Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

♫"A very Merry Unbirthday toooooohoooo yooouuuu."♫



the plot

Alice, a British blonde preteen grows both restless and bored as she endures a history lesson from her older sister outside, under a tree on this beautiful summer's day. Instead of even pretending to try learning anything, Alice retorts to her sister Mathilda's lessons on logic with meaningless jibber-jabber. Alice begins to daydream of a world of her own where nothing really makes sense and chaos rules. 

Interrupting her thoughts was a worried white rabbit who was looking at his pocket watch, running by exclaiming verbally that he was indeed late. But, late for what? Alice was aiming to find out. She followed a rabbit to a rabbit hole, where when she leaned over too far she fell into it. She fell for a long time, and at about halfway down, the rules and laws were beginning to change before her eyes. She ended up in an enchanted forest, which mirrored her fantasy of just a few moments ago.

Her main goal was to find the white rabbit to find out where he was going, yet on the way she met an odd set of twins, a talking doorknob, a smoking caterpillar, a walrus, a carpenter, another rabbit called March Hare, the Mad Hatter, and of course the Cheshire Cat. All of these colorful characters ultimately are never helpful to Alice. She becomes quickly disenchanted with this enchanted forest and she attempts to find her way back home. Yet the forest and its inhabitants may have other plans. Will Alice be able to escape the dangers of this insane place? Find out when you watch Disney's classic 1951 version of Alice in Wonderland. 

   
the breakdown

It seems that Walt Disney has had a love of this story for a long time before this animated classic was finally realized. Most of his early works from the mid-1920s were focused on producing the silent short films called Alice Comedies. In fact, before Mickey Mouse made his debut in 1928, Walt's main focus was on these classic shorts that revolve the idea of Lewis Carroll's characters and books. When the unheard of idea of creating full-length animated features arose, Walt must have thought of Alice right away. Different ideas were considered for taking on Alice in Wonderland, including using the model he created for the Alice Comedies where a live action actress was used for Alice surrounded by a world based in animation. In fact, it went through a bunch of ideas before they started the serious work on it. I for one am thankful for the many unforeseen delays, as I absolutely love the fully animated version. 

This is perhaps one of the most colorful features from Walt Disney Studios. Just about every one of the odd characters Alice runs into wears a different color from the last one encountered, which makes it visually interesting. The different characters Alice meets on her way to locate the white rabbit results in a consecutive series of short stories, which I think would normally ruin a movie, but here it works somehow to witness a bunch of short cartoons that make up this film. The idea of this chaotic and illogical world of Wonderland seems to be complimented by the format.

Kathryn Beaumont provided the voice for Alice, which was an adequate fit. Beaumont was around twelve years old when she portrayed Alice, plus her proper British accent with perfect diction had all the right qualifications for this film, another British-based story that Walt Disney Productions decided to undertake around this time. Ed Wynn's distinctive voice was a perfect fit for the zany Mad Hatter. Sterling Holloway, a veteran Disney actor even by this date stole the show by many viewers as the mystical Cheshire Cat. Holloway's distinctive voice is synonymous with Walt Disney classic animation.  

There are some dark subject matters within Alice in Wonderland. For instance, the Walrus and the Carpenter story where the two scheme to lead a school of child oysters to their nasty death where the hungry Walrus gobbles them all up. The caterpillar character is seen constantly smoking some strange substance. Although we're not sure of what the main ingredient is, we have to assume it grows wild in this forest, possibly making everyone else here loopy as well. Of course, we can't forget the Queen of Hearts who only wants to chop off Alice's head for some meaningless crime.

Clearly Alice In Wonderland is visually engaging, but unlike most other Disney classics, this film is lacking any real memorable songs. It hampers the rewatchability factor a bit, and very rarely will you find any Alice tunes on the Disney compilation CDs. Also with the absence of any real good songs, kids may not have the patience to sit through the whole film. Having said that, the Mad Hatter scene with the "Very Merry Unbirthday" song never fails to please. 
     

blu-ray features-
 
Bonus Features:    
 Backstage Disney- Through the Keyhole: A Companion's Guide to Wonderland, Reference Footage: Alice and the Doorknob, Pencil Test: Alice Shrinks

Through the Keyhole gives the chance to watch the film with a unique type of commentary given by Brian Sibley (a Lewis Carroll and Walt Disney historian), Charles Solomon (animation critic and historian) Morton Cohen (Victorian Literature specialist) Daniel Singer (Disney Imagineer) and Paula Sigmond (Disney historian). While the film is seen at all times, and heard in the background, you see either the people given commentary, or illustrations and/or pictures of Lewis Carroll and his history mostly. They share stories and history of Lewis Carroll and his writings especially this story. After watching "through this keyhole" it would be hard not to be impressed with Carroll's life and works. Not only was he a natural story teller, but he was a mathematician, clergyman and a pioneer within photography. The commentary naturally leads into the story of how Walt Disney's interest in the Alice Stories led to the silent short films of the Alice Comedies. Everyone should take at least one time around viewing this beautiful high definition documentary of Lewis Carroll/Walt Disney and the development of Alice in Wonderland. 76 minutes  

Reference Footage: Alice and the Doorknob is hosted by Kathryn Beaumont herself. This is a quick documentary showing pictures and video of herself acting out onstage for the animators to copy her action while conversing with the doorknob. In hi-def. 1:33 minutes  

Pencil Test is again hosted by Kathryn Beaumont. A very short, newly discovered animated pencil sketch of Alice shrinking next to the doorknob. 1 minute.  

The Family Play section consists of two features. One is the original 1 minute Christmas time introduction to the TV airing of Alice in Wonderland. Amazingly, we hear Walt himself, back in 1959 mention future Disney classics like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast that were made years after his death.  

Games and Activities has an addictive game called Painting the Roses Red. A puzzle game in where you have to move the paintbrush around the block of first nine, then sixteen, then finally 25 roses and paint the roses red with your remote. Actually, I'm not sure if 25 roses is the largest, because I couldn't get passed that level.  

Then they thoughtfully  included the classic DVD bonus features which includes I'm Odd, a newly discovered song sung by the Cheshire Cat. Sadly this is not presented in hi-def. Yet, thankfully the Mickey Mouse short Thru the Looking Glass is in hi-def.  

The jewel of these features is the one hour special from 1950 named One Hour In Wonderland. It's the full length Christmas special that features Kathryn Beaumont as Alice, Walt Disney, his two daughters, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Mickey Mouse, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Magic Mirror, Donald Duck, Uncle Remus, Goofy and more. This also may be the closest that most of us will see the cartoon shorts from Song of the South featuring Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear.  This is also is high definition, although naturally full screen.   

All of these hours and hours of bonus features make this blu-ray the definitive guide to everything that has to do with Disney's version of Alice In Wonderland. This set also comes with a DVD version as well.
 

Alice in Wonderland
Directed by: Clyde Geronimi (Cinderella, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty), Wilfred Jackson (Song of the South, Melody Time) Hamilton Luske (101 Dalmatians, Lady and the Tramp)
Written by: Winston Hibler (The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad, The Aristocats) Ted Sears (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia), Bill Peet (The Jungle Book, Dumbo) and many more... Starring:  Kathryn Beaumont (Peter Pan, On an Island With You), Ed Wynn (Mary Poppins, Diary of Anne Frank), Sterling Holloway (The Three Caballeros, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Jungle Book) Bill Thompson (Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty)
Length:  76 minutes
Released: 06/10/2010
Rated: G (smoking)
Rating: 4 stars 


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Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV