Alice in Wonderland (1951) on Netflix
G19511h 15mAdventureAnimationFamilyFantasy
In an English park, Alice grows bored with her sister's history lesson and notices a White Rabbit in a waistcoat, fretting that he is late. She follows him down a deep hole.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.3/10168,804 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
Alice finds her sister's history lesson dull and drifts into daydreams of a nonsensical world. A White Rabbit in a waistcoat hurries past, complaining that he is late, and she chases him down a deep burrow. Inside, a talking doorknob tells her to change her size with a mysterious drink and food so she can pass through a tiny door. Shrunk small, she squeezes into Wonderland and meets the Dodo and the twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who tell her about the Walrus and the Carpenter. At the White Rabbit's house she is sent to fetch his gloves, but a cookie from a box makes her grow enormous and traps her indoors.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In 1933 Mary Pickford proposed starring as Alice in a feature that would mix her own live-action performance with animation supplied by the Disney studio, but Walt Disney was hesitant and the project was scrapped once Paramount Pictures bought the film rights for its own version.
- Disney sued to keep Dallas Bower's 1949 British Alice film out of U.S. cinemas, a case covered at length in Time magazine; the British film's backers accused Disney of trying to exploit their movie by bringing out its own at almost the same moment.
- The title song, written by Sammy Fain, became a jazz standard: Dave Brubeck adapted it in 1952 and included it on his 1957 album Dave Digs Disney, and Bill Evans recorded another notable version on his 1961 album Sunday at the Village Vanguard.
- More than 30 songs were written for Alice in Wonderland, the most of any Disney film, though many reach the finished movie only as a few seconds of music.
- From 1971 the film drew sold-out college crowds and became the most rented film in some cities; Disney then marketed its 1974 re-release as in tune with the "psychedelic times", with radio commercials alluding to Jefferson Airplane's song "White Rabbit".
- A deleted Tulgey Wood scene had Alice meeting the White Knight, who was meant to be a caricature of Walt Disney; Disney liked it but cut it so she could learn her lesson herself, which gave rise to the song "Very Good Advice".
- Sammy Fain and lyricist Bob Hilliard wrote two songs that were dropped from the film, "Beyond the Laughing Sky" and "I'm Odd"; the music of the first was kept with new lyrics and became the title song of Peter Pan, "The Second Star to the Right".
