Alice in Wonderland (1951)

Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson and Hamilton Luske
Written by Milt Banta, Del Connell, William Cottrell, Joe Grant, Winston Hibler, Dick Huemer, Dick Kelsey, Tom Oreb, Bill Peet, Erdman Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, and John Walbridge. Based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll.
Premiered July 26, 1951
75 minutes
Rated G

Synopsis
A proper Victorian English girl named Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) is distracted from her sister's history lesson by a White Rabbit (Bill Thompson) in waistcoat and decides to follow him down a rabbit hole. This leads Alice to a strange world where animals talk and nothing makes sense. While wandering around Alice meets a wide cast of characters including the twins Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (J. Pat O'Malley), a pompous hookah smoking caterpillar (Richard Haydn), the mischievous Cheshire Cat (Sterling Holloway), and has a tea party with the Mad Hatter (Ed Wynn) and March Hare (Jack Colonna). Finally Alice is introduced to the Queen of Hearts (Verna Felton) who challenges her to a game of croquet.

Before We Begin
Perhaps there is no other Disney Animated Feature that my opinion has waxed and waned the most about. As a very young child, I loved the basic fantasy elements of Alice in Wonderland (as well as Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz) but as I grew older, the nonsense, the randomness of the story, the lack of character development and the lack of stakes (it was all a dream!) became very unfulfilling, especially when compared to Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz. From my teens to my mid-twenties I had a lowish opinion of Alice in Wonderland; it was well-executed artistically, the songs were pleasant enough, and there were a few laughable moments, but what was the point of it all?

My opinion is decidedly higher now. Let's see why.

Mötley Müsings

• Alice in Wonderland has more songs in it than any other DAF. #themoreyouknow

• Also, this movie did very poorly at the time of its release but gained popularity in the late 1960s because…you know…LSD.

• Alice’s sister is reading to her about William the Conqueror’s ascension to the throne in 1066 following the Battle of Hastings. :-)

• Kathryn Beaumont is a better Alice than Wendy.

• Oh, Dinah.

• “In my world, you wouldn’t say ‘meow’. You’d say ‘Yes, Miss Alice.’”

• “In a World of My Own” < “Over the Rainbow”

• “It must be something awfully important. Like a party or something.”

• This Doorknob fellow was not in either of the Alice books.

• Myth: Crying solves nothing. Fact: Crying can be a necessary way to process emotions.

• That green parrot looks an awful lot like Jose Carioca. Hmmm…

• Have I mentioned to you how much I love bunnies? I totally don’t blame Alice for running after one.

• “That’s logic.”

• One day, I will watch this after eating a great big pot brownie.

• “THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!”

• “The Walrus and the Carpenter” shows that curiosity can be your death. Which is true. Like if you get curious about what goes down on Venice Beach after dark…

• Mmmmm…vinegar.

• I’ve eaten raw oysters. Probably never will again.

• “That was a very sad story.”
“And there’s a moral to it.”
“Yes, a very good moral, if you happen to be an oyster.”

• Who is Mary? Why is there no live action spinoff about her??????

• “Goodness! I suppose I’ll be taking orders from Dinah next.”

• Stop eating things, Alice!

• “Poor Bill.”

• I love how everything in the White Rabbit’s house has rabbit ears.

• “You mean bread-and-butterflies.”

• “Of course we can talk, my dear.”
“If there’s anyone around worth talking to.”
“Or about!”

• This flower drummer! So heavy metal head banger! This movie is from 1951!!!! Is no one else impressed by this?

• “I think she’s pretty.”
“Quiet, Bud.”

• Caterpillar with human hands and feet. Ew.

• I smoked hookah once. Because I was dumb and in college.

• “Keep your temper.”

• “One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small…” LOVE that song.

• “But I don’t want to go among mad people.”
“Oh, you can’t help that. Most everyone is mad here.”

• Today is my unbirthday!

• I love all these tea pot visual gags.

• Remember what the Dormouse said.

• What the hell is a dormouse? It’s a type of mouse.

• “Why yes, I’m very fond of tea.”

• “B-b-butter?”

• “Mustard? Don’t let’s be silly! Lemon, that’s different…”

• The true moral of this version of Alice in Wonderland is “be careful what you wish for.”

• “When I get home, I shall write a book about this place.”

• “I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.”

• Finally, Alice wants to go home. She has a motivation other than finding out what the White Rabbit is late for. Also, we hear about the Queen of Hearts.

• “Not pink.”
“Not green.”
“Not aquamarine.”

• Whoa. These cards. Kinda makes me want to play Solitaire.

• “…and the king.”
“Hooray!”

• “YES! Your majesty.”

• “Curtsy while you’re thinking. It saves time.”

• Why is the Cheshire Cat such a dick?

• “NOTHING WHATEVER!”

• “Twinkle, twinkle. What next?”

• I wonder how many candles that is…

• Don’t eat them both!

• It was all a dream! Which is true in the text, unlike in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy actually goes to Oz.

Final Thoughts

Around age 26 I listened to an audiobook of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and realized that the book itself is just as nonsensical. There is a lot of wandering around and talking to strange folk with no ultimate end game. Alice has no mission, not even to find her way home unlike Dorothy Gale. There is no real adversary like Captain Hook or threat of adulthood. There is no "journey to finding oneself". And you know what? I don't care. If the story of Lewis Carroll pulling ideas out of his ass to entertain three young sisters on boat ride is true then of course Alice isn't going to be a well-thought out piece of literature with themes and symbols and foreshadowing. I doubt very much Lewis Carroll thought his writings would ever be closely dissected. In my opinion, you have to dig very deep to superimpose a literary theme to this story and where dots can be connected, it's more coincidence than anything. (Alice's changing sizes represent her anxiety about puberty, my ass.)

So while I used to be annoyed at Alice in Wonderland's lack of reason, I now celebrate it. It is a very basic adaptation (of course it cuts and pastes a few things, but oh well.) It's true to the tone without being boring. And I suppose in this post-modern world where everything must have a deeper meaning, it's nice to just let the story be.

Favorite Character

The King of Hearts

Favorite Moment -- Alice with the flowers.
Favorite Song -- "Golden Afternoon"