Alice in Wonderland

Click to Buy	Ratings Summary (Scored out of a maximum of five)
	Audio		Video
	Goodies		Interface
	Value

The Movie

I am sure most of you have seen Alice in Wonderland at one
time or another. Based on Lewis Carol’s book, Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland, the movie is one of those entertaining yet odd Disney
animated classics. The story follows Alice, a young girl who prefers the
nonsense world of her dreams to her history lesson, who while on a break
from her lessons, becomes distracted by a talking white rabbit. As she
follows after him, she falls down a hole into a bizarre world where all
the animals and flowers talk, a cat mysteriously appears and disappears,
a most unusual tea party occurs, and much more. It is a world of pure
nonsense, just like the one Alice longed to inhabit instead of studying.
However, she soon begins to appreciate that pure nonsense is not all fun
and games, and after a little exploration, she finds herself trying to
escape from the imaginary world she created.

Promotional image © Disney.

The Goodies

Over the last year or so, Disney seems to have been working on finding
a good balance of bonus material that satisfies its varied audience. This
means including something for children, parents, general home theater
buffs, and hardcore Disney animation fans. It is a tall order, and within
the restrictions of things such as budgets and disc capacity, Disney appears
to have found a pretty good compromise. While the bonus material is not
as deep as one of the Platinum Collector’s edition DVD sets, this two-disc
Masterpiece edition features a very respectable collection of stuff for
the whole family.

Disc 1 features mostly goodies for the younger family members. There
is the requisite set-top game, Sing-Along Songs versions of “The
Unbirthday Song” and “All in the Golden Afternoon,” and
the classic Mickey Mouse animated short, “Thru the Mirror.”
There is also a rather brief reconstruction of a lost Cheshire Cat song
called “I’m Odd,” which is played over scenes from the movie.
While mildly interesting, I can see why it was cut from the film.

Promotional image © Disney.

The final goodie of note is the virtual Wonderland party. Hosted by Alice
and the Mad Hatter (who may look a wee bit familiar to those of you who
frequented Disneyland’s Aladdin’s Oasis a while back—“Yes, yes”),
the party allows young viewers to interactively choose and play games,
sing songs, and dance along with the hosts and the children at the party.
It is a bit corny for me, but my two young boys seem to enjoy it quite
a bit.

Hmmm. Coincidence? I think not…

DVD screen capture © Disney.

Disc 2 delves into more of the historical aspects of this production,
and this was the disc that I found most interesting. Walt Disney’s first
television show from 1950, “One Hour In Wonderland,” is presented
in its entirety. The television portions are in black and white, but the
animated sections are in color, including scenes from Snow White,
Song of the South, and Alice in Wonderland. Also featured
in the show are Walt, Kathryn Beaumont, Bobby Driscol, the Firehouse Five
Plus Two, and Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. It
is a Disney television classic and well worth watching.

Promotional image © Disney.

Also on the disc are several shorter historical items of note. The first
is the 1951 “Operation Wonderland” featurette, which appeared
on the Gold Collection edition of Alice. Besides getting to watch
some great shots of Walt riding his model train around the studio, you
get a pretty good—albeit short—overview of how Alice in
Wonderland was produced. There are about 30 minutes of television
excerpts from “The Fred Waring Show,” which was the first public
presentation of many of the songs from the movie. The songs are sung by
Kathryn Beaumont, Sterling Holloway, and other members of the television
show, and there are also several clips of the movie. It is a neat look
back at how Walt promoted his animated films outside of his own television
presentations.

Promotional image © Disney.

Other short items that I found interesting include Walt’s 1954 and 1964
television introductions for Alice, six original song demos,
a storyboard reconstruction, a music evolution featurette, a still gallery
with about 60 items, and one of the original episodes of The Alice
Comedies. Overall, it is a nice collection of historical footage.

The only shortcoming I found was that there was no commentary. I really
enjoy listening to commentaries on DVDs like Fantasia and Snow
White, which feature contemporary insights by animation historians
and production staff interspersed with archive audio of Walt talking about
his movies. They are not only interesting and informative, but also provide
access to additional historical information that we would not otherwise
have. I am quite certain there are a number of issues to overcome in producing
something like that, but it sure makes for compelling audio entertainment
for animation and Disney fans, like myself. Other than that, though, there
is something for just about everybody in the family on this set.

Promotional image © Disney.

The Video, Audio, and Interface

On top of all the bonus material, the audio and video of this Disney
classic have been fully restored. The video transfer, taken from a new
high-definition master, looks great, with saturated and vibrant colors.
To appreciate just how much better the restored video looks, just look
at the Sing-Along Songs on Disc 1 or the Alice segment of “One Hour
in Wonderland” on Disc 2. It is like night and day, and the difference
between the Gold edition DVD and this release is similarly obvious. The
audio is rather simple, since it was originally just a monophonic soundtrack,
and the remastered surround soundtrack is more than acceptable even though
it is not terribly dynamic.

Promotional image © Disney.

As for the interface, it is very simple and not nearly as impressive as the Platinum DVD editions. However, it is functional and easy enough to navigate by everyone in the family.

The Final Evaluation

While this set falls a bit short of the stunning two-disc Platinum DVD
collections, it still provides a very compelling collection of goodies
along with a beautifully restored movie. Fans of the movie will want to
add this set to their home video collection, and those who picked up the
old Gold DVD edition a while back will probably find the upgrade well
worth it, especially if you pick it up at a discount or warehouse store.

Promotional image © Disney.