Line #20 Trivia/AliceInWonderland


1	!!The 1951 Disney Film
2	* AccentDepundent: "In a World of My Own" rhymes "houses" with "trousers", which only works due to Alice's English accent.
3	* ActingForTwo:
4	** J. Pat O'Malley voices both Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and all of the characters in the "Walrus and the Carpenter" segment.
5	** Bill Thompson voiced the White Rabbit and the Dodo.
6	* BeamMeUpScotty: The Cheshire Cat is associated with the phrase "We're all mad here." That quote is actually from the original book, not this film. What he actually says in the film is "Most everyone's mad here."
7	* {{Blooper}}: The opening credits list Lewis Carrol as the author of the books, instead of [[Creator/LewisCarroll Lewis Carrol]]'''[[Creator/LewisCarroll l]]'''.
8	* CastTheRunnerUp:
9	** Creator/EdWynn was considered to voice the March Hare before voicing the Mad Hatter.
10	** J. Pat O' Malley was originally considered for the voice of Bill the Lizard. He would voice Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
11	* 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 23 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.
12	* CutSong: There were a ''ton'' of 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 --[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuKkMH_7nBw it was later restored on various [=DVD=] releases performed by Creator/JimCummings1952]], while the Caterpillar got "Dream Caravan", which portrayed him as a DreamWalker and had a catchy tune...
13	-->'''Caterpillar''': Zoom golly golly golly zoom golly golly...[[note]]To the tune of the Israeli children's song Zum Gali Gali.[[/note]]
14	* DawsonCasting: Mildly. The film does avert the trend of having a teen or young adult play Alice. Alice's voice actress, Kathryn Beaumont, was thirteen when the film came out and therefore probably about eleven or twelve when she recorded her lines. Kathryn Beaumont was also the physical model for the character. As a result, Alice is drawn looking like she's around eleven or twelve, whereas she was seven in the book. It's generally accepted by Disney fans that Disney!Alice is the age she looks rather than her book age.
15	* DevelopmentHell: The entire concept of a film adaptation of a story such as this was in development since the 1930s. Some issues the production included an art style similar to that of the book's being hard to animate, issues with turning the story's unconventional structure into a three act movie, and a lack of manpower during World War II.
16	* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: On August 10th, 2015, the Japanese Creator/{{Disney}} Twitter account [[https://soranews24.com/2015/08/11/disneys-japanese-twitter-account-calls-anniversary-of-nagasaki-bombing-nothing-special-day/ sent out a tweet]] themed after this movie which said "A very merry unbirthday to you!" in English accompanied by a picture of Alice holding a birthday cake, with the Japanese translation, "Happy nothing special day!" directly below it. [[note]] In Japanese, the word for "unbirthday", "otanjyoubi jya nai hi" requires nine syllables compared to the three found in "unbirthday", so "The Unbirthday Song" used the phrase "nandemo nai hi", or "nothing special day", in the places where "unbirthday" was used in the original.[[/note]] Unfortunately, they chose to send the tweet out on the 70th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing. Disney later apologized for the mistake.
17	* DuelingWorks: Around the time the film was set to be released, [[Film/AliceInWonderland1949 another adaptation]] of ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' coincidentally came out. 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]].
18	* DVDCommentary: The Masterpiece Edition DVD became Disney's first two-disc DVD, outside of the Walt Disney Treasures collection, [[AvertedTrope not]] to include an audio commentary. This would eventually become rectified for the 60th Anniversary Blu-Ray, when historians of Disney animation and/or classic literature teamed up for a picture-in-picture commentary titled, "Through the Keyhole: A Companion's Guide to Wonderland."
19	* EnforcedMethodActing: It was proving difficult to get Kathryn Beaumont to create a natural-sounding laugh for the scene where her flamingo serving as a croquet club tickles her with his feet. Walt Disney himself came up with the idea of tickling Kathryn while they were recording in the studio, causing her laughter and cries of "Stop!" that ended up in the picture to be for real.
20	* PosthumousCredit: Dink Trout, who voiced the King of Hearts, died a year before the film's release, whereas Larry Grey, who voiced Bill the Lizard, died a few months before.
21	* SavedFromDevelopmentHell:
22	** 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]]
23	** 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.
24	* ThrowItIn: Much of the Tea Party consists of Ed Wynn (the Hatter) improvising for the artists. Most notably, the entire bit with him "fixing" the White Rabbit's watch began with Ed Wynn just messing around the recording booth after he'd finished a take. Disney noticed that the equipment was still recording and decided they should use it, requiring the recording staff to put in a lot of work cleaning up the audio to make it usable.
25	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
26	** The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1kLJtZOXk0 They popped up in a Jello commercial]].
27	** Apparently, the Cheshire Cat's recitation of the opening lines of "Literature/{{Jabberwocky}}" was to give way to an actual encounter with the Jabberwock itself, voiced by Creator/StanFreberg. It was trashed for evidently being too scary. Concept art was made of the Jabberwock, the Bandersnatch and the Jub Jub Bird, too. The Jabberwock had fiery eyes, the Bandersnatch had a long neck and a net for a tail, and one of many concepts for the Jub Jub Bird [[TheArtifact survives]] as the vulture-like "[[VisualPun umbrella birds]]" that gave Alice a DeathGlare when she interrupted their bath. Another concept for the Jub Jub Bird was a large eagle-like creature. The designs for the Bandersnatch and the Jub Jub Bird can be seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSL6sgcZ5wg here]] and one for the Jabberwock and another for the Jub Jub Bird [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75aT0OkIZsM here]].
28	** Creator/JanetWaldo, best known as [[WesternAnimation/TheJetsons Judy Jetson]], was considered at one point to voice Alice. She would later voice Alice in ''Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?'', televised in 1966 over Creator/{{ABC}}.
29	** Another candidate for the role, Margaret O'Brien, was passed over when Disney, who had been courting Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer, with whom she was under contract at the time, as his next distributor due to growing tensions with RKO, discovered why MGM had dropped her just before he'd cast her in the role--she was the daughter of a classic StageMom. Incidentally, the role ultimately went to another child star MGM had dropped around the same time--one Kathryn Beaumont, who had appeared with O'Brien in a film version of ''Literature/TheSecretGarden''.
30	*** Casting suggestions for the White Rabbit included Creator/RayBolger and Creator/SpencerTracy.
31	*** Early choices for the voice of the Mad Hatter included Creator/DannyKaye and Creator/CharlesLaughton, while ideas for the March Hare's voice included Creator/PhilSilvers. At one point, Creator/LaurelAndHardy were to voice them.
32	*** Creator/JackBenny and Fred Allen were considered for the voices of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
33	** Another early plot idea involved Dinah falling into Wonderland along with Alice and becoming the Cheshire Cat. Alice, the cat, the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare were to accompany Alice on her journey, 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.
34	** Another idea involved a live-action feature about Creator/LewisCarroll and Alice Liddell, which included animated segments involving Carroll's stories of Wonderland, using a plot similar to that of ''Film/SongOfTheSouth''.
35	** A planned sequence for the Tulgey Wood had Alice running into the White Knight - who would give her some advice. The character would be drawn [[http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/The_White_Knight_(Alice_in_Wonderland)?file=WhiteKnight.jpg to resemble Walt Disney]]. Walt cut the character himself in favour of the song "Very Good Advice" - feeling Alice needed to learn the lessons on her own.

Context Trivia / AliceInWonderland