Alice in Wonderland (1951)
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A young girl falls down a rabbit hole and enters a nonsensical world ruled by the Queen of Hearts.
The story
In a park in England, a young girl named Alice listens to her sister's history lesson while daydreaming of a nonsensical world. When she spots a waistcoat-wearing White Rabbit passing by, she chases him into a burrow and plummets down a deep hole. She follows the rabbit into a realm where she must navigate various obstacles and encounter strange creatures, including the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat. To navigate this whimsical land, Alice must deal with changing sizes and the whims of the inhabitants while trying to find her way through the surreal environment.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
While listening to her sister's history lesson in England, Alice spots a White Rabbit and follows him down a rabbit hole into Wonderland. She navigates a world of shifting sizes, meeting characters like the Dodo, Tweedledee, and Tweedledum. After getting trapped in the White Rabbit's house by growing too large, she shrinks again and encounters talking flowers and a hookah-smoking Caterpillar. Guided by the Cheshire Cat, she attends a mad tea party with the Mad Hatter and March Hare. She eventually enters a hedge maze ruled by the tyrannical Queen of Hearts, where she is forced into a bizarre croquet match. After being put on trial for the Queen's perceived tricks, Alice grows to a massive size, confronts the Queen as a 'fat, pompous, bad-tempered old tyrant', and is forced to flee. She eventually reunites with a Doorknob who informs her she is dreaming, causing her to wake up next to her sister.
- First release year
- 1951
- Runtime (minutes)
- 75
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Clyde Geronimi; Wilfred Jackson; Hamilton Luske
- Writers
- Winston Hibler · story; Ted Sears · story; Bill Peet · story; Erdman Penner · story; Joe Rinaldi · story; Milt Banta · story; Bill Cottrell · story; Dick Kelsey · story; Joe Grant · story; Dick Huemer · story; Del Connell · story; Tom Oreb · story; John Walbridge · story
- Cast and characters
- Ed Wynn · Mad Hatter; Richard Haydn · Caterpillar; Sterling Holloway · Cheshire Cat; Jerry Colonna · March Hare; Kathryn Beaumont · Alice; Verna Felton · Queen of Hearts; J. Pat O'Malley · Tweedledum and Tweedledee; Bill Thompson · White Rabbit
- Genres
- animated; musical; fantasy; comedy
- Themes
- imagination; nonsense
- Tone and mood
- whimsical; surreal
- Premise and plot tags
- fantasy; adventure; musical; coming-of-age
- Source material / true-story basis
- Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass.
- Franchise connections
- Alice in Wonderland
- Reception
- The film received mixed reviews from critics initially, with some praising its whimsical charm and others criticizing its lack of heart and its 'Americanized' feel. It was a box-office failure upon its first release but became a beloved classic and saw success in later re-releases.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 68 · scale: 100 · review count: 10
- Production trivia
- The film was originally intended to be a live-action/animated hybrid.; Several sequences from the books, such as Jabberwocky and the White Knight, were omitted for pacing.; The title song became a jazz standard, performed by artists like Dave Brubeck and Bill Evans.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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