O-K. It's all just a dream an-y-old-way of the many many versions of this fine tale hardly any of the a-dap-ta-tions fail they've all been done with narry a shred of malice all in all it's in the spirit of our dear friend Alice so go visit Netflix Amazon and Youtube No one will care... an Alice you'll love will be waiting for you there and if the telling don't exactly track Mr. Dodgson's theme like we said before... it's only a dream --------------- All the Alice reviews in this series are on Listmania: 1) Click on my user name 2) Click on 'Listmania!' 3) Then click on See 'Entire List'.

Region 2 German English classic precursor of Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane White Rabbit late1960s. Long in the tooth for the kiddies, though.