Alice in Wonderland (1951) User Reviews

A well-made journey through nonsense

[IonicBreezeMachine · 8/10 · 4 September 2021]

Alice one day while bored by the riverbank sees a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocket watch. Out of curiosity Alice follows the rabbit down a rabbit eventually winding up in Wonderland a place of utter ridiculousness inhabited by characters who are stupid, crazy, or both.

Released in 1951, Alice In Wonderland adapted from the books Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll had been a long gestating project as far back to the day's of Disney's Laugh O Gram studios in the 20s where the works loosely inspired Disney's early Alice Comedies. Attempts had been made by Disney to adapt the story to feature length with a preliminary outlines produced prior to the release of Snow White that were ultimately scrapped due to mitigating circumstances. While adaptations of Alice in Wonderland have been made before and since the 1951 Disney film, few, if any, of them have been as well regarded with the Disney version being the most fully realized version of the literary nonsense of Lewis Caroll.

Much like the source material, the story in Alice in Wonderland is less a straightforward narrative and more an excuse to showcase surreal imagery counter balanced against the normality and grounding of Alice who serves as our straight man to nonsense and insanity of Wonderland and its crazed inhabitants. Kathryn Beaumont voices the titular Alice and serves as an effective audience proxy whose down to earth no-nonsense delivery and insatiable curiosity makes her both an effective story engine to move the journey along as well as give the audience a grounding agent to give meaning, purpose, and weight to the surreal encounters of her journey.

Artistically speaking this is Disney's animation at its most unrestrained. Much like Three Caballeros Alice in Wonderland never sits still always keeping itself moving forward to the next bizarre head scratching tangent animated with the intensity of a technicolor fever dream. Unlike Three Caballeros however, the movie wisely gives us a grounding element with Alice and gives breaks in between the more outlandish tangents so the movie never gets exhausting. The animation used to bring Wonderland to life is very striking as Wonderland itself is very dark with many scenes having pitch black or dark black drops that work in contrasting against the purposefully more colorful and energized inhabitants. Every character and encounter stands out be it the petty, jealous, bad tempered Red Queen, the giddy gleeful mania of Mad Hatter and March Hare, or the seeming omnipotent Chesire Cat who's as powerful as he is crazy. Every encounter Alice faces leaves an impression with even the smallest (quite literally in some cases) leaving an impact.

Alice in Wonderland is a classic example of Disney animation and nonsensical story telling perfectly combined into an unforgettable experience. While not Disney's first attempt at feature length narrative nonsense, it's without question the best example of it produced on this scale up to this point and makes welcome viewing for any animation enthusiast.

Strangely magical almost overly ridiculous ...

[dwpollar · 7/10 · 12 March 2001]

Strangely magical almost overly ridiculous animated version of the classic story. It's obvious that some deep ideas are rooted in the craziness which makes this thought-provoking despite it's silliness. What's better an orderly world, or one turned upside down for a little girl? That's the question that seems to run throughout the story and we're left to answer it for her.

Some brilliant animation in semi-successful adaptation of classic novel...

[Doylenf · 27 January 2004]

Let's face it, there are moments in ALICE IN WONDERLAND that are absolutely dazzling, imaginative and as artistic as anything the Disney artists were capable of doing. And yet, for all its achievement in the art of animation, this Disney film has always drawn mixed notices. Perhaps part of the problem is there is seldom a letup in the zany goings-on--seldom a chance to draw a breath and rest between each overly imaginative episode. Then too, it's the episodic quality of the whole story structure that upsets some as well as the frantic cartoon movements of its weird characters.

Faults and all, it's still a colorful event--probably one of the richest uses of color Disney ever attempted and with some wonderful styling in its background art. For me, a highlight of the film is the singing/talking flower sequence ("Golden Afternoon") with its haughty flowers discussing Alice as if she was some kind of other worldly creature with funny looking stems. (It reminded me of the snooty elephants laughing and speaking with contempt of the new baby elephant in Dumbo).

Other bits are equally brilliant--the shuffling army of cards in the Queen of Hearts episode; the baby oysters clothed in blue bonnets and pink dresses for the Walrus and the Carpenter; the droll humor in the Tweedledum/Tweedledee sequence; the smoking Caterpillar becoming irate when his three inches of height becomes the subject of conversation; and of course, the Mad Tea Party, full of hilarious slapstick and immensely aided by the voice talents of Bill Thompson (White Rabbit), Jerry Colonna (March Hare) and Ed Wynn (Mad Hatter). No less impressive is Verna Felton as the raucous voice of the Queen of Hearts in some of the film's funniest moments. With her army of cards, she plays a wicked game of croquet with flamingoes as mallets, hedgehog as a ball and cards as hoops, all the while displaying a lethal temper.

Despite some brilliant animation, pleasant songs and gorgeous art work, it's just another example of how difficult it is ("impassable" to quote Carroll) to translate this particular tale to the screen and still remain faithful to the original. Others (many other versions, in fact) have failed--but Disney at least provides a sprightly, if frantic, version that has appeal for adults and children.

Perhaps because its surrealism matched the hippy culture of psychedelia, ALICE enjoyed a welcome theatrical return engagement in the '60s and has become more respected in recent years (an American-made British fantasy popular even in the U.K.) as one of the studio's finest efforts.

Ironically, one of its most delightful characters--the doorknob--never appeared in the book but was applauded everywhere as an inspired bit of business.

One of the most imaginative and creative animated Disney classics

[Atreyu_II · 7/10 · 28 June 2007]

The 13th animated Disney classic is, without a doubt, one of the most original, distinctive, imaginative and creative movies Disney ever made. It isn't a perfect movie but it sure makes the difference.

Through the years the successive re-releases of this movie saved it, giving it the deserved credit and success, but when this initially came out in 1951 it was a failure and largely criticized.

I heard that Walt Disney didn't like very much the character Alice because in his opinion she was cold. I don't see why Walt Disney had that opinion about her. There's nothing cold about her. I think she's a nice little girl. When she falls in despair, it's easy to feel sorry for her.

Some parts of this movie are a bit weak, but that's not a major flaw. My least favorite character is obviously the Queen of Hearts. I don't like her at all. I guess nobody likes her, because she is meant to be hateable.

But apart that this movie is full of awesome characters: the Cheshire Cat, the Dormouse, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Caterpillar, the White Rabbit, the army of cards, Alice, Alice's sister, Dinah, the Doorknob and even strange creatures like a dog-broom, duck-horns, bird-mirrors, bird-cages, bird-pencils, etc...

The creativity of this movie is not only on its peculiar characters, but also on its extravagant details: sceneries, gardens, places, original designs, etc...

What also makes this movie so different is the personality of the characters: they're all mad, but hilarious (except the explosive Queen of Hearts, of course) and they do the craziest and silliest things. That makes them so funny. The silly humor of this movie is very classic, which is another big attribute.

Only in "Alice in Wonderland" you can see hilarious things such as the unbirthday tea party celebrated by the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the cute Dormouse.

Where else you can see such an enigmatic and cool character like the Cheshire Cat, a mad character with great sense of humor and the power of becoming invisible? Only in "Alice in Wonderland", of course.

Dinah (Alice's kitten) is one of the cutest Disney animals. She was drawn to be cute and adorable, like Figaro and others. The way she movies her little paws is so lovely and so is the way she chases Alice. To see kittens like Dinah and Figaro makes you wish to have a cat like that.

Richard Haydn is hilarious as the Caterpillar, a character who speaks in a very calm way, but with a voice that seems to come from his nose and a short temper.

The great Sterling Holloway has one of his most spectacular performances ever as the voice of the amazing Cheshire Cat.

The unforgettable Ed Wynn gives such an energetic performance as the voice of the Mad Hatter and Jerry Colonna is great as the March Hare's voice.

Bill Thompson is cool as the White Rabbit's voice. But I must say that Kathryn Beaumont is wonderful as Alice's voice, James MacDonald is fabulous as the Dormouse's voice, Joseph Kearns is funny as the Doorknob's voice and Heather Angel is awesome as the voice of Alice's sister. They're all great Disney legends.

A wonderful Disney adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic novels.

[Anonymous_Maxine · 9/10 · 20 January 2003]

I was a little worried when I went to watch the film version of Alice In Wonderland, because I just read the novel and Disney has a tendency to dumb down the material that they make into their films with goofball romantic nonsense and cutesy talking animals. While I did get more than the traditional share of talking animals with this film (as well as a variety of other inanimate objects), the film stayed more faithful to the original story than is generally expected from a Disney film. On the other hand, this WAS made in 1951, which makes me wonder what a more modern adaptation would look like.

I read Alice In Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass for English 180 (Children's Literature) at the University of California, Davis, so needless to say, I read it with more of a literary appreciation than is generally applied to children's books. I was pleased to see so many of the characters from the second novel in this version of Alice In Wonderland (such as the Cheshire Cat, the talking flowers in the garden, and Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum), although I must admit that I was slightly disappointed to see that Through The Looking Glass has been assimilated into this version of Alice In Wonderland rather than adapted into its own film, which I think is an honor that it certainly deserves.

As far as being a full length feature (although rather short at roughly 75 minutes), however, I think that this movie does justice to both stories, converting them into a single story rather smoothly, and only leaving out things that will only really be missed by people who know the novels enough to be disappointed that certain things were not included. I, for example, would have loved to see the whole chess story in Through The Looking Glass included in the film (there certainly was time for it), where Alice travels through Wonderland on her quest to become a Queen herself, but I am more than happy with how this film turned out.

One of the only things that I noticed about this film that did not match up to the quality of the novels is that the books have so much more in them for adults than the movie does. There are so many tricks with language pulled in the books, such as in the conversations with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum as well as several other characters, that it really makes you think about the English language as a game with which an endless variety of tricks can be played. In the film, this is hugely downplayed, even if only because it is done visually and the language tricks pass by so fast that kids are almost certain to miss them and even the most attentive of adults will have a hard time keeping up with them.

As a whole, however, Alice In Wonderland is so wildly entertaining that the loss of some of the literary substance does not detract from it as a terrific tale of adventure and discovery, certain to be enjoyed by people of all ages. I have heard plenty of rumors that Lewis Carroll was on any of a variety of drugs while he wrote the novels (and plenty of rumors that he wasn't on any drugs at all), but there are certainly some things in the books and in the movie that could have only been conjured up by the most, um, eccentric of imaginations. We may never know for sure, but at least we have some wonderful entertainment.

Read the books to your kids.

Colorful Characters & Story, But Would Kids Be Entertained With It Today?

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 5 February 2007]

This was a colorful take on the famous story, both in animation and in story content. Overall, it was a fun movie with interesting, strange characters following each other as "Alice" chases after a rabbit in "Wonderland" (although that name is never mentioned in the film.).

The songs in here are nothing noteworthy, but at least they didn't go on too long. For a short film - 75 minutes - it's good "escapist" fare and not a bad way to spend an hour-and-a quarter. Any longer than that, for classic animated films, would be too long, because they didn't have the humor and slam-bang action scenes modern animated films possess.

I would imagine kids of today would be bored by this, compared to what faster-paced stuff they see now....but that's no criticism of this movie, just about attention spans have shortened.

My favourite of all the Disney animated movies and worth a look for any Disney fans.

[greatbritain1989 · 10/10 · 8 May 2005]

For a lot of people on this site, this is either one of thew best Disney movies or one of the worst. There is about 40 animated Disney movies and my personal favourite will always be the mad world of Wonderland. I don't actually know why but to me this is what i always thought about as a child, a mad world where simply nothing made sense. It goes like dynamite at only seventy two minutes and in that they have an array of entertaining characters and fourteen entertaining songs. To me it is the genius of Disney creating an entertaining look at a child's world. I think it is because of the Jungle Book that this is not as popular as some of the Disney Classics but you can't help but smile when you watch the Queen of hearts and the Mad Hatter being their own creative self's in the wonder of this amazingly clever gem

Visually superb failure

[Spleen · 6/10 · 23 July 1999]

The best thing about Lewis Carroll's Alice books, by far, is the poetry. As books they really aren't so great as they are made out to be; but ... Jabberwocky! You Are Old, Father William! Humpty Dumpty's poem about the fish! These are masterpieces.

The poetry can't make it to the screen and Disney's attempts to work in bits of "The Walrus and the Carpenter", "Jabberwocky", "How Doth the Little Crocodile", and perhaps others that don't leap to mind at the moment, as song lyrics and chanted pieces of verse, is contrived. When the Caterpillar says, in effect, "I will now recite a poem" ... why, it's just asking us to fall asleep.

There has never been a good screen adaptation of the Alice books and there can't be. This may be the pick of the bunch. (Not, I admit, that I have tortured myself by watching every one of them to make sure.) Carroll's atmosphere is gone but it has been replaced with a different atmosphere, that of the Disney studios entering the 1950s and deciding that backgrounds must now look surpassingly strange. Disney did wonders making the setting dreamlike and claustrophobic - as Tenniel did in a highly different way. Indeed Disney does necessary work that Tenniel was inclined to neglect.

After a while, though, our nerve-endings become raw as one village eccentric after another is being paraded in front of us; and Alice's incessant monologue doesn't help. I defy you to be caught up in the story. It can't be done. To watch this you need to be determined to grimly forge ahead and attend to the images - for they really are memorable images.

Maybe not as 'charming' as most Disney films...

[moonspinner55 · 9/10 · 28 January 2001]

...and certainly "Pinocchio" had a more popular and memorable song score, but for my money I'd pick "Alice In Wonderland" as one of Walt Disney's top achievements in animation. From Lewis Carroll's story, and filled with knock-out colors (pinks and blues and reds on inky blacks), this episodic tale would not have worked so well if the direction hadn't been so graceful, setting a light, jovial mood, and the songs so tongue-trippingly clever. Alice herself (voiced by Kathryn Beaumont) is lovely and funny, the supporting characters appropriately manic, and the quiet moments gently even out the craziness (as with the Tulgey Wood/"Very Good Advice" sequence). Disney certainly runs hot ("Pinocchio", "Bambi") and cold ("The Sword and the Stone"), but this fantastic journey into nonsense, from a practically-unfilmable book, is endlessly interesting from a visual standpoint. ***1/2 from ****

Average

[alhazmi-82655 · 6/10 · 10 August 2021]

Enjoyed some scenes and was bored at many, I think there are many better Disney animations.

Twizard Rating: 95

[goolizap · 10/10 · 16 May 2016]

Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland is in a category all of its own. Disney's spectacular vision and range is showcased in his 13th animated feature. With a little help from the Lewis Carroll series for which it was adapted from, this film's surrealism makes for a completely unique entry in the Disney pantheon. It's like the black sheep. To this day, they haven't made another one like it.

The story isn't one in the linear sense, but more of a compendium of unrelated series of events. But they all lead to a common goal.

Alice, herself, has some radical ideals when it comes to the world around her, and faces hostility from the adults in her life. But she learns her imagination is mild in comparison to the oddities of Wonderland. She ventures off to this magical world, only to discover she isn't very welcome. She has a terrible time and no one wants her to be there. And at moments, she finds herself questioning the silliness of the realm, appropriating her mindset to that of her closed-minded mother back home.

The depth of Alice is deeper than most realize. It's subtle, but her attitude is brilliant commentary on contrasting our own independent philosophies with those that we're raised on.

Surprisingly, the film is not as dated as you would think. Some of the humor holds up well compared to today's standards.

Considering the very short runtime, the songs are in abundance and create a high ratio to the non-singing scenes. And naturally, there are one or two weaker tunes, but most of them are ear-worm classics.

At 75 minutes, we spend enough time in Wonderland to warrant a complete story. Or collection of events. Alice in Wonderland is meant to be episodic. And it's very dark and deranged at times, too. While many people find that those things make the movie harder to warm up to, it's actually part of what makes it one of my favorite Disney films from the Walt era. An underrated piece of cinema.

Twizard Rating: 95

Read more at www.TheTwizard.com

Nobody does it better than Disney!

[Shingle · 7/10 · 31 December 1999]

If there's one thing that most people remember about Alice In Wonderland then it must be this version of the film!

Alice In Wonderland is just great, and this Disney version is the one thing that sticks in my mind. The animation may not be a landmark and it isn't very true to the original story (it's a shame that not everything is included) but it's been given that certain Disney magic which just grips you! It's the kind of story that can only really be shown by animation.

So strong is the Disney version of the film that one day I told a friend that I was getting something for my sister to do with Alice In Wonderland. She replied 'Is your sister really into Disney?'.

The one thing I really love though is how someone can just write a whole load of complete and utter rubbish, mix it together by calling it 'wonderland', turn up the curiosity and have it enjoyed my millions of people around the world! I still watch it at times as it's so enjoyable seeing this complete fantasy world where anything could happen! It's just a shame that Alice's adventure ends so quickly!

My rating - 7 out of 10

Why do so many people like this movie?

[creamfilling16 · 3/10 · 11 July 2016]

***SPOILERS***

I've never written a review for a movie before on this site, but I felt I should for this one.

I'll admit, I used to like this movie when I was a kid, but when I grew older, I realized I was liking it less, and now I can say that I don't like this movie, and don't understand why so many people love it.

Why don't I like it? Well, because it's just so mean-spirited in tone and spends pretty much its entire run time treating Alice like garbage for no reason, over and over again, in an attempt to teach that you should be careful what you wish for. Now, teaching that I don't have a problem with. It's just that there have been countless other projects (films or shows) that teach that same moral, and they were not nearly as cruel as this movie was.

The thing is, pretty much everything in this movie seems to conspire to torture Alice, either physically or emotionally, or both. Pretty much every character is a total jerk, to Alice and to each other: the Mad Hatter and March Hare play around pretty cruelly with her, the flowers kick her out of their garden, rather meanly, when they think she's a weed (even though they have a dandelion, which IS a weed, in their garden, those hypocrites), the Caterpillar is also rather unpleasant, having a temper that makes his scenes painful to watch (am I supposed to be laughing at Alice choking on smoke? Well, I'm not!), and the Queen of Hearts has the worst temper of the whole film, and even wants Alice dead, for no real reason.

But then there's the Cheshire Cat, who seemed to go out of his way to make things worse for Alice, as it's his fault she ends up on trial, and it's also his fault that everyone in Wonderland tries to kill her! I'm not exaggerating when I say that this is the Cheshire Cat at his worst!

But one of the biggest issues I have with this is that I feel like the movie is putting the Wonderlanders in the right for how they behaved. At the very least, it didn't put them in the wrong, which was a big mistake on the part of Disney. Worse, when Alice tells the Queen off for her behavior near the end, you find it justified, considering how she was treated by everybody. But even Disney had to mess that up by having her shrink again, which lands her in trouble because she was standing up for what was right.

What makes all this worse is that Alice did absolutely nothing to deserve the torment given to her throughout her journey. All she wanted was to do something more interesting than listen to boring history lessons. And for this she gets punished, because wanting to do something more interesting than listen to lessons automatically makes you bad, apparently. It also seems to be teaching some morals children shouldn't learn, like, as someone else pointed out, dream worlds aren't happy and fantastical , but rather cruel and mean- spirited. (I know most of the film was a dream, but that kind of made it worse because that seems to teach that dream worlds are mad.) Also that it's OK to treat others badly if they're different from you or if you find it fun, and that you will only regret it if you stand up for what's right.

I will admit, I do like some things about this film, like the animation is great as always (this is Disney, so what can I say?), I like almost all the songs in the film, as they're fun to listen to and well-written, and the beginning and very ending are pretty nice. I also did like a few characters, like of course Alice, but I also like the White Rabbit, the Dodo, the Dormouse, and the Doorknob, and I also find Tweedledee and Tweedledum kind of funny. These are my reasons for not giving the film only one star. If it wasn't for these elements, I probably would have given this film a 1. So yeah, I gave this three stars because there are some good things in it, but to me, the bad things far outweigh those.

So bottom line, I don't like this film. I actually find it one of the worst Disney films of all time, and probably THE worst Disney film made while Walt Disney was still alive. I just don't get why it's so loved, especially since there are other projects out there that too are mean-spirited, but not nearly as much as this one is, and yet those get attacked while this gets a free pass. In fact, I don't think I ever will understand it. I just know that this is definitely not something I'd ever watch again if I was offered things I like. I guess I'll have to wait to see a truly great animated adaptation of the great book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (yes, I like the book; at least it's not as cruel as this movie), because, to me, this one was just bad.

Very good surreal trip

[Vartiainen · 7/10 · 12 July 2015]

Alice in Wonderland is at the same both very untypical for a Disney film, yet at the same time exactly what Disney does well. What do I mean by that? Well, in a word, Alice in Wonderland is surreal. It follows no logic but its own, is not really a fairytale by any stretch of the word, is actually somewhat mean-spirited in tone and Alice as the main character doesn't really follow the Disney formula we've come to know.

And yet, it functions so well precisely because it's a Disney film. The animation is gorgeous, reflecting the feel and mood of Wonderland perfectly with crooked angles, painfully bright colours and contrasts, fluid motion and some fantastic character designs. The music scenes are also done very well, though most of them are not just short, but really short. But, most importantly, Disney does weird magnificently, especially in those first few decades when Walt Disney himself was still alive. And this is his crowning achievement in that regard. It's fast, loose, bat guano insane, always changing rules, always ready to burst into a non sequitur, each less logical than the one before.

And if that's your thing, then this is the perfect movie to check out. It doesn't have the grandeur and charm of the true Disney classics, but it has some of the most memorable characters in the whole Disney canon and as a whole is a fantastic romp unlike anything you're likely to see otherwise.

one of a handful of Disney films that work very well for totally different crowds

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 20 June 2006]

Alice in Wonderland is, as well as what the one-line summary suggests, is one of the more abstracted kind of animated films the Disney studio has ever released. And it needs this edge for what the material requires. Here is a film that means different times throughout a life, for some people. As a kid it's a wondrous, madcap adventure with as much sincerity and polite little moments with Alice as it contains vision after vision where varied forms of caricatured anarchy and odd transformations in the guise of fables.

As an older teen, it comes off more as seeming like a 'drug' movie, and of course Carroll's original story has become not just a phrase for 'through the looking glass' in society, but as part of metaphors for the drug community ("White Rabbit" is one of those classic, strange 60's songs that still works today). For what Carrol intended when he wrote the book - for his child friend named Alice - it's taken on other, surrealistic connotations over the centuries. With various allusions to such substances like the big-and-small pills, the caterpillar with the pipe, the hare and hatter with their 'tea', and the Cheshire Cat going in through the out door, it's not too hard to picture it as being a precursor to the 60s.

But, of course, there is also that very innocent approach that the Disney films had of that early period. Alice is as innocent and day-dreaming as Snow White, though with a little more interest due to her having to be a formidable enough guide through this imaginative world. And there are little, surreal fables that are laced in that, again, capture the absurd poetic tone of Carroll's work. The segment with the Walrus and the Carpenter is a very good example of this, and is one of the funniest segments not only of the film but maybe of any Disney feature of the period. And stretching out after going into taking the ideas and images from the book into animated form, the abstractions become rather incredible for their time.

As a kid as well as now I loved seeing the large Alice start to cry to the point of creating a dangerous sea of it right by the snobbish doorknob. The Cheshire Cat is one of those insane concoctions that is delightful in its unhinged abandon. The Queen of Hearts sequences towards the end are, for me, the only ones that are more closer to the 'traditional' Disney films where the looser, crazier nature that went on before with the March Hare and Mad Hatter took place (one of my all-time favorite Disney scenes by the way- that little mouse deserved some sort of prize).

Overall, this is quite a treat to revisit years later- yes, even in a non-induced kind of state- with cheerful songs, and a neat balance of delirious humor and silly imagination. In short, a film like this probably couldn't be made today, at least by Disney.

Visually beautiful, the film is very good, but it has a story that will not please everyone, due to its lack of logic.

[filipemanuelneto · 7/10 · 15 January 2022]

Saying that all old Disney movies are classics is like saying that all cars are classics just because they are old... anyway, whether it's a classic or not, this Disney movie deserves our attention: it entertains quite well and gives children an innocent and funny story.

I will not dwell on the analysis of the story: anyone who knows the work of Lewis Carroll (the film focuses on "Alice in Wonderland" but will get some elements from "Through the Looking Glass") will surely identify the story and its characters, some of them as immortal as the Mad Hatter, the March Hare or the Cheshire Cat. They are iconic and recognizable even by those who have never read Carroll's books and stories.

The film is beautifully animated, with vivid and elegant colors, and a limpid, crisp and very well executed look, for which contributed the skillful hands of hundreds of designers from Walt Disney's studio. The film was made at a time when the studio did its best graphic work and the quality is visible. The songs are another important part of the movie, and there are several important and noteworthy songs here. Personally, I really like listening to "A World of My Own" or the march "Painting the Roses Red". The film counts with the impeccable collaboration of many voice actors, of which I want to highlight Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Sterling Holloway and Verna Felton.

Despite everything, I think the film was pretty much forgotten for a long time, and it didn't have the success that it could have had: in fact, the crazy and illogical story that it presents can both attract or repel the audience... it's not a story for everyone to enjoy, as palatable and cute as "Cinderella" or "Peter Pan", films that are much easier to sell. Paradoxically, the recent appearance of live action films centered on Alice's tale may, in a way, have revived the interest of more recent audiences in Carroll's work and, consequently, in this animated film.

Through the Rabbit Hole

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 3 December 2016]

When I was six, I had my tonsils out. The anaesthetist used ether and I hallucinated. My mother had bought me two comic books. One was Krazy Kat and the other the Disney "Alice in Wonderland." If you wanted something to set you up for delirium try those on for size. When I finally saw the movie, I was reminded of those subconscious images. This is an excellent animated film. I love its hard edge and portrayal of Lewis Carol's characters. It also features some wonderful songs. The Queen of Hearts is maniacal and the Mad Hatter diabolical. All the images of random craziness are in here, brought to life with artistic skill, making them unforgettable images.

Impressive animation but a fairly light story

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 2 September 2019]

This Disney animation follows Alice, a girl whose mind wanders as she as her aunt reads to her. She says she would prefer a world where nothing makes sense. Later as she walks along the river with her cat she sees a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat. She follows in into its rabbit hole and enters a strange world. It is a world where consuming certain things make you shrink and others make you grow to a great size. She also meets a succession of strange characters; Tweedledum and Tweedledee, who insist on telling her the tale of the Walrus and the Carpenter; the Cheshire Cat; a smoking caterpillar; the March Hare, Mad Hatter and the Dormouse and finally the dangerous Queen of Hearts.

It must be stated that he animation in this film is top notch; it is hard to believe in this day of CGI that every frame was drawn by hand. There is constant movement; often featuring many different things in motion at once. However the story isn't the strongest; it feels as if Alice is just moving from one character to the next; each providing a song that isn't that memorable. There are highlights of course; thankfully one of those is the end section when Alice meets the Queen of Hearts and most of the characters we have met are reunited in a trial scene. This provides a degree of tension but nothing that isn't suitable for younger viewers. Overall I wouldn't consider this to be one of Disney's finest but it is still worth watching if you enjoy classic animation.

The best Disney cartoon, by far

[thedreaming · 10/10 · 1 August 2005]

Among all the Disney cartoons I have seen (and I think I've probably seen them all, until "Taram...", in 1983), "Alice in Wonderland" remains my favorite one. Of course, it has a lot of differences, comparing to the wonderful book from Lewis Carroll, but Walt Disney managed to give a strange object, without a real classical story (with a starting and an ending), which gives this film a funny "experimental side"... And I particularly love the beautiful colors in this film. It simply makes you want to follow Alice, who follows herself the White Rabbit, in the wonderland. Maybe "Alice in Wonderland" is more an "adult cartoon".

Fantastic adaptation

[briancham1994 · 7/10 · 3 June 2020]

This film really captures the surreal nature of the original books. The animated style is imaginative and strange. We really feel Alice's experience as we navigate this bizarre and hostile world. The characters, setting and soundtrack all stand out. The animation and voicing of Alice herself, in particular, are excellent because she has been almost rotoscoped.

I love this movie

[bridgettaddington · 10/10 · 8 February 2020]

This is my favorite Disney movie and I've seen most of them. It's a classic. Wonderfully weird. The Mad Hatter is great. The March Hare is great. Alice is great. Cheshire is great. The Queen of Hearts is a wonderfully comical villain. I probably like this more than I should, but whatever.

Some Urban Legends concerning this story Debunked.

[Cj-cat · 6/10 · 25 September 2005]

Recently I had the opportunity to watch Disney's old cartoon "classic" Alice in Wonderland....the first time I have seen this movie since I was a very young kid. The movie itself was alright I suppose...though the dialouge certainly is pretty dated and the music pretty campy. However mostly I wanted to write this review to de-bunk some of the urban legends surrounding this story. Namely those of the "many" drug references this story contains. Contrary to popular belief...there is actually no evidence that Lewis Carroll ever took any Hallucinogenic substances or narcotic substances in his life. The Lewis Carroll institute has preserved many of Carrolls letters and memoirs and none of these have references about Carroll "experimenting" with any substance. Remember also that back in the 19th century no substances were actually illegal so there wouldn't have been any incentive for Carroll NOT to mention these in any of his letters. Now...there goes without saying that there are numerous "questionable" scenes in both the book and this cartoon which certainly can be interpreted as being a subliminal drug message. My particular "favorite" in the cartoon would have to be when Alice meets up with the caterpillar who is smoking a hooka on top of a large mushroom and the caterpillar changes color several times...As well as Alice eating a mushroom to become Taller or smaller. But like I said no actual evidence exists that this story was inspired by drug trips despite the popular culture opinion that it was.

That being said...like I said the Dialouge in this cartoon is extremely dated...and the music mostly campy and unmemorable. But it still was semi-enjoyable due to its short length and for some of those "subjective" scenes" I discussed in the previous paragraph.

Alice psychodelic trip

[meissotruey · 2/10 · 30 August 2022]

I don't like the whole animation(movements), but i like general style, backgrounds( they are really cool) and effects(they are cool too), i like the actors( it may surprise you, but yeah, their did great), but i don't see a reason to put so much effort in this mindless story. Dialogues in this movie seems not connected with each other and from time to time not making sense at all. Narration is superbad. The whole picture looks like some trip of little kid, and that would explain such a mess in narrative, bad dialogues and things that not connected with anything, but they just are here( round dance, shellfish story). So, i didn't like it. Not recommended, not even for the kids.

Pretty Good Adaptation With Enjoyable Characters and Scenes

[Snow Leopard · 30 December 2004]

For material that does not lend itself very easily to cinema, this is a pretty good adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" with some enjoyable characters and sequences. It succeeds, at least in a basic way, in capturing part of the manic but imaginative nature of Lewis Carroll's story.

Much of the language, poetry, and ideas that make the original story so captivating cannot really be conveyed very easily in a movie, and so it would be nearly impossible for any cinema version of Alice to be completely satisfying to those who love the book. Instead, this version simply tries to make the characters come to life, and to use the animation to recreate the feel, if not the depth, of Alice's experience.

The animation drives most of the movie, and at times it is pretty imaginative. Some of the voices work very well, too, with the likes of Ed Wynn and Sterling Holloway fitting the animated characters quite well.

Carroll's stories are so enchanting and creative that it is no surprise that there have been so many efforts through the years to capture the magic of the Alice stories on film. None of the cinema versions has yet come close to matching the books, yet the material itself has made most of them worth watching. In this one, the overall production has a definite Disney style to it, which makes it different from the original, but as a movie it works pretty well.