About Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" movie
alt Disney always has been fond of Lewis Carroll's books. He said:
"No story in English literature has intrigued me more than Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
It fascinated me the first time I read it as a schoolboy, and as soon as I possibly could, after I started making animated cartoons,
I acquired the film rights to it."
(source)
Walt Disney loved the Alice books, probably because Lewis Carroll appreciated childhood, with which Disney totally agreed. He once said:
"Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronise, they treat children as inferiors. Well I won't do that."
How the movie started
In 1920 Walt Disney had produced 'the Alice Comedies'; his shorts which had given
him his first success. They were about a real girl named Alice, who walked around
in a drawn world. Since that time he had decided that he was going to make a
film based on Lewis Carroll's story.
Walt Disney purchased the rights to the Tenniel illustrations in 1931. He considered a live-action/animation version of the story, starring Mary Pickford as Alice, and in 1933 some color screen tests were made of her. He registered the title with the Motion Picture Association of America in 1938 (source).
Disney shelved the project after Paramount made a version, but later asked the artist David Hall (a Hollywood artist and designer) to create some concepts for an all-animated film. Because of World War II, they didn't seriously start producing of the movie until June 1947.
Actors
Disney changed his mind about who was going to star in this film several times. In 1933,
there was talk about the girl who had worked with Disney in those Alice shorts, starring
as Alice. Then in 1945, Disney announced that Ginger Rogers was going to be the star and
then a young girl named Luana Patten.
Finally, after more than 200 young actresses were auditioned, a 14-year-old girl named Kathryn Beaumont was picked to play the part of Alice.
It was also after her that Disney's Alice was modeled, because she not only provided her voice, but she (as several other voice actors) also acted out the role in live-action footage filmed for the animator's reference, wearing a specially created Alice costume.
Storyline
Disney recognised that due to running time constraints and continuity demands he needed to
scale the story down a bit. Although he did not originally intend to cut too many
sequences, he realized that many characters would have to be eliminated, or else have
their screen time reduced.
This is why Disney combined scenes from both 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass' for the story-line, and characters like the Griffin, the Mock Turtle, the Duchess, the Jabberwock and Humpty Dumpty ("he was too talky") did not pass the cutting floor and were left out.
He did try to create amalgams in his characters though; for example scenes of the Duchess were merged into those of the Queen of Hearts, and the Cheshire Cat was to sing 'Jabberwocky'.
The only main character that was made up by Disney was the talking Doorknob. The Doorknob was created "in order to avoid a long explanatory monologue at the beginning of the story and to give Alice a foil to talk to." Disney had originally given a voice and personality to the "Drink Me" bottle, replacing one inanimate object with the other with the creation of the talking Doorknob (source).
For more details, read the article "How I cartooned 'Alice'" - an
interview with Walt Disney in which he explains what problems he encountered, which decisions he made, and why,
when creating the cartoon movie.
Character visualisation
Because Sir John Tenniel's illustrations for the Alice books were so well known, Walt
Disney acquired the rights to them as the basis for the characters of his movie.
However, the complex pen and ink designs did not lend themselves to animation. Instead, the animators used the original drawings as a starting point, but gave them a Disney make-over.
It required months of rough sketches before the model sheets, which would guide the animators, were finished.
The inspirational paintings that Mary Blair created, deeply influenced the final visualization of the movie and its characters.
Production
The production of Alice in Wonderland began in 1946. The film took five years to finish
and it cost the studio about $3 million, partly because a full-length live action film was
shot so that animators could consult it while animating the film.
Using profits from his 1950 animated success 'Cinderella', Disney was able to get for 'Alice in Wonderland' some of the top talents of the era as voice talent, the largest musical score of any disney classic, elaborate backgrounds and visual styling (by Mary Blair), as well as Salvador Dali influenced animation sequences.
After the release
When Alice in Wonderland was finally released, however, the audiences were disappointed. They felt that Disney had failed to
capture the atmosphere and intellectual humor of Lewis Carroll's story.
Disney too was disappointed with the film and blamed it's lack of success on Alice's "lack of heart". He was also dissatisfied because he still thought there were too many characters playing in it.
The only success brought about by the movie was the music. "I'm Late" and "The Unbirthday Song" were two songs that became quite popular with the public.
Some trivia:
- The music for "Alice in Wonderland" was provided by a 50 piece orchestra.
- In 1952 Oliver G. Wallace was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture.
- "Alice in Wonderland" is composed of more than 350,000 drawings and paintings.
- From 1949 to 1951, more than 750 artists worked on the movie.
- Eight hundred gallons of special paint, weighing nearly five tons, were required to paint the animated frames, and that's enough paint to cover the exteriors of 135 average homes!
- More than 1,000 different shades of watercolor were used to capture the mood of Wonderland.
Voices:
Alice: Kathryn Beaumont
Mad Hatter: Ed Wynn
Caterpillar: Richard Haydn
Cheshire Cat: Sterling Holloway
March Hare: Jerry Colonna
Queen of Hearts: Verna Felton
Walrus, Carpenter, Oysters, Tweedledum and Tweedledee: J. Pat O`Malley
White Rabbit, Dodo: Bill Thompson
Alice's Sister: Heather Angel
Door Knob: Joseph Kearns
Bill: Larry Grey
Mother Bird: Queenie Leonard
King of Hearts: Dink Trout
Dormouse: Jim (or James G.?) MacDonald
Rose: Doris Lloyd
Flamingoes: Pinto Colvig
Card painters: The Mellomen (Thurl Ravenscroft (as Ace of Clubs), Bill Lee, Max
Smith and Bob Stevens)
Other Card: Don Barclay
Special Processes: Ub Iwerks
Sound Director: C. O. Slyfield
Sound Recording: Robert O. Cook; Harold J. Steck
Film Editor: Lloyd Richardson
Music Editor: Al Teeter
Music: Oliver G. Wallace
Songs by: Bob Hilliard & Sammy Fain ('Alice in Wonderland', 'In a
World of My Own', 'I'm Late', 'The Caucus Race', 'The Walrus and the Carpenter', 'All in a
Golden Afternoon', 'Very Good Advice', 'March of the Cards', 'Painting the Roses Red');
Don Raye & Gene dePaul ('Twas Brillig'); Mack David, Al Hoffman & Jerry
Livingston ('A Very Merry Un-birthday'), Oliver Wallace & Ted Sears ('Old
Father William', 'We'll Smoke the Blighter Out', 'A E I O U')
Orchestration: Joseph Dubin
Vocal Arrangements: Jud Conlon
Story: Lewis Carroll (book), Winston Hibler, Ted Sears, Bill Peet, Erdman
Penner, Joe Rinaldi, Milt Banta, William (or Bill?) Cottrell, Dick Kelsey, Joe Grant, Dick
Huemer, Del Cornell, Tom Oreb, John Walbridge
Layout: Mclaren Stewart; Tom Codrick; Charles Philippi; A. Kendall
O`Connor; Hugh Hennesy; Don Griffith; Thor Putnam; Lance Nolley
Color and Styling: Mary Blair; John Hench; Ken Anderson; Claude Coats;
Don DaGradi
Backgrounds: Ray Huffine; Art Riley; Dick Anthony; Ralph Hulett; Brice
Mack; Thelma Witmer
Directing Animators: Milt Kahl; Ward Kimball; Frank Thomas; Eric Larson;
John Lounsbery; Oliver M. Johnston Jr.; Wolfgang Reitherman; Marc Davis; Les Clark; Norman
Ferguson
Character Animators: Hal King; Judge Whitaker; Hal Ambro; Bill Justice;
Phil Duncan; Bob Carlson; Don Lusk; Cliff Nordberg; Harvey Toombs; Fred Moore; Marvin
Woodward; Hugh Fraser; Charles A. Nichols
Effects Animators: Josh Meador; Dan MacManus; George Rowley; Blaine
Gibson
Directors: Clyde Geronimi; Hamilton Luske; Wilfred Jackson
Production Supervision: Ben Sharpsteen
Theatrical Release Date: July 28, 1951
Other Theatrical Releases Dates: 1974, 1981
Released on video: 1981 and 1986
Re-Release Video Date: October 14,1997
Premiered in England and released in the U.S. two days later.
Running Time: 75 minutes
Soundmix: mono
Film negative format (mm/video inches): 35 mm
Cinematographic process: Spherical
Printed film format: 35 mm
Aspect ratio: 1.37 : 1
Production Number: 2069
(Source: you can find most of this information at the Disney-site and the Internet Movie Database. Some information was also used from this site which no longer exists.)
There are some remarkable moments in the movie:
- Carroll's name is spelled wrong at the title page; it says 'Carrol'!
- When the Caterpillar says "Keep your temper" he is painted wrong; he is supposed to be blue with a light blue belly but at that moment he has a blue belly and a light blue left side. (discovered by Kelvin Cedeno)
- At the Mad Tea Party, there is a scene where Alice is
sitting next to the Hatter and the Hare. In the first part the March Hare is sitting on
Alice's left hand, and in the next scene he is on her right!
This is the part of the hammer scene, when the March Hare says: "I have an excellent idea! Let's change the subject!". Then, he hits the Mad Hatter with his hammer. He can only do this when he is sitting next to him, so probably that's why the Disney people have juggled with that part. - When Alice is lost in the wood some
momeraths suddenly change color.
Look at the bottom left corner when she sings
"the waiting makes me curious"; a green momerath turns
orange and an orange one turns green for a split second. When zooming in at
Alice another green one turns pink while the pink one turns green!(discovered
by Kelvin Cedeno) - When Alice is playing croquet with the Queen and the King waves with his crown you hear someone shout "Hooray!". Some people say that this is the voice of Mickey Mouse...
