Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Directors:

Clyde Geronimi
Wilfred Jackson

Writers:

Lewis Carroll (novels)
Winston Hibler (story) ...

Release Date:

28 July 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy | Musical

Tagline:

A world of wonders in One Great Picture

Plot:

Alice stumbles into the world of Wonderland. Will she get home? Not if the Queen of Hearts has her way.

Plot Keywords:

Rabbit | Queen | Card | Whimsical | Reality

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

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	...	Tweedledee / Tweedledum / The Walrus / The Carpenter (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)

Also Known As:

Alicia en el país de las maravillas (USA: Spanish title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Denmark:A (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/6 | South Korea:All | Germany:o.Al. | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:G | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Iceland:L | Peru:PT | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | USA:G (1973) | Brazil:Livre

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

Continuing the pattern of film versions of "Alice in Wonderland" not being commercially successful, this movie was a huge box office failure. However, it did become something of a cult film during the 1960s, where it was viewed as a "head film".

Goofs:

Continuity: In the song "Painting the Roses Red", after Alice sings "Oh, pardon me, but Mister Three, why must you paint them red?" the three cards say "Huh? Ohhhhhhh!". When they say that, The three of clubs card has a three in the bottom right corner with no clubs symbol on top of the three. the three of clubs also has nothing in the top left corner. The ace and two of clubs have nothing in both of their corners. A few slides later, the symbols in the corners come back.

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 some 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."
[Alice laughs as her daisies fall on her sister's face]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Dateline: Disneyland (1955) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Caucus Race

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.