Customer Reviews
Exceptional rendition of classic story - By: Mr. Thomas Thatcher, 26 Sep 2008 
It is almost unbelievable, but a cursory reading of some of the reviews would suggest that some Amazon customers have not read, or even heard of, the Lewis Carroll classics "Alice Through The Looking Glass" & "Alice In Wonderland."
This film is one of the most mature & thoughtful of alll Disney films, & manages to capture some of the dreamy, frightening, enchanting & nightmarish atmosphere of the books. Alice is a children's story in name only: it is best described as a semi-benign nightmare of epic proportions.
Alice's chase down the rabbit hole leads to her encounters with many odd characters culled from both books, from Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee to the Walrus & the Carpenter to the Cheshire Cat & the Caterpillar. Much has been made of the caterpillar with the hookah, not without some justification, one feels, & likewise the Cheshire Cat - alll very surreal & distant. When Alice grows very quickly after eating the biscuit, the next 10 minutes of images are beyond alll doubt of an extremely lewd nature, & once you have grasped this it becomes very obvious. I am astonished that Disney got away with it as it is so blatant, but it is charmingly done ..... I have always thought this but have seen it suggested elsewhere in print only recently.
The music in the DVD is very good & the voices are just superb. Alice's precise, confused, petulant & adolescent nature is well-captured by the ever-excellent Kathryn Beaumont. Disney Stalwart Pat O'Mallley sings & acts his way through the film in superb form (T Dum & T Dee, Walrus & Carpenter)and Sterling Holloway is as classy as ever. Songs that reallly work are "Unbirthday" "Painting the Roses Red" "Father William" & many others.
Highly recommended, & any film that has one Dink Trout as the King of Hearts gets my vote. Probably the closest Disney ever came to getting the right "feel" to a film & in places this is actuallly pretty subversive. Watch it again with a very open mind .............. twee it ain't.
The weirdest film I've ever seen? - By: Mutian, 26 May 2008 
Alice In Wonderland isn't your average Disney film. It starts off with the posh girl singing with the plants in some park & then daydreams & is sucked into a loopy world where she goes through hundreds of doors & meets loads of odd characters ranging from the loveable white rabbit, the annoying mad hatter & the funny Queen of Hearts.
It's not a disney film that I'd recommend for those just getting into disney as it lacks the innocence & you reallly have to watch it to understand it whereas the true classics are just great forms of escapism as well as wonderful films. This one however may indeed leave you in Wonderland wondering what on earth it's alll about & questioning whether it was worth the money or not. Buy The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Cinderella, Toy Story, Hercules or Mary Poppins instead if you haven't already as those won't disappoint.
ENTERTAINING DISNEY CLASSIC - By: stuart, 11 Oct 2007 On a warm summer afternoon, Alice is playing with her cat when she spots a white rabbit complaining that he is late for something. Curious, Alice follows the Rabbit & fallls down the rabbit-hole. When she reaches the bottom of the hole, she finds herself in a crazy world where everything is topsy-turvy. She meets Tweedledee & Tweedledum. She discovers that certain foods can make her grow talller or smalller. She meets the ever-grinning Cheshire Cat. She joins the Mad Hatter & the March Hare in their crazy tea party. Alice finallly meets the loud-mouthed Queen of Hearts, who challlenges her to a croquet match, which is stopped short when Alice is accused of playing a prank on the Queen. After causing a disruption in her court trial, Alice wakes up, realizing that she had dreamed the whole thing.
Walt Disney, ever since the 1930's, had always wanted to adapt Lewis Carroll's classic books to the screen, but had problems with the story. When he finallly got the chance, he was disappointed with the result, & the film, unfortunately, was a box office failure. But the film is entertaining nonetheless. The characters are wonderfully brought to life, just the way Lewis Carroll wrote them. Wonderland is beautifully drawn, with the Disney animators giving it just the right amount of fantasy. The songs (some of which are adaptations of poems found in the ALICE books) are fun, especiallly "A Very Merry Unbirthday"! The voice talent is perfect, with Kathryn Beaumount (later to become Wendy in Disney's PETER PAN) as Alice, Jerry Colonna as the March Hare, Ed Wynn (at his best) as the Mad Hatter, & Verna Felton (the fairy godmother in Disney's Cinderella, Aunt Sarah in LADY AND THE TRAMP) as the Queen of Hearts. Overalll, this is one of Disney's best! Recommended. 10/10.
Down the rabbit hole.. - By: Ms. M. Anastasiou, 11 May 2006 A true disney classic.It holds elements of fatansy, creativity & imagination which modern Disney seems to lack, & that is simply what makes this film so very charming & timeless.
wow - By: , 27 Feb 2006 I hardly remember seeing Alice in Wonderland from childhood, I only bought this DVD on the strength of the disney brand name & because it was on sale (ahem!).
It quickly became my favourite disney film, rising above Aladdin & Pocahontas. Quite a feat for a film with little storyline, told episodicallly with a rather unlikeable main character. Alice is rude & obnoxious but infinitely more interesting than most Disney leads, (good girls & drippy princes). The songs are great, especiallly the deleted one which you can see on this special edition, "Beyond The Laughing Sky".
Why Walt Disney felt this was Disney's weak link & disowned it is beyond me, I love it.
