I remember reading Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland when I was very young and falling in love with the sheer absurdity of it all. It only makes sense then that Disney’s Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite animated films. I’ve never really been able to put my finger on why I like it, as I’m sure this review will prove there’s a lot that I take issue with. But I find the film endlessly charming and thoroughly enjoyable every single time I watch it.
Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) finds her sisters lessons so terribly boring and would much rather think about things like talking animals. As she describes such a scenario to her cat Dinah, she spots a White Rabbit (Bill Thompson) in a waistcoat running across a nearby field. She gives chase and follows it into a rabbit hole where she tumbles down a winding and peculiar tunnel. Once she hits the bottom, she finds herself in what she describes as Wonderland. A place where animals talk and everything is what it isn’t, unless what it isn’t what it is. There she continues her pursuit of the white rabbit, only to find that living in a world where everything is non-sensical is far more difficult than one could possibly imagine.
Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) finds her sisters lessons so terribly boring and would much rather think about things like talking animals. As she describes such a scenario to her cat Dinah, she spots a White Rabbit (Bill Thompson) in a waistcoat running across a nearby field. She gives chase and follows it into a rabbit hole where she tumbles down a winding and peculiar tunnel. Once she hits the bottom, she finds herself in what she describes as Wonderland. A place where animals talk and everything is what it isn’t, unless what it isn’t what it is. There she continues her pursuit of the white rabbit, only to find that living in a world where everything is non-sensical is far more difficult than one could possibly imagine.
What I love most about Alice in Wonderland is Alice herself. Off the bat she is an incredibly likeable character simply because she just wants to have fun. She doesn’t pay attention to history lessons because she finds old things so unfathomably boring; not because she’s a know it all or because she intentionally wants to cause trouble, it’s just because she sees a world full of so many possibilities and is curious to know why new things are the way are through adventure, not why old things were the way they were through books.
As a child that was the kind of person I was. I didn’t pay attention at school not because I wanted to be a nuisance (although I often was), but it was more because I wanted to learn about the world in ways more exciting than looking through dusty old books.
Once she enters Wonderland she knows wrong from right, she’s not stupid, and whilst she certainly lands herself in trouble it’s usually because she did the right thing the wrong way. She’s a character that growing up I looked up to because she never purposely did anything wrong.
I also love just how weird and wonderful Wonderland looks. The Dinsey animators must have had a field day creating some of the trippy visuals Carroll describes in his stories, as well as designing the brilliantly exaggerated inhabitants of Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland is a visual delight in almost every scene; eye popping colours, stunning patterns, and unique character designs fill each frame and it’s truly a joy to watch.
As a child that was the kind of person I was. I didn’t pay attention at school not because I wanted to be a nuisance (although I often was), but it was more because I wanted to learn about the world in ways more exciting than looking through dusty old books.
Once she enters Wonderland she knows wrong from right, she’s not stupid, and whilst she certainly lands herself in trouble it’s usually because she did the right thing the wrong way. She’s a character that growing up I looked up to because she never purposely did anything wrong.
I also love just how weird and wonderful Wonderland looks. The Dinsey animators must have had a field day creating some of the trippy visuals Carroll describes in his stories, as well as designing the brilliantly exaggerated inhabitants of Wonderland. Alice in Wonderland is a visual delight in almost every scene; eye popping colours, stunning patterns, and unique character designs fill each frame and it’s truly a joy to watch.
But what don’t I like about Alice in Wonderland? Well primarily it takes too long to really get anywhere with the story and then it’s over in a flash. It’s similar to Dumbo in that regard of it spends so long introducing everything that its only come the final ten minutes or so of the film where things actually start to fall into place. You could then make the argument that perhaps the film needed to be longer, but the runtime is actually perfectly reasonable, it’s just strangely paced. I suppose this works well considering the subject matter. But take for example the Queen of Hearts who is the main antagonist of the film, the epitome of nonsense that was once Alice’s most desirable trait in the world but now the greatest bane of her entire existence. The Queen is first mentioned only about two minutes before we meet her and there’s hardly any film left by that point.
The film spends so much time avoiding the point that it almost becomes pointless. You could argue that pointlessness is the point of the film because everything is so nonsensical. But Alice in Wonderland does intend to provide warning and messages to its audience, so therefore it shouldn’t feel like a pointless exercise once you get to the end.
I still can’t really put my finger on what I like so much about Alice in Wonderland. For everything I like there’s an equal dislike somewhere else. Perhaps that’s part of the charm though, nonsense surely cannot be consistent in its quality of course. Either way Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourites of the Disney Animated Classic series and I highly recommend it if you’ve yet to experience the madness it contains.
The film spends so much time avoiding the point that it almost becomes pointless. You could argue that pointlessness is the point of the film because everything is so nonsensical. But Alice in Wonderland does intend to provide warning and messages to its audience, so therefore it shouldn’t feel like a pointless exercise once you get to the end.
I still can’t really put my finger on what I like so much about Alice in Wonderland. For everything I like there’s an equal dislike somewhere else. Perhaps that’s part of the charm though, nonsense surely cannot be consistent in its quality of course. Either way Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourites of the Disney Animated Classic series and I highly recommend it if you’ve yet to experience the madness it contains.