Disney Animated Features
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Release Date: 28 July 1951
After the success of Cinderella, Disney continued on with its animated, musical adaptations of existing stories. However, unlike Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella, which were adapted from fairy tales, Disney turned this time to the world of literature. And unlike Bambi and Dumbo, this particular piece of literature is still widely known in its original form.
Of course, this being a Disney film, some of the more disturbing elements of Lewis Carroll's original novels had to be removed, annoying purists. Critics of The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Pocahontas should note that their profession is an old one. While no one can doubt that Disney changes many elements of their source material (whether fictional or historical), their skill at interpretation is undeniable.
To return to the topic, the film in question here, Alice in Wonderland, was of course based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, two novels by Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. Alice is a girl who, one day bored by her lessons, embarks on a strange (some would say psychedelic) adventure in a world called Wonderland. The movie simply follows her from one scene to the next. Each scene has its own small plot, with the only real connecting feature being the famous Cheshire Cat (voiced by the inimitable Sterling Holloway).
All in all, the film was a success, and perhaps may have even inspired the odd youngster to investigate the original works of literature. I know, just the standard counter-argument to the original-source purists I mentioned above, but it's also probably true.
The film was nominated for a single Academy Award (Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture); the music (most of it by Bob Hillard and Sammy Fain, with some from Oliver Wallace and Ted Sears) was adequate but not outstanding.
Next up: peanut butter?
Information for the Disney Animated Features series of nodes comes from the IMDb (www.imdb.com), Frank's Disney Page (http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~fp/Disney/), and the dark recesses of my own memory.