Alice in Wonderland is the thirteenth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released to theaters on July 28, 1951 by RKO Radio Pictures. Lewis Carroll's surreal books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass have been frequently adapted for film; this adaptation solved the problems of the setting by using animation. The film uses the voices of Kathryn Beaumont as Alice and Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter. Still under the supervision of Walt Disney himself, this film and its animation are often regarded as some of the finest work in Disney studio history.
Walt Disney had been interested in the novels and had tried adapting the first of the Alice books during the late 1930s and early 1940s, yet World War II caused the project to be shelved. After the war, Disney thought of making Alice in Wonderland as a mix of live action and animation (as in Disney's early Alice shorts, which featured a live-action Alice in an animated setting or the feature Song of the South), yet this idea eventually grew into a fully animated musical. Upon its release, the film was panned by critics and failed at the box office. Disney later said he despised the film, and it was not reissued theatrically the way that other Disney films were.
However, the surreal elements in the film sparked a revival of the film in the psychedelic generation, which led to theatrical reissues in 1974 and 1981. It was released on video in 1981 and 1986, staying in general release ever since. It was released on DVD in Region 2 in 1999 and in Region 1 in 2000, and on a fully restored two disc edition in 2004.
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Last updated: 06-23-2005 13:32:15
