Alice's Wonderland is slightly different from the usual cartoon- though not as different as Tommy Tucker Tooth Whatever -in that it incorporates elements of animation along with live action. Virginia Davis plays Alice, a character clearly based on Alice from Lewis Carroll's books 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through The Looking Glass.' But this story is a bit different. Alice who, like her literary counterpart, is "chuck full of curiosity" and visits an animation studio (presumably Laugh O Gram studios) to see how cartoons are made. The animators (including Walt Disney himself) gladly welcome the visit and show her a few things. They draw the usual -cats and dogs- and the characters spring to life and do various things. Alice is pretty enchanted by the whole thing and goes home pretty excited. That night her mother tucks her into bed and as she falls asleep she finds herself falling into a "Wonderland." Although there are no card-soldiers or red queens or hatters anywhere in sight I'm afraid (though there are some rabbits and at one point Alice falls down a rabbit hole). In fact, she starts her journey on a train and ends up in a town with a sign labeled "Cartoon Land." From here on out Alice is the only live-action character now wandering around in an animated world. The majority of the animal citizens of this world are really stoked at her arrival. They even throw a huge festival in her honor to welcome her. She dances, there's a parade. It's all good fun. And as if you didn't see this coming, the majority of the populace here seems to be cats and dogs that resemble the exact same cats and dogs in all previous cartoons. Anyway, after Alice does a pretty wacky little dance (perhaps the precursor to the Futterwacken dance appearing in Disney's 2010 take on Wonderland? Not quite as fun though...) the animals all cheer. Meanwhile in the distance, evil broods! There is a Lion in a nearby cage. It's either a zoo or a jail, we don't know because the sign above his cage is closed. The lion tries prying the bars apart but can't. He roars in rage, and then proceeds to just eat the iron bars. After doing so, he springs out of his prison and runs free. Only to be followed by countless other lions who were hanging out in the depths of the back of the enclosure. Lucky for Alice and the others, the cat notices the rampaging lions heading their way and warns everyone. The crowd scatters and mass panic ensues! Alice runs for her life, the lions in close pursuit, and their chase leads all over the land INCLUDING down the rabbit hole! While we are lead to believe that the Lions want to eat Alice (one of them even sharpens his teeth to the point that it can split the hairs of his own mane) but this apparently isn't their game. They chase Alice to a cliff side where she is left with the option to either fall to her death or be attacked. She opts to leap over the edge and the lions happily watch and laugh, their aim to kill Alice being now accomplished. Alice falls... and falls... and falls... and awakes back in bed. She is certainly relieved to be alive, but this will not be her last visit into Wonderland.
It's a pretty interesting little movie. Walt obviously knew the Laugh-O-Gram days were numbered, so he took the money he had made with Tucker Tooth Nonsense to make something that could carry him on later- Alice's Wonderland. In my opinion, this is where we really start seeing the beginning of Walt Disney as the man he became famous being. While this cartoon isn't the sickest (in the best way possible), it represents something we would see the Disney company doing again and again and again. Being original, and pushing the pre-established limits of imagination. While the studio died here, Walt ended up taking this film with him to Los Angeles in order to secure investors in his film making, and would eventually found Disney Brothers Studios with his brother Roy- a company that later grew into the Walt Disney Company as we know it today. It's not the funniest, most entertaining, most amazing story telling, or even most educational cartoon Laugh-O-Grams ever produced, but I feel it's significance lies in it's history and what it eventually did for Walt in his life.
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