History YMMV / AliceInWonderland

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: At the time, the story of Alice was defined visually by the John Tenniell illustrations from the original book. Disney choosing to go for the modernist art style of Mary Blair was a shocking change, and was one of the many aspects which brought on the accusations of 'Americanization'. After decades of ''Alice'' adaptations that use surreal or bizarre imagery, this might be lost on modern viewers.

** Together with ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'', ''Alice in Wonderland'' became hugely popular with college-age hippies and stoners in the late '60s and early '70s thanks to its surrealist imagery. Disney responded by re-releasing both films in theaters with psychedelic marketing geared towards these demographics, which helped the company recoup their longstanding losses on them and made them more acceptable to younger Baby Boomers, who'd previously been dismissive of the studio. This in turn led these audiences to show ''Alice in Wonderland'' to their own kids when they grew up, helping it achieve "classic" status by the late '80s.

* FanPreferredCouple: Alice and the Mad Hatter, though they give him more of the appearance of his Disney World cosplay.

* WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs: Perhaps even more than the books. (And the film was famously popular with stoners and acid droppers during TheSixties and TheSeventies.)

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The CutSong for the Cheshire Cat, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuKkMH_7nBw "I'm Odd"]], performed with gusto by Creator/JimCummings.

* VanillaProtagonist: Zig-zagged. While Alice is, for the most part, really popular with the Disney fanbase, she gets overshadowed by other characters such as [[TheMadHatter The Mad Hatter]], [[{{Troll}} The Cheshire Cat]] and [[OffWithHisHead The Queen of Hearts]].

** The doorknob has very little screen time but is considered one of the more memorable characters. Doubly impressive since he doesn't exist in either of the books.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Brief, but strange even for this movie, during the ending chase, Alice suddenly finds herself in a second Caucus race, together with the queen (who seems oddly happy about it), the king, the cards, Tweedle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum and, most bizarrely, [[SpottingTheThread both the Walrus and the Carpenter]] (who were only characters in Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum's story) plus a group of oysters (ditto, plus the fact that they were supposed to have been ''eaten'' by the Walrus). The moment Alice gets out of the nonsensical race, the chase continues. The Walrus and the Carpenter also appear among the group of characters chasing Alice in the final shot before Alice wakes up.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

* AdaptationDisplacement: Not as common as with other Disney films. People at least seem to be aware there is a book, but many assume the elements of the film are from the book. Many people don't distinguish between ''Alice in Wonderland'' and ''Through the Looking Glass'' (or simply don't know that they're two separate books), and the film's mingling of the two exacerbates this. This is especially the case with the Queen of Hearts - whose HairTriggerTemper comes from the Duchess, but is assumed to be one of her key character traits. The Cheshire Cat likewise is thought of as a {{Troll}} or aloof thanks to this film making him an AdaptationalJerkass - whereas in the book he was one of Alice's only friends. It's sometimes forgotten that Alice was a bit younger in the books, around seven, but the Disney version appears to be portraying her as the same age as her actress Kathryn Beaumont (who was twelve).

** There are some parts of Kathryn Beaumont's performance that suggests Alice is really more like from the residents of Wonderland. In fact, in the real world she seems to irritate her sister with her daydreaming. So in Wonderland it might be that Alice secretly likes being able to take the moral high ground and she slips up through moments like the unbirthday celebration.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: 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.

** The three cards painting the roses red. They know they've screwed up big time by planting white roses and that their lives are on the line for doing so. It helps that they're the only Wonderland residents who are genuinely nice to Alice, and they avoid pinning the blame on her when the Queen finds out.

** The three cards painting the roses. They know they've screwed up big time by planting white roses and that their lives are on the line for doing so. It helps that they're the only Wonderland residents who genuinely nice to Alice and they avoid pinning the blame on her when the Queen finds out.

* TastesLikeDiabetes: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiYrSk0Wag Just listen to this rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat"]].

* UncertainAudience: While it has since been VindicatedByHistory and is now considered a classic, it quite heavily fell victim to this reaction when it was first released into theaters in 1951. Fans of the [[Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland original novel]] heavily criticized the Americanized themes, the character designs being so much more cartoonish looking compared to John Tenniel's original illustrations in the aforementioned original novel, and how the film incorporated multiple elements from the novel's sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. And at the same time, many viewers who weren't hardcore fans of the original novel and thus wouldn't have minded these deviations were turned off by the [[RandomEventsPlot lack of a proper story with a traditional narrative]].

** Walt himself didn't like this movie, and while it's not clear if he meant the movie or character, he said "Alice lacked heart." [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts Years later]], she's a ''[[{{Irony}} Princess of Heart.]]''

* VanillaProtagonist: Zig-zagged. While Alice is, for the most part, really popular with the Disney fanbase, she gets overshadowed by other characters such as [[TheMadHatter The Mad Hatter]], [[Troll The Cheshire Cat]] and [[OffWithHisHead The Queen of Hearts]].

** Alice also gets her share of shipping with [[LesYay Wendy herself]].

* WhatAnIdiot: While the Bird in the Tree mistaking Alice for a serpent made some sense in the book, as only Alice's neck grew longer and she could only see Alice's head and neck, this film, with Alice's entire body growing huge, makes her look like even more of an idiot.

** The film is popular with autistic children - who relate to Alice feeling out of place in the world. The story itself is often used as an allegory for autism. And there is a fan theory (as seen on the WMG page) that each of the Wonderland residents represent a different aspect of the condition.
** Although flops on their initial releaseAlice in Wonderland saw a massive resurgence in the late 1960s/early 1970s when they became popular with college-aged hippies and stoners thanks to their surreal imagery. Rather than steering away from that rather family-unfriendly demographic, Disney actually responded by re-releasing ''Alice In Wonderland'' into theaters and advertising them with psychedelic trailers and posters. Though criticized at the time, this plan ended up working out incredibly well for Disney: it not only helped them recoup their losses on both films, but it also helped Disney become more accepted by younger baby boomers, a subset who up until that point had been rather dismissive of the studio. When the baby boomers grew up and had families of their own, they showed their own kids Alice in Wonderland alongside more popular Disney movies, resulting in both movies achieving "classic" status by the late 1980s.

* PeripheryDemographic: The film is popular with autistic children - who relate to Alice feeling out of place in the world. The story itself is often used as an allegory for autism. And there is a fan theory (as seen on the WMG page) that each of the Wonderland residents represent a different aspect of the condition.

* CriticalBacklash: Critics slammed this movie when it came out, attacking Walt for "Americanizing a great work of British literature." The man himself viewed it as a disappointment, comparing it to his first masterpiece and observing that viewers felt sympathy for Snow White's plight, but Alice didn't inspire any. In TheSixties, though, it [[WatchItStoned found its audience among stoners]].