I think everyone knows Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The classic Victorian era children's novel, not unlike A Christmas Carol, has been a popular story for adaptations, parodies and reimaginings since the birth of cinema. It's hard to think of someone who has not heard of this story, in any form, be it the original book and its sequel Through the Looking Glass, or from the American McGee games, or even the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit", one of my personal favourite songs of all time. Arguably the most popular version of the story is the 1951 Walt Disney animated feature. This movie followed the success of Cinderella, and has become one of Disney's most beloved properties. I don't think I really need to ask why.
Alice is a young girl who is being taught a history lesson, but she loses interest and wanders off, finding a peculiar White Rabbit with a waistcoat and a pocket watch. Following this rabbit leads her to Wonderland, where she keeps trying to follow the White Rabbit, but ends up coming across many strange, kooky and curious characters. Of course, this movie does have some differences from the original Lewis Carroll book, many of the scenarios that Alice finds herself in end in completely different ways in the book, but I don't think the changes are that egregious for this movie. The changes they made fit the tone of the story they're telling, which is still undeniably the story of Alice in Wonderland. It kind of fits in with other adaptations from Disney, like Winnie the Pooh or Pinocchio, where the books and movies are two distinctly different from each other, but the themes and tones and enough of the story beats are still in tact that the changes in the movie are not all that upsetting, unless you're a book purist, in which case, learn to have fun.
On top of that, it's not like Alice just randomly stumbles into all the scenarios, she has a set goal in mind. She comes across the Tweedles after following the White Rabbit, she notices the Caterpillar's hookah smoke after being kicked out of the flower garden, the Cheshire Cat directs her to the Mad Hatter and March Hare. This does give the movie some sense of structure and cohesion rather than a movie like Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure, which I also liked, but the story was not that movie's strongest aspect. Overall, I can say the story of this movie is straightforward and not very rocky, a solid A grade effort.
Of course the characters are what makes this story iconic. We all know these characters and the voices associated with them, Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter, Jerry Colonna as the March Hare, Pat O'Malley as Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Bill Thompson as the White Rabbit, Verna Felton as the Queen of Hearts, and may we never forget the great Sterling Holloway as the Cheshire Cat. The voice talent is superb, everyone's voice matches the characters perfectly, and topping them off is Kathryn Beaumont as Alice, and she does an equally amazing performance, so much so she actually reprised her role as Alice in the Kingdom Hearts video game and House of Mouse in 2002, there are very few characters that symbiotic with their actor.
As characters, everyone is pretty good. Alice in Wonderland is a weird story where everything is an antagonist, but not really a villain. I know the Queen of Hearts is grouped in with the Disney villains, and she is probably the most evil character in the story, but not everyone is all that helpful. Even the characters that are helpful have a nastier side to them, the Door Knob almost taking joy in Alice's predicament, the Caterpillar losing his temper with Alice, and the Cheshire Cat, clearly a trickster archetype. All of the craziness and antagonistic behaviors are all balanced out by Alice, who is curious and playful, but also has her limits. While I don't know if this movie has Disney's best characters, I can definitely see why they've remained iconic, and why whenever someone imagines Alice, Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter or Cheshire Cat, it's usually these versions of the characters people think of.
Now, let's talk about the animation. First off, it is amazing, but not the actual animation itself, it is fantastic, but pretty standard for Disney. What wasn't standard for Disney at the time, was the effects, the lighting and the colour palette. The lighting in this movie is fantastic, environments darken to highlight certain parts of the location, or to emphasize a mood. Plus, seeing the Cheshire Cat fade away is always a cool treat. The colour palette is a perfect blend of visually interesting colours, but not anything that is eye bleeding or too unappealing. You'll never forget that this is a bizarre fantasy world, but it's not too out of the ordinary. This is one of the movies that the entire group of Disney's Nine Old Men worked on, and it shows, these were THE animators at Disney and are some of the most respected names in animation. Les Clark, Marc Davis, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Woollie Reitherman, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston were masters of animation and having them all work together for this movie is just phenomenal.
Alice in Wonderland is easily one of those movies that every animation fan needs to see at least once. It's easy to think that it's only worth seeing because it's a Disney movie, but given the movie's fantastic visuals, excellent vocal performances and settings and characters that we still associate with original stories today, it's hard to think of a reason to pass this movie up. Truly an excellent movie and one of the highlights from the Silver Age of Disney. What more needs to be said?
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