Lewis Carroll wrote his famous novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in 1865, about a little girl that whimsically chases a talking white rabbit across a field, and subsequently falls down a large rabbit hole.
We all remember the famous rabbit hole scene popularized recently by the Matrix! As with most adventure novels the fun begins when alice arrives and begins to explore a world of fantasy among singing flowers, smoking caterpillars, her own ocean of tears and nutty tea parties celebrating "unbirthdays."
Disney, always seeming to take a great novel and match it with a great film, turned this fantastic tale into artistic wonder in 1951. The story as many of you will recall, find Alice meeting crazy character after crazy character. The animation on the screen is matched well with voices that seemed destined to match.
Who could forget those devious twins Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb? How about the Chesire Cat's ominous tone? Let's not forget the Mad Hatter who as a child scared the plum dickens out of me.
As with most stories that became Disney classics, these characters are forever a part of our culture. Alice in Wonderland has even penetrated our beloved video games, with prime characters appearing in Square and Disney's Kingdom Hearts.
So although the story may have been told repeatedly since the mid 1860's, this is one worth hearing over and over again.
The Disc:
Where do we start? Disc One starts with the newly remastered and restored with an all-new transfer version of the film that is clear as daylight. Alice has never looked better though her fair skin looks a bit dark at times.
The film is presented in a full frame theatrical ratio of 1:33 which ideally would have been better in widescreen but hey it still looks great.
The sound offered on this masterpiece disc is a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 track available in all three language choices, English, French, or Spanish. While nothing really impressive here, it is still an improvement over the original's monaural sound.
While many might have assumed that Disc One would only hold the film, the contrary is true. The first extra that makes up the majority of the first disc is "Thru the Mirror" animated short with Mickey Mouse. An older piece as with the film itself, this short is cute and entertaining.
Next up continuing on Disc One is Virtual Wonderland Party which offers viewers activities including riddles, silly song & dance, Teapot orchestra, Mad Hatter Says, and other games and stories. While simplistic for the most part, these are silly and cute anyways.
Finally the biggest new thing on the disc is the lost song "I'm Odd" sung by the Chesire cat. Along with two other sing-along songs, this alone would be quite a complement to the film.
Disc Two brings the big guns with a disc chock full of fun. It begins with "One Hour in Wonderland" television special from 1950. Essentially a promotion for the film, it's nice seeing some of the people from back then talking about Alice.
Next up we have "An Alice Comedy: Alice's Wonderland", an older look at the comedy of Alice from the 1920's. Sure if you find some of these frightening characters funny!
More featurettes continue the disc with the shorter "Operation Wonderland," a ten-minute behind-the-scenes segment from 1951 once again promoting the film.
Apparantly it was all the rage as the next segment Excerpt from "The Fred Warring Show" also promoted Alice on television's early days.
Finally the disc offers up something even more interesting considering the age of the film. Deleted Material Featurettes: "From Wonderland to Never Land," "Song Demos," Deleted Storyboard Concept: Alice Daydreams in the Park". Very neat stuff along with the original trailers.
bottom line:
Disney hasn't really stayed consistent with their special editions. What makes this a Masterpiece and not Platinum, I really do not know. No matter the naming, this is a classic with a very solid DVD offering.
By - Brian Gray
1/2
