History Trivia / AliceInWonderland

* AccentDepundent: "In a World of My Own" rhymes "houses" with "trousers" which only works due to Alice's English accent.

* BoxOfficeBomb: The first one since ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}''. Budget, $3 million. Box office, $2.4 million (domestic). This ultimately didn't even dent Disney's emerging animation empire, but convinced Walt to personally never reissue the film, instead airing it on TV.

* HarpoDoesSomethingFunny: The tea party was originally scripted but Creator/EdWynn, who voiced The Mad Hatter, was having issues trying to stay on script and in character. Walt decided to just allow Ed, Jerry Colonna & Kathryn Beaumont to improvise the scene in character together in live action.

* BeamMeUpScotty: The Cheshire Cat is associated with the phrase "We're all mad here." What he actually says is "Most everyone's mad here."

* ImageSource:
** GodSaveUsFromTheQueen

** An earlier adaptation was planned for TheThirties. The storyboards were done by the talented British artist David Hall. It was a bit closer to the book. It was, once again rejected for being too scary. Amongst the concepts from this version was the Mad Hatter and March hare chasing Alice [[PrimalFear with a knife and scissors,]] the Cheshire Cat [[SlasherSmile with hundreds of sharp teeth,]] and Alice nearly beheaded by a grinding gear. See the ending [[http://lukefarookhi.blogspot.com/2008/08/david-hall-and-alice-in-wonderland.html here]]
** Disney even toyed with the idea of having [[RogerRabbitEffect a live-action Alice explore an animated Wonderland]]. Creator/MaryPickford did screen tests for Alice which can be seen [[http://www.fromscreentotheme.com/ThursTreasAliceinWonderlandstoryOct13-1.jpg here]]. (Unsurprisingly, this was around the time when Disney started releasing his cartoons through Creator/UnitedArtists, which Pickford co-owned.) This was abandoned because Paramount were also developing a live-action version at the same time.

* DoingItForTheArt: For the scene in which Alice grows gigantic while inside the White Rabbit's house, animators built a prop house for Kathryn Beaumont to sit in - and they sketched it for reference. As they also needed to see how Alice moved while inside the house, they then rebuilt it with transparent walls.

** Ed Wynn was considered to voice the March Hare before voicing the Mad Hatter.

*** Creator/JackBenny and Creator/FredAllen were considered for the voices of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

* CutSong: Loads. One of them, an [[IWantSong "I Want" Ballad]] titled "Beyond the Laughing Sky", eventually received new lyrics and became "[[WesternAnimation/PeterPan The Second Star to the Right]]".

** An earlier adaptation was planned for the thirties. The storyboards were done by the talented British artist David Hall. It was a bit closer to the book. It was, once again rejected for being too scary. Amongst the concepts from this version was the Mad Hatter and March hare chasing Alice [[PrimalFear with a knife and scissors,]] the Cheshire Cat [[SlasherSmile with hundreds of sharp teeth,]] and Alice nearly beheaded by a grinding gear. See the ending [[http://lukefarookhi.blogspot.com/2008/08/david-hall-and-alice-in-wonderland.html here]]

*** Casting suggestions for the White Rabbit included Ray Bolger, Spencer Tracey, Victor Moore, Frank Morgan and Charles Winninger.
*** Early choices for the voice of the Mad Hatter included Charles Laughton, Danny Kaye, Oliver Hardy, Eric Blore, Walter Catlett, and Raymond Walburn, while ideas for the March Hare's voice included Ed Wynn (who go on to voice the Hatter), Phil Silvers, Red Skelton, Stan Laurel, and Hugh Herbert.
*** Jack Benny and Fred Allen were considered for the voices of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
*** J. Pat O’ Malley (who would voice the Tweedles in the final film) was originally considered for the voice of Bill the Lizard.
** There were a ''ton'' of cut songs composed for this film (over thirty according to some sources). A few were reworked into songs for other projects. For example "Second Star to the Right" and "Never Smile At A Crocodile" from ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' was going to be "Beyond the Laughing Sky", sung by Alice and "Lobster Quadriddle",from the late 30's version. There were also a couple of cut songs for the Cheshire Cat and Mr. Caterpillar; the Cheshire Cat got [[IAmSong "I'm Odd"]], which was to sum up his BlueAndOrangeMorality and {{Cloudcuckoolander}}ness, while the Caterpillar got "Dream Caravan", which portrayed him as a DreamWalker and had a catchy tune...
-->'''Caterpillar''': Zoom golly golly golly zoom golly golly...[[note]]To the tune of the Israeli children's song Zum Gali Gali.[[/note]]

** Another idea involved a live-action feature about Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell, which included animated segments involving Carroll's stories of Wonderland, using a plot similar to that of ''Film/SongOfTheSouth''.

*** Early choices for the voice of the Mad Hatter included Charles Laughton, Danny Kaye, Oliver Hardy, Eric Blore, Walter Catlett, and Raymond Walburn, while ideas for the March Hare's voice included Ed Wynn (who go on to voice the Hatter), Phil Silvers, Red Skeleton, Stan Laurel, and Hugh Herbert.

* CreatorBacklash: Creator/WaltDisney disliked how the final film turned out and was glad that it failed at the box office, feeling that the film had "no heart." He also felt that the original story had no plot, and was therefore inappropriate for a film adaptation. In fact, while most of Walt Disney's animated movies experienced their first theatrical rereleases 5-7 years after their premieres, this one took 22 years to return to the big screen. It did play on ''Series/WaltDisneyPresents'' at least three times by then, but during a period in which Disney refused to play their most successful animated movies on TV.

*** Early choices for the voice of the Mad Hatter included Charles Laughton, Danny Kaye, Oliver Hardy, Eric Blore, Walter Catlett, and Raymond Walburn, while choices the March Hare's voice included Ed Wynn (who go on to voice the Hatter), Phil Silvers, Red Skeleton, Stan Laurel, or Hugh Herbert.

*** Early choices for the voice of the Mad Hatter included Charles Laughton, Danny Kaye, Oliver Hardy, Eric Blore, Walter Catlett, and Raymond Walburn.

*** Early casting suggestions for the White Rabbit included Ray Bolger, Spencer Tracey, Victor Moore, Frank Morgan and Charles Winninger.

*** Early casting suggestions for the White Rabbit included Ray Bolger, Spencer Tracey, Victor Moore Frank Morgan and Charles Winninger.

** Another candidate for the role, Margaret O'Brien, was passed over when Disney, who had been courting Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer as his next distributor due to growing tensions with RKO, discovered she was the daughter of a classic StageMom. Incidentally, the role ultimately went to another MGM child star dropped by the studio at the same time--one Kathryn Beaumont, who had appeared with O'Brien in a film version of ''Literature/TheSecretGarden''.

** Another candidate for the role, Margaret O'Brien, was passed over when Disney, who had been courting Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer as his next distributor due to growing tensions with RKO, discovered she was the daughter of a classic StageMom. Incidentally, another MGM child star dropped by the studio at the same time, one Kathryn Beaumont, would end up with the role.

** Another early plot idea involved Dinah getting lost in Wonderland and getting turned into the Cheshire Cat. Alice, the cat, the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare were to go on a journey together climaxing with Alice's arrest by the Queen. In the end, the Cheshire Cat redeems him/herself and is turned back into a real cat and escaping with Alice for a happy ending.

* DevelopmentHell: The entire concept of a film adaptation of a story such as this was in development since the 1930s.

* BigNameFan: Creator/DougWalker has admitted that his character of WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic was loosely inspired by the Queen of Hearts in this film.

* DuelingWorks: Around the time the film was set to be released, [[Film/AliceInWonderland1949 another adaptation]] of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' was coincidentally being made. Directed by Dallas Bower and featuring a mixture of live-action and StopMotion puppets created by Lou Bunin, it bore no resemblance to Disney's version apart from being based on the same source material. However, sensing competition, Disney [[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889135,00.html took the American distributor of the film to court]], [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope erroneously claiming]] to own the rights to the original book. Though the case was ultimately thrown out, Disney [[CurbstompBattle succeeded in ensuring Bower's film fell into obscurity]].

* DuelingWorks: Around the time the film was set to be released, [[Film/AliceInWonderland1949 another adaptation]] of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' was coincidentally being made. Directed by Dallas Bower and featuring a mixture of live-action and StopMotion puppets created by Lou Bunin, it bore no resemblance to Disney's version apart from being based on the same source material. However, sensing competition, Disney [[http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,889135,00.html took the American distributor of the other film to court]] and erroneously claimed to own the rights to the original book. Though the case was ultimately thrown out, Disney [[CurbstompBattle succeeded in ensuring Bower's film fell into obscurity]].