Blu Ray Continues To Beam In The Classics
March 19, 2010 in Movies by Steve Collins
When Alice In Wonderland premiered in 1951, it marked the culmination of nearly two decades worth of work. Distributed through RKO pictures, the film marked Disney’s thirteenth animated feature and was the culmination of years of hard work. Other than Winnie the Pooh, never had Disney worked so hard to secure the right to a novel in the hopes of turning it into an animated feature. Now that it is poised to be the latest member of the Disney Blue Ray Club, it is worth reexamining what it took to bring this classic to the screen.
The film was faithfully based on Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Disney personally oversaw the production from conception to screening. His obsession with Alice began during his early days as an animator in Kansas City. In 1923, in an effort to build publicity, he animated a live-action short that interspersed cartoon characters with an actress playing Alice. The short failed to attract any attention, prompting him to leave Kansas for Los Angeles.
When his dream of becoming a Hollywood director died, Walt decided to partner with his brother, Roy, and together they established the Disney Brothers Studio. They immediately started drawing animated shorts and soon found an interested distributor in M. J. Winkler. Winkler funded a series of Alice Comedies, based on the aforementioned 1923 short, prompting Disney to distribute over fifty episodes. This kept the Disney brothers busy from 1924 to 1926 and established Disney as a viable producer, making the success of Mickey Mouse possible.
When the idea for drawing an animated feature came to Disney, the story he kept returning to was Alice In Wonderland. He had even gone so far as to shoot a Technicolor screentest with Mary Pickford, combining her live-action sequences with animated characters, a technique that had failed back in 1923. But, as fate would have it, Paramount released a live-action version of Alice in 1933, which prompted Disney to shelf the entire idea.
Following the popularity of Snow White, Disney quickly registered the title for Alice In Wonderland with the MPAA in 1938. Everything seemed to be falling in place for a 1941 version, but production was stopped by the outbreak of World War II. It would not be until late 1945 that Disney would rethink Alice once again.
This latest version got as far as the storyboard phase when yet another live-action version, this time with Luanna Patten as the lead, was released. Disney would have to bide hi time, which he did. It would not be until 1949 that he would finally move the production of Alice into a full-fledged, screen-bound feature. Though now hailed as a masterpiece of animation, when it was released in 1951, it was met with an indifferent reception. It would take the better part of half a century for the film to be hailed, rightfully, as a classic.
To see what classics the Disney Blu Ray Club has to offer, drop in, have a look around and enjoy.
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