Disney’s 13th animated film, Alice in Wonderland, was a film that spent a long time in production. Walt had tried a few times to produce a film based on Lewis Carroll’s stories and in 1945 work finally began on the project that resulted in the film we know today. Alice in Wonderland was first released in 1950 and was not as tremendously popular as Walt had hoped. It was not re-released in theatres until over two decades later in 1974 and this time was a huge hit! This was presumably due to the psychedelic nature of the 1970s where the whimsical brightness of Alice in Wonderland fit right in.
Premiered on: July 26, 1951 at Leicester Square Theatre in London, England
Directed by:
Clyde Geronimi
Wilfred Jackson
Hamilton Luske
Produced by: Walt Disney
Based on: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass written by Lewis Carroll
Sequels: none
Cast:
Kathryn Beaumont – Alice
Ed Wynn – Mad Hatter
Jerry Colonna – March Hare
J. Pat O’Malley – Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Bill Thompson – White Rabbit & Dodo
Joseph Kearns – Doorknob
Jimmy MacDonald – Dormouse
Richard Haydn – Caterpillar
Sterling Holloway – Cheshire Cat
Heather Angel – Alice’s Sister
Verna Felton – Queen of Hearts
Larry Grey – Bill
Dink Trout – The King
Featuring: The Mellomen
Directing Animators:
Marc Davis
Ollie Johnston
Milt Kahl
Ward Kimball
Eric Larson
John Lounsbery
Wolfgang Reitherman
Frank Thomas
Les Clark
Norman Ferguson
Music by:
Oliver Wallace
Bob Hilliard
Sammy Fain
Don Raye
Gene de Paul
Mack David
Jerry Livingston
Al Hoffman
Songs:
“Alice in Wonderland”
“In a World of My Own”
“I’m Late”
“The Sailor’s Hornpipe”
“The Caucus Race”
“How do You do and Shake Hands”
“The Walrus and the Carpenter”
“Old Father William”
“Smoke the Blighter Out”
“All in a Golden Afternoon”
“A-E-I-O-U”
“T’was Brillig”
“The Unbirthday Song”
“Very Good Advice”
“Painting the Roses Red”
Academy Awards: Best Original Score (nomination)
The Story:
The film begins with opening credits to the song “Alice in Wonderland” sung by a chorus. The credits are shown over drawings of the different characters from the film.
The opening shot is of a park in London with Big Ben off in the distance. There are butterflies, bees, and swans enjoying the sunny afternoon and the shot pans out and focuses on a lady reading a history lesson out loud. She is leaning against a tree and up in a tree branch is a girl named Alice. Alice is absently listening to the history lesson her sister is giving her, but is also busy making a daisy crown. She puts the crown on her cat, Dinah, who throws it down and the crown lands on Alice’s sister. She gets upset that Alice is not listening to the lesson but Alice says that she cannot listen to a book without pictures. In her world, books would be nothing but pictures. Her sister thinks that having her own world would be nonsense. Alice says to Dinah that in her world would be nothing but nonsense. Dinah meows like she does not understand and Alice jumps out of the tree and walks to a daisy field. Alice says that all of the animals would be just like people and she starts to sing “In a World of My Own.”
Alice and Dinah stare into a brook and Dinah sees the reflection of the White Rabbit! She meows at Alice and Alice is surprised to see a rabbit in a coat and holding a pocket watch. The White Rabbit looks down at his watch and exclaims that he is very late! Alice chases after the rabbit and thinks that since he is in such a hurry that he must be going somewhere important like a party. The White Rabbit will not stop to explain and runs right into a burrow. Alice follows him with Dinah right behind, even though she knows it might lead to trouble. Alice ends up falling down the rabbit hole and Dinah stays behind and waves goodbye to her owner.
Alice falls down the long hole and passes by furniture and a mirror that show her reflection upside-down. She then lands upside-down at the bottom and sees the White Rabbit running down a hallway and out through a door. Alice opens up that door to find a smaller one and opens that one only to find another smaller one and so on. She finally opens the smallest door and squeezes into a new room. There is another door at the other end of that room but when she tries to open it, it is locked. The Doorknob starts to chat with Alice and informs her that she is just too big to get through. There is a bottle on the table that she can drink from and shrink down to the right size. Alice picks up the bottle that is labelled “Drink Me” and checks to make sure it is not poison first. She drinks from the bottle and each sip tastes like something different. She slowly shrinks until she is just the right size for the door. The Doorknob then says that she needs a key but the key is back on top of the table. A box appears with biscuits inside and the Doorknob tells Alice to try those. They are labelled “Eat Me” and so she does but ends up growing very tall! The Doorknob laughs at her which causes Alice to cry giant tears. The tears flood the room and Alice drinks from the bottle again and shrinks down to even smaller than before. Alice lands inside the bottle and floats right through the mouth of the Doorknob and into a sea on the other side.
A Dodo bird dressed in an admiral uniform sails past using a crow for a raft. The Dodo is singing “The Sailor’s Hornpipe.” Alice tries to catch his attention but he will not stop for her. Other animals swim and float past her without stopping either. The animals all reach the shore and race around and around a rock. The Dodo is standing on top of the rock with a small fire. The animals sing “The Caucus Race” and attempt to dry off from the sea but waves keep crashing down on top of them. Alice tries to explain that there is no possible way to dry off that way, but the animals do not listen. She spots the White Rabbit again and runs after him into the nearby forest.
Alice is looking around the forest for the White Rabbit when Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum find her. Their names are written on their collars. Alice kindly greets them but right away says goodbye and tries to leave. The Tweedles stop her and sing a song about manners called “How do You do and Shake Hands.” After their song, Alice again tries to leave but the Tweedles want her to stay and offer to play a game. Alice says that she is looking for the White Rabbit because she is curious about where he is heading and the Tweedles say that being curious was not good for the poor oysters! Now Alice is curious about what happened to the poor oysters and asks the Tweedles what they mean. So the Tweedles sit her down on a log and start to sing the story of “The Walrus and the Carpenter.” The walrus and the carpenter are walking along a beach when the carpenter spies oysters in the ocean. He is so excited to eat them that he is about to kill the little oysters then and there with a hammer when the walrus stops him. The walrus has a different plan and walks down into the water to sweet talk the little oysters into going on a walk. Mother Oyster looks over at her calendar, which is opened to March, and knows that it is not a good time to leave her bed. The walrus sneakily closes the mother’s shell when she refuses to leave and starts to play his cane as a flute. The little oysters think this is fun and follow the walrus out of the sea. The carpenter quickly builds a little shack with a sign that reads “Fish Dinners” and starts to prepare the meal in the back kitchen. When the carpenter goes back out to the table, the walrus has already eaten all the little oysters. The walrus runs out of the shack with the carpenter chasing him. The scene changes back to Alice and the Tweedles in the forest and the Tweedles immediately start singing “Old Father William” and Alice sneaks away.
Alice stumbles upon a thatched roofed cottage. As she is wondering who might live there, the White Rabbit pokes his head out of a window and starts yelling for a Mary Ann. He runs outside and sees Alice and seems to think that she is Mary Ann. He yells at her to go get his gloves because he is late. Alice reluctantly obeys and head upstairs to the White Rabbit’s room to search for his gloves. She looks around the drawers and chests and finds some biscuits. She eats one and starts to grow. The White Rabbit is very impatient and runs into the cottage to hurry up “Mary Ann.” He ends up being pushed back down the stairs by Alice’s growing leg. Alice ends up so tall that her arms and legs are sticking outside of the doors and windows. The White Rabbit calls her a monster and runs away to find help. He finds the Dodo who suggests that the simple solution is to pull the monster out through the ceiling. The Dodo sees Bill the lizard walking by and asks for the lizard’s help. Bill agrees to climb up on the ladder but then is terrified of the monster when he sees Alice’s giant eye. He tries to run away but the Dodo stops him and convinces Bill of this golden opportunity to become famous. The Dodo stuffs Bill down the chimney and all the soot coming out the bottom makes Alice sneeze. The forceful sneeze sends Bill flying out the top of the chimney! The Dodo then gets the great idea to burn the cottage down! He starts to sing “Smoke the Blither Out” but the White Rabbit does not agree to this plan and tries to stop him. The Dodo just ignores the White Rabbit and destroys all of his furniture for firewood. Alice then thinks that if she eats something, she might shrink back down. She reaches down into the garden and pulls up a carrot. The White Rabbit grabs hold of the carrot in an attempt to stop her but Alice just ends up holding onto the White Rabbit who is holding onto the carrot. She bites the carrot right out of his hand and immediately shrinks. Alice drops the White Rabbit who goes zooming down the stairs again. At the bottom of the stairs he looks at his watch and realizes that he is still late! The White Rabbit runs past the Dodo who is still trying to set the cottage on fire.
Alice has now shrunk very small and she runs out of the cottage by slipping under the front door. She continues the chase after the White Rabbit but loses him again in a field of flowers. Butterflies flitter past her but when she comments on them, a voice corrects her saying that they are actually bread-and-butterflies. Then a rocking-horse-fly flies by as well. The voice keeps talking to Alice but she thinks that it would be nonsense if it were a flower talking. Suddenly all of the surrounding flowers start talking to Alice and they tell her that the sing as well. The flowers start to argue over which song to sing but the red rose, who seems to be their self-appointed leader, decides that they will sing “All in a Golden Afternoon” because that song is about all of the flowers. Near the end of the song, Alice joins in but has some trouble hitting the high notes. The flowers finish their song and then ask Alice what kind of flower she is but when Alice says that she isn’t a flower, they conclude that she must be a weed then. The flowers start to make fun of Alice because of her no flower scent and funny looking petals (meaning her dress) and then they kick her out of their flower beds. Alice is very annoyed with how mean the flowers were to her but then she is distracted by some smoke letters she sees in the distance and follows them.
Sitting on top of a mushroom is a hookah-smoking Caterpillar. He is singing “A-E-I-O-U” and blowing smoke letters. When Alice approaches he asks aggressively “Who R U?” Alice asks him the same thing back and the two argue about who should say who they are first. Alice is not exactly sure who she is anymore after all of her adventures. Suddenly the Caterpillar says “RECITE!” and Alice starts to recite “How doth the little busy bee.” The Caterpillar interrupts her and says that the poem actually goes like this “How doth the little crocodile, improve his shiny tail.” Alice says that she has never heard it that way before and the Caterpillar states that he has improved it. He keeps blowing smoke at Alice so she stomps off. The Caterpillar calls after her and says that he has something important to say so Alice heads back to the mushroom. He begins by telling her to keep her temper and then asks her what her problem is. Alice says that she does not like being three inches tall and the Caterpillar gets very offended by this because he is also three inches tall. His anger turns himself into a butterfly and he then flies off, but not before telling Alice that one side of the mushroom will make her grow taller and one side will make her grow shorter. Alice does not know which side is which so she just takes a bite from one. She ends up shooting straight up in height so quickly that a mama bird in her nest ends up being on top of Alice’s head. The bird screeches that Alice is a serpent so Alice quickly takes a bite of the other piece of the mushroom and she shrinks back down. Alice then just licks the other piece and grows back to her regular size. She saves the mushroom pieces in her pockets for later.
Alice walks further into the woods and sees many signs that do not make any sense. The signs are all very vague and just say “this way” or “that way.” Alice hears someone singing “T’was Brillig” and just a smile appears. The smile grows into the entire Cheshire Cat who keeps singing his song. Alice asks him which way she should go but he only points out that it really doesn’t matter which way she goes if she does not known where she is going. He then says that the White Rabbit went in a certain direction but then pretends he has no idea what Alice is talking about when she asks for clarification. The Cheshire Cat suggests that Alice ask the Mad Hatter or the March Hare. Alice says that she really doesn’t want to talk to any more mad people but the Cheshire Cat tells her than most everyone is mad there. He then disappears.
Alice stumbles upon a little cottage with a tea party happening out back. There are many teapots and teacups all over the large table but only three guests are in attendance: the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare are singing “The Unbirthday Song” to the Dormouse. Alice sits down at the end of the table and starts clapping. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare do not like Alice sitting there and tell her that there is no room for her to join. Alice points out that there is plenty of room but the March Hare says that it is very rude to sit down without being invited. She says that she really enjoyed their singing and they are very pleased and say that Alice must join them for a cup of tea! They explain what an unbirthday is and start to sing again for Alice. They give her a cake which explodes into fireworks and the Dormouse starts to recite “twinkle, twinkle, little bat.” Alice then tries to explain her story about looking for the White Rabbit but every time she tries, or even tries to take a sip of tea, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare yell “Clean Cup! Move Down!” And she has to start all over again. Once Alice finally gets started with her story, the Dormouse starts to freak out at the mention of Dinah the cat. The rest of the tea party involves many gags such as filling up only half a cup (a teacup cut in half vertically), and the March Hare using his ears as a pair of scissors. When Alice tries to tell her story again, the March Hare wants to change the subject and the Mad Hatter asks “why is a raven like a writing desk?” Alice is so annoyed and tells them that she does not have the time for this and starts to walk away. The March Hare asks who’s got the time and the White Rabbit suddenly appears and says that he has no time because he is late! The Mad Hatter grabs the White Rabbit’s watch and says that it is two days slow. He dips the watch in tea, opens it up, pours salt in it, and takes out all the wheels and springs. The Mad Hatter says that the watch needs some butter and spreads butter all over it. He then pours in more tea and the March Hare suggests adding sugar. The Mad Hatter says that just two spoons is fine and so crams in two spoons (without the sugar). Next, jam is put into the watch and the March Hare suggests mustard but the Mad Hatter thinks that is silly and puts lemon in instead. He closes the watch up and the watch explodes! The March Hare then smashes the watch and the poor White Rabbit is very sad because it was an unbirthday present. The Mad Hatter and the March Hare then throw him out of the tea party and Alice follows.
Alice decides that she has had enough nonsense and wants to go home. She heads into Tulgey Wood where lots of weird creatures live. There are birds that are shaped like glasses, mirrors, and horns. But Alice is so tired of the nonsense that she ignores them all and just tries to figure her way out. There are hammer and pencil birds that make signs reading “don’t step on the mome raths.” The mome raths turn out to be fuzzy little creatures that make an arrow and point Alice towards a path. She hurries down the path, hoping to be home in time for tea. But a broom dog appears and sweeps away the path. Alice starts to cry and sings “Very Good Advice” to herself as all of the strange creatures gather and listen. The Cheshire Cat appears again and tells Alice about the Queen. Alice says that she has not met any queen yet and the Cheshire Cat shows her a shortcut through a tree that will lead Alice to the queen. Alice steps through the tree and into a hedge maze.
In the hedge maze, Alice comes across some playing cards that are singing “Painting the Roses Red.” She asks the cards why they are painting the roses red and they say that they planted the white roses by mistake. They will lose their heads if the Queen finds out! Alice grabs a paint brush and starts to help out. A trumpet sounds and more playing cards march out of the castle, which indicates that the Queen of Hearts is coming. The painting cards and Alice lay flat on the ground in a bow when the White Rabbit and his little bugle come out to announce the Queen! Everyone cheers and then the White Rabbit announces the King as well; there is one single cheer.
The Queen of Hearts immediately notices that the roses have been painted. The painting cards: the ace, two, and three of clubs are taken off by the Queen’s orders. The Queen then spots Alice and gives the girl many orders about how to address and greet the Queen. The Queen then yells are Alice for saying that she is trying to find her way home because it is always the Queen’s way. The Queen of Hearts then wants to play croquet with Alice. The playing cards become the wickets, flamingos are used as mallets, and hedgehogs are used for the balls. The Queen goes first with her green flamingo and green hedgehog. All the cards, flamingos, and hedgehogs cheat to make sure that the Queen wins and everyone cheers loudly for her. One poor card misses the ball and it is off with his head. Alice’s purple flamingo goes limp and will not corporate. The playing cards duck out of the way so Alice misses them all. The Cheshire Cat suddenly appears on the Queen’s backside. He keeps appearing and disappearing to tease Alice and make it seem like Alice is trying to bother the Queen by showing her a cat that isn’t there. The Queen becomes angry with Alice and then the Cheshire Cat causes the Queen to stumble and fall upside-down into a hole. All of the playing cards gather around the Queen to hide her exposed bloomers and the Queen is very angry, thinking that Alice tripped her. She explodes out of the hole and yells that it is off with Alice’s head! The King timidly suggests that Alice should be given a trial first.
The next scene is Alice’s trial. The White Rabbit reads out all of Alice’s wrongdoings and the Queen wants the sentence first and the verdict second. The King suggests that they call a witness first. The March Hare is the first witness but he claims to know nothing. The next witness is the Dormouse who sleepily recites “twinkle, twinkle, little bat.” The third witness is the Mad Hatter and the Queen just yells off with his hat. The Mad Hatter has a cup of tea and a teapot under his hat and says that when the incident occurred he was at home drinking tea and celebrating his unbirthday. The King says that it is also the Queen’s unbirthday so everyone sings and celebrates her unbirthday. She is given a cake which explodes. She is also given a purple hat which turns out to be the Cheshire Cat. Alice again tries to get the Queen to notice the Cheshire Cat but this only causes the Dormouse to again freak out at the mention of a cat. In the midst of the ruckus, Alice then eats the mushroom pieces that were in her pockets and grows very tall. The King says “Rule 42: all persons more than a mile high must leave the court immediately.” The Queen is terrified of the giant Alice and Alice starts to boldly tell the Queen how horrible she is. Alice then starts to shrink back down and starts to run away before it is off with her head. The playing cards try to capture Alice but she escapes through the hedge maze.
Alice is running back through Wonderland and all of the characters she has encountered have joined the chase. There is a reprise of “The Caucus Race” and Alice ends up back in the sea. She comes upon the Caterpillar again who blows smoke at her. The smoke turns into a tunnel and Alice runs through it. She is still being chased by the Queen of Hearts and everyone else as she comes to the Doorknob at the end of the tunnel. The door is locked but the Doorknob tells her that Alice is actually already on the other side. Alice looks through his mouth and sees herself sleeping against the same tree she was learning her history lesson in earlier that day. Alice wakes up from her Wonderland dream to her sister trying to get her to recite her lesson. Alice starts to recite “how doth the little crocodile…” but Alice’s sister does not know what she is talking about and says that it is time for tea. Alice, her sister, and Dinah all head off for home to a reprise of “Alice in Wonderland.” At the end of the film there are voice cast credits.
Trivia:
- Alice in Wonderland was the first Disney animated film to have any sort of ending credits in addition to opening credits. The end credits only have a quick scrawl of the voice actors and their characters.
- The flavours of each sip of the “Drink Me” bottle are cherry tart, custard, pineapple, and roast turkey.
- One Hour in Wonderland was Disney’s very first show on television. It aired on Christmas Day in 1950 and was a promotion for the upcoming Alice in Wonderland film.
- Another promotion for the film was titled Operation Wonderland. This featurette aired on June 14, 1951 and featured backstage footage of the making of the feature film.
- “How doth the little busy bee” is the first line from the poem “Against Idleness and Mischief” by Isaac Watts.
- Though the Cheshire Cat’s exact quote in the film is “Most everyone’s mad here,” he says “We’re all mad here” in chapter six of the original book. This is the quote that is most often used in promotion and merchandise.
- In the film and in the original book, Rule 42 is “All persons more than a mile high must leave the court.” In the Disneyland attraction, Rule 42 is “The Queen always wins.”
- Walt Disney’s very first attempt at turning the stories of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass into film was also one of his very first attempts at making movies ever. He produced 56 silent cartoons called the Alice Comedies between the years 1924 and 1927. The shorts featured a live action Alice in a cartoon world.
- Another Wonderland themed short was a Mickey Mouse cartoon called Thru the Mirror, released on May 30, 1936.
- The colourful and whimsical feel of Alice in Wonderland was largely influenced by artist Mary Blair. Mary Blair is credited under “color and styling” for this film. Her work is very distinct with the bold colours and childlike charm of this film and her other Disney projects such as Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and it’s a small world.
- Many of the scenes were first acted out in live action for the animators to have references. Ed Wynn was the live action model for his own character, the Mad Hatter, and would do a lot of ad libbing during the mad tea party scene. Walt loved the recording of his dialogue in the live action footage so much that he wanted it to be used in the final film instead of the sound booth recording. The sound technicians had a very hard time putting this dialogue into the film because of excessive background noise but the sound booth recording just was not the same.
- In the Walrus and the Carpenter scene, the “R” in March in Mother Oyster’s calendar flashes. This is in reference to the old wives’ tale that oysters should only be eaten in months that have an “R” in them. Months that do not have an “R” (May, June, July, and August) are all summer months and the oysters would not have kept in the heat before refrigeration was invented.
- The riddle “why is a raven like a writing desk?” has stumped Wonderland fans ever since the book was first published in 1865. Lewis Carroll had stated that it is just a nonsense riddle with no actual answer, and even made up some answers in attempts to please people, but fans are still determined to figure out the “correct” answer.
- Lewis Carroll’s name is misspelt in the opening credits as Lewis Carrol.
Representation in the Disney Parks:
Alice in Wonderland can be found in every Fantasyland around the world and it fits right in with its fun and whimsical feel.
In Disneyland there is the popular Alice in Wonderland dark ride and two Mad Hatter shops. One shop is in Fantasyland and one is on Main Street, U.S.A. There is also the front door to the White Rabbit’s cottage which makes for a lovely photo spot. The White Rabbit’s hole and entrance to Wonderland can be seen on the Storybook Land Canal Boats and there is also a boat named Alice.
There is a spinning teacups attraction in five of the six Fantasylands: Mad Tea Party in Disneyland and Magic Kingdom, Alice’s Tea Party in Tokyo Disneyland, Mad Hatter’s Tea Cups in Disneyland Paris, and Mad Hatter Tea Cups in Hong Kong Disneyland.
There are two maze walkthrough attractions themed to Alice in Wonderland. Alice’s Curious Labyrinth in Disneyland Paris and Alice in Wonderland Maze in Shanghai Disneyland. In Paris, the maze is themed to the classic animated film whereas the maze in Shanghai is more themed towards the 2010 live action remake.
Alice and the White Rabbit represent England in the it’s a small world attractions that feature Disney characters.
Many of the characters do meet and greets such as Alice, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
At Tokyo Disneyland, there is the Queen of Heart Banquet Hall dining location in Fantasyland and at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel there are Alice in Wonderland themed guest rooms.
At the Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World, there is an Alice in Wonderland themed water play area. Alice and the Mad Hatter also host an afternoon tea party for children at the hotel.
Check out the other films of Disney’s Silver Age:
You do a lovely job of describing the film, and I was singing some of the songs in my head as I was reading the words. The pictures were fun to view while remembering, too.