As I stated on an episode of my podcast, my favorite book growing up was Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. I read that book and it’s companion work/sequel Through the Looking Glass many times over, one of the first books I downloaded to my first Kindle was a copy of it, and I’ve seen and enjoyed multiple film versions of that same story. But somehow, I’d never seen in its entirety the 1951 Disney version.
Well, I do have Disney+, so I might as well check it out. Besides, a little light research tells me Walt Disney himself loved the book growing up and made an adaptation of it one of his top priorities once he got his studio going. The one that finally hit the big screen is what happens after multiple live action and live action/animation hybrids fell through.
Does anyone not know the story of Alice in Wonderland? A young girl, distracted from some dull lessons one sunny afternoon, spots a rabbit with a watch and a waistcoat running along, fretting over being late, before disappearing down a hole. Alice, more curious than anything else, opts to follow the rabbit and ends up in Wonderland, a weird world full of insanity and size-changing victuals. In the end, after running afoul of the rather violently-inclined Queen of Hearts, she finds herself back where she started where the whole thing may have been a simple dream.
That is what more or less happens here, and the plot of the animated feature is largely faithful to Lewis Carroll’s original. True, some characters like the Duchess, the Griffin, and the Mock-Turtle are out and Through the Looking-Glass‘s Tweedledee and Tweedledum are in, but it’s still pretty faithful. The movie does include some of Carroll’s original poetry/songs, most notably “The Walrus and the Carpenter” (which, again, comes from Through the Looking-Glass), and does somewhat capture the insanity of Wonderland.
But then there are the more Disney-esque touches. A segment where Alice listens to some flowers serenade her before they declare her a weed, and a much more visually-creative trip through a forest where birds and animals with various tools for heads live didn’t seem like something Carroll dreamed up. They aren’t exactly out of place, but they do lead to something about this Alice that keeps me from loving it instead of merely liking it, and I suspect that’s at least partially due to my own feelings about older Disney movies being a wee bit too wholesome for my tastes.
That comes down to a general feeling of tone. Wonderland here is more silly than anything else. Carroll’s work often makes the place out to be more grotesque than silly. It’s ridiculous and not the slightest bit welcoming. In point of fact, I read recently something I never noticed before: the Cheshire Cat is the only character in the book that actually listens to what Alice says and talks to her. Yeah, the Cat’s commentary isn’t any more useful to Alice than anyone else’s, but he at least answers her questions and doesn’t either ignore her or somehow think she’s someone else. Given the more whimsical nature of this Wonderland, it isn’t that surprising why Alice might just insist on following the White Rabbit rather than try to go home. This Wonderland, for the most part, just doesn’t seem that dangerous.
That said, I still largely dug this movie. Plus, I usually get a kick out of hearing Sterling Holloway’s voice come out of anything, and his Cheshire Cat is nowhere near as sweet as Winnie the Pooh. There’s a good reason this movie is a pure Disney classic, and if it can get kids into reading the book, so much the better.
Grade: A-
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