February 3, 2021
Alice in Wonderland (1951) *** 1/2
Disney +
Free
Disney animation
I am an Alice in Wonderland stan, I love the books with my whole heart, and I love this movie too. On the other hand, I hate the Tim Burton version with a fiery passion, which is how you can tell I’m a real Alice fan.
I love Katherine Beaumont as Alice, including the fact that she really couldn’t sing. Who knows why they didn’t have someone sing for her, but I think it’s kind of charming. I love how she says, “Wait, PLEASE!” about a billion times. I didn’t realize that she also is Wendy in Peter Pan, she was Walt’s ur British girl child in classic literature voice.
Also, of course, I go on the Alice ride when I am at Disneyland, so many parts of this cartoon are even more familiar than others. I miss Disneyland.
Other great voices in the cast are Sterling Holloway as the Cheshire Cat (funny how the exact same voice can be equally sweet as Winnie-the-Pooh and sinister here), the wonderful Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter, Jerry Colonna as the March Hare, a thing I only realized because he narrated Casey at the Bat in Make Mine Music so his particular voice was in my head.
Here’s the best one, though. Guess who voices the Caterpillar? Richard Haydn. And who is Richard Haydn? Why he’s Max in The Sound of Music, wonderful Max! And who ELSE is he? He is also Herr Falkstein in Young Frankenstein, the old man who brings news of the inheritance to Gene Wilder! I have seen these two movies, The Sound of Music and Young Frankenstein a quadrillion times each, and never realized that that was the same actor, let alone that that actor was also the Caterpillar. Mind blown!
Anyway, Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, still great!
365 Films in 365 Days 