Toon Zone Talkback - "Alice in Wonderland": Down a Very Shallow Rabbit-Hole

[Classic Speedy]

This is the talkback thread for "Alice in Wonderland": Down a Very Shallow Rabbit-Hole (http://www.toonzone.net/news/articles/34103/alice-in-wonderland-down-a-very-shallow-rabbit-hole).

I definitely agree with the review. Having not actually seen the full "Alice in Wonderland" until recently, I was rather let down by it. Sure, the visuals were nice and it had some creativity, but the "series of unrelated sketches" execution gave the film a disjointed quality and made it seem longer than it actually was. I admit I checked the DVD counter quite a few times during it. And I can't remember any of the songs after watching. Which is a shame, because I went in wanting to like the film, I really did. (Oh well, at least the Mad Hatter and Queen scenes were entertaining)

The DVD was good, though. Plenty of material. I especially enjoyed the "One Hour in Wonderland" special, if nothing else because we get some "Song of the South" footage on DVD.

[radioflyer]

I've read about Walt's struggle with "Alice". Originally, he recognized the issues involved with trying to translate a very odd book into a coherent film story, and tried to fix them by making the White Knight into a major character, as a sort of guide and protector to Alice as she wended her way through Wonderland. But once word got out that Walt was making an "Alice" film, the book's purists got up in arms and demanded he not "desecrate" the classic. Walt wanted to pull out of the project at that point, but one of his employees, Joe Grant, persuaded him to continue. Of course, he had to make changes anyway, and so the film ended up alienating not only "Alice" purists but regular moviegoers. Later, Walt attributed the film's failure to the fact that it lacked "heart", and I think he was right. As a film, it's oddly cold. Technically, it's a wonder, but as a whole it's definitely below par. I watched it once, and that's enough. One of my least fave Disney films.

I really wish we could see the treatment of the film using the White Knight - scripts, storyboards, whatever. I think that was a great idea. Just like I'd love to see Bill Peet's original treatment of "The Jungle Book". It was supposedly much more faithful to the book than the treatment used for the film. Walt hated it, and the resultant film was okay, but I'd love to see Peet's version. Wonder if any of that treatment survives?

[Light Lucario]

I thought that was a great review and I agreed with a lot of the points. I saw Alice in Wonderland a few of years ago when it aired on the Disney Channel. Considering it was a labeled as a classic Disney film, or at least that was my initial impression of it, I went into it expecting some enjoyable movie. However, I was really underwhelmed by it. I agree that artwork was nice, but the overall movie felt so dull to me. I didn't think it was too long, although I didn't expect it to be only seventy minutes long either, but it just wasn't interesting enough for me.

I haven't read any of the Alice books, but it just lacked some resemblance of plot or consistent themes/points throughout the story. Some of the different stories and segments were interesting on their own, but it didn't work so well to have them in a movie like this one. By the time the movie was done, I was disappointed with how it turned out, especially when I was hoping for some more enjoyment out of it than I actually felt.

[GatorMan92]

I'm prolly in the minority, but I enjoyed it as much as any other disney classic. :)