In 1937 Walt Disney created a new form of family entertainment, the feature
length animated movie. Prior to that point cartoons were shorts used to pad out
an evening at the local movie theater. Back then going to the movies was a big
event for the entire family and typically took up the whole evening. Since then
Disney studios has released one hit animated movie after another now spanning
several generations. You can make a very educated guess about a person’s age by
determining which Disney movie was the first you saw with you parents. Another
tradition that came about from the Disney animated canon is the happy feeling
achieved watching a favorite film that your parents watched with you with your
own child. That sensation came to me years ago when I showed my daughter a VHS
tape of the 1951 classic’ ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Like many Disney movies
released on video tape my daughter soon wore that one out. This is why it is so
exciting that Disney Studios not only released most of their classics on DVD
special editions but now they are working through the best of their illustrious
canon with high definition Blu-ray. not only is this format far more enduring
than magnetic tape it also reveals a quality for the audio and video you never
imagined was possible for a sixty year old film. Disney has been going through
their classic animated films roughly in chronological order in their quest to
bring them to this high definition format. Watching ‘Alice in Wonderland’ again,
especially in this new form instantly brought back that childlike wonder that
most of us adults lost a long time ago. In this particular instance the feeling
is greatly magnified by the sheer whimsy inherent in this timeless, surreal
tale. Just as Alice is brought to a strange a different place this Blu-ray will
transport you and your entire family to your own personal wonderland. This time
you don’t have to worry about the tape wearing out so feel free to view it as
many times as you want.
Like most versions of Alice’s story this one was a blend of two novels by
Lewis Carroll; ‘Adventures in Wonderland’ plus various plot lines from ‘Through
the Looking-Glass’ blended in. this one was made into a screen play by Disney
veteran Winston Hibler. Prior to this he wrote the script for ‘Cinderella’ and
provided lyrics used on ‘Peter Pan’. The brunt of the directorial chores fell to
Clyde Geronimi and Wilfred Jackson. The former had worked on ‘Peter Pan’ and
would carry on in a career directing cartoons including ‘Mr. Magoo’ and’ Dick
Tracey’. The latter directed ‘Cinderella’ and a segment of the original
‘Fantasia’. Both would go on to directing segments for ‘Disney’s Wonderful World
of Color’. Some of the younger members of your family that have grown up during
this age of computer animation may feel that this production is trite and
primitive. It is about time they received a bit of a history lesson and come to
appreciate the sheer skill and artistry used in the creation of this film. While
computerized animation can provide incredible results achieving a level of
realism and three dimensional look that has brought a renewed popularity of
animation. The one thing that is very difficult to present through computer
graphics is the warmth and sense of humanity inherent with hand drawn animation.
This was a tedious, labor intensive process that required 24 slightly different
cells for every second of screen time which translated to over a million
individual drawings for this 75 minute film. Every one of those cells was in its
own right a work of art painstakingly created by a talented human being. This
adds a dimension to the process of telling a story that cannot be matched in
quite this fashion.
This movie was part of the Anglophile period of Disney movies that
encompassed other hits like ‘Peter Pan and ‘101 Dalmatians’ it also reflected a
long held fascination that Walt Disney had with the works of Lewis Carroll. The
style of the artwork was different from that usually associated with prints of
the original books but in short order they would become the de facto standard
accepted by the generations of fans that came after the film’s release. The Blue
and white outfit wore by Alice and the extra wide grin of the orange tabby
Cheshire Cat would take their place as icons of popular culture. The same holds
true for the incarnations of the Mad Hatter, voice by Ed Wynn and his cohort the
March Hare, voice provided by Jerry Colonna, would become the look that would
drive subsequent treatments of the characters. Their distinctive voices set a
bar that has not been surpassed as of this date. This version is more faithful
to the novels than most. The card motif is specific to ‘Wonderland’ leaving the
chess orient white Queen and her court absent. In what has become standard for
these Disney Blu-ray releases the two disc set is packed with extras, enough to
keep the family entertained for many hours.