Alice in Wonderland/Trivia

The Original Novels

• Adaptation Overdosed: Let's see, 16 films, a TV series, countless re-imaginings and sequels in book and motion picture, and...
• Banned in China: In 1931, the books were banned in China because they objected to talking animals, which put them on the same level as humans.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty: The Hatter is never called The Mad Hatter, only The Hatter, though the chapter he appears in is called 'The Mad Tea Party'.
• Iconic Characters
• What Could Have Been: The Wasp in a Wig
  • Some editions actually publish this chapter in its proper place at the end of Chapter 8 in Through the Looking Glass.
• Word of God: According to Lewis Carroll, Alice's canon surname is Pleasance (from Alice Pleasance Liddell).
• Write Who You Know: Alice was based on the real-life Alice Liddell.
  • The members of the boating party that first heard Carroll's tale show up in the Caucus Race; Alice's sisters Edith and Lorina, are inserted as the Eaglet and Lory, respectively. Rev Robinson Duckworth is the Duck and Carroll himself is the Dodo.
  • Alice and her sisters appear again as Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie in the Dormouse's story. Elsie (L.C.) is Lorina (middle name Charlotte), Tillie is Edith (nickname Matilda), and Lacie is an anagram of Alice.
  • Alice's two other, lesser known sisters make appearances in the second book, as the rose and the violet in the talking flower garden. The mouse who gives the "dry lecture" and the Red Queen were seemingly based off of Alice's governess. The Queen of Hearts and the Duchess were seemingly caricatures of Queen Victoria and her mother respectively.

The 1951 Disney Film

• Creator Backlash: Walt Disney 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 didn't live to see the film be Vindicated by History.
• Dawson Casting: 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.
• Development Hell: The entire concept of a film adaptation of a story such as this was in development since the 1930s.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Alice and the White Rabbit are also Wendy and Mr. Smee. The Mad Hatter is Uncle Albert.
  • Kathryn Beaumont as Alice, and Sterling frickin' Holloway as the Cheshire Cat.
  • Ed Wynn as the Mad Hatter, Jerry Colonna as the March Hare and Verna Felton as the Queen of Hearts.
  • Bill Thompson, the voice of Droopy, plays the White Rabbit.
• Talking to Himself: J. Pat O'Malley voices both Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and all of the characters in the "Walrus and the Carpenter" segment.
  • Bill Thompson voiced the White Rabbit and the Dodo. Most of the Dodo's appearance in the film consists of him having a conversation with the White Rabbit.
• What Could Have Been: The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle.
  • Apparently, the Cheshire Cat's recitation of the opening lines of "Jabberwocky" was to give way to an actual encounter with the Jabberwock itself, voiced by either Stan Freberg or Thurl Ravenscroft. It was trashed for evidently being too scary.
  • 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 with a knife and scissors, the Cheshire Cat with hundreds of sharp teeth, and Alice nearly beheaded by a grinding gear. See the ending here
  • Disney even toyed with the idea of having a live-action Alice explore an animated Wonderland.
  • Janet Waldo, best known as Judy Jetson, was considered at one point to voice Alice. She would later voice Alice in Hanna-Barbera's own version of Alice in Wonderland, televised in 1966 over ABC.
  • 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 Peter Pan was going to be "Beyond the Laughing Sky", sung by Alice and "Lobster Quadriddle",from the late 30's version.
  • 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.
  • In 2004, Disney used this movie to launch a new collection of 2-Disc DVDs, the Masterpiece Editions. Eventually, the other movies Disney announced for inclusion in this collection received 2-Disc DVDs bearing different banners (most of which commemorated the respective movie's anniversary). Disney struck the final nail in the Masterpiece Edition line when they re-released Alice in Wonderland as an "Un-Anniversary Edition" to promote the Tim Burton movie.

Other Adaptations

• Dawson Casting: Alice is pre-pubescent in the books but most TV and movie adaptations depict her as a teenager or twenty-something (e.g. Fiona Fullerton). The few exceptions are 12-year old Sarah Sutton (UK) in 1974, 9-year-old Natalie Gregory (USA) in 1985 and Krystina Kohoutova (Czech Republic) in 1988). May Clark, the first actress to portray Alice in film, was 14 at the time (1903).
  • Kate Beckinsale plays Alice in a 1998 version of Through the Looking-Glass. It's interesting to note that the film starts out with Beckinsale reading the story to her daughter and that when she becomes Alice, she is "seven and a half exactly".
  • Janet Waldo, a.k.a. Judy Jetson, was 42 when she voiced Alice in the Hanna-Barbera version. Of course, adults voicing children is very common in the voice acting industry and the character was drawn as a preteen, but it still might make her the oldest person to play Alice.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Want to see Anglia Television's adaptation? You do? Sorry, it's never been repeated, or released onto video, or onto DVD.