Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Based on the Alice books by Lewis Carroll.
Intro song (“Alice in Wonderland”). In a park in England, a young girl named Alice with her cat, Dinah, listens distractedly to her sister's history lesson, and begins daydreaming of a nonsensical world (“In a World of My Own”). She spots a passing White Rabbit in a waistcoat, who panics of being late (“I’m Late”). Alice follows him into a burrow and plummets down a deep rabbit hole. Upon landing in a place called Wonderland, she finds herself facing a tiny door, whose handle advises drinking from a bottle on a nearby table. She shrinks to an appropriate height, but has forgotten the key on the table. She then eats a cookie that causes her to grow excessively. Exasperated by these changes of state, she begins to cry and floods the room with her tears. She takes another sip from the bottle to shrink again, and rides the empty bottle through the keyhole where she encounters a Dodo singing (“The Sailor’s Hornpipe”). As Alice continues to follow the Rabbit after encountering a "Caucus Race” (“The Caucus Race”), she encounters numerous characters, including Tweedledum and Tweedledee (“How Do You Do and Shake Hands”), who recount the tale of "The Walrus and the Carpenter” (“The Walrus and the Carpenter”). After the tale, Tweedledum and Tweedledee sing (“Old Father William”) as Alice leaves. Alice tracks the Rabbit to his house; he mistakes her for his housemaid, "Mary Ann", and sends her inside to retrieve his gloves. While searching for the gloves, Alice finds and eats another cookie and grows giant, getting stuck in the house. Thinking her a monster, the Rabbit asks the Dodo to help expel her. When the Dodo decides to burn the house down (“We’ll Smoke the Blighter Out”), Alice escapes by eating a carrot from the Rabbit's garden, which causes her to shrink to 3 inches tall.
Continuing to follow the Rabbit, Alice meets a garden of talking flowers who initially welcome her with a song (“All in the Golden Afternoon”), but then banish her, believing that humans are a type of weed. Alice then encounters a Caterpillar smoking (“A-E-I-O-U (The Caterpillar Song)”), who becomes enraged at Alice after she laments her small size, after which the Caterpillar turns into a butterfly and flies away. Before leaving, the Caterpillar advises Alice to eat a piece from different sides of a mushroom to alter her size. Following a period of trial and error, she returns to her original height and keeps the remaining pieces in her pocket. In the woods, Alice gets stuck between multiple paths and encounters the mischievous Cheshire Cat (“Twas Brillig”), who suggests questioning the Mad Hatter or the March Hare to learn the Rabbit's location, but is unhelpful in giving directions. Taking her own path, Alice encounters both, along with the Dormouse, in the midst of an "unbirthday" tea party celebration (“The Unbirthday Song”). The Hatter and the Hare ask Alice to explain her predicament, to which Alice tries, but becomes frustrated by their interruptions and absurd logic. As she prepares to leave, the Rabbit appears and the Hatter attempts to repair his pocket watch, which results in its destruction. Alice attempts to follow the Rabbit after he is ejected from the premises, but decides to go home instead. Unfortunately, her surroundings completely change, leaving her lost in the forest (“Very Good Advice”).
The Cheshire Cat reappears to the despondent Alice and offers a path to the hot-headed Queen of Hearts, the only one in Wonderland who can take her home. In the Queen's labyrinthine garden, Alice witnesses the Queen – whom the Rabbit serves as a chamberlain – sentencing a trio of playing cards to decapitation for painting mistakenly-planted white rosebushes red (“Painting the Roses Red” & “Whose Been Painting My Roses Red”). The Queen invites a reluctant Alice to play against her in a croquet match, in which live flamingos, card guards, and hedgehogs are used as equipment. The equipment rig the game in favor of the Queen. The Cat appears again and plays a trick on the Queen, setting up Alice to be framed. Before the Queen can sentence her to decapitation, the King suggests a formal trial. At Alice's trial, the Cat invokes more chaos by having Alice point him out, causing one of the witnesses – the Dormouse – to panic. As the Queen sentences Alice to decapitation, Alice eats the mushroom pieces to grow large, momentarily intimidating the court. However, the mushroom's effect is short-lived, forcing Alice to flee through the deteriorating realm with a large crowd in pursuit. When Alice reaches the small door she encountered, she sees herself sleeping through the keyhole. Alice emerges from her dream, and she returns home for tea with her sister (“Alice in Wonderland”).
TRIVIA
Visual Style
The film heavily features the style of Mary Blair’s modernist stance, using bold and unreal colors.
The whole movie was shot in live action as a reference for the animators.
Music
The movie features more individual songs than any other Disney film. 30 potential songs were written for the film but only fourteen were included.
Easter Eggs(s)
One of the jurors during Alice’s court trial is José Carioca from Saludos Amigos.
A set of live-action films by Tim Burton:
Alice in Wonderland (2010) which follows a 19 year old Alice.
Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) which follows the events of the live-action 2010 film Alice in Wonderland.
Notable Scene(s)
The “unbirthday” tea party celebration