Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
| Title: | Alice In Wonderland (1954): Gold Classic Collection |
| Studio Line: |
Disney
In the hands of Disney's extraordinary animators, Lewis Carroll's immortal literary classic comes to life like never before! The surprises begin when a daydreaming Alice encounters a White Rabbit who is frantically running late. She chases him and falls into the magical, madcap world of Wonderland with its kaleidoscope of off-the-wall characters -- including Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat, and the manic Mad Hatter, who invites her to a memorable tea party! The crowning confrontation begins when Alice meets the notorious Queen of Hearts and her enchanted deck of playing cards. Tricked into a curious game of croquet, Alice, and her patience, end up on trial. Is there no escape from this whimsical escapade? Filled with fantasy and topsy-turvy fun, Alice In Wonderland is teeming with spectacular songs and astounding animation in the highest Disney tradition! |
| Director: | Clyde Geronimi and Wilfred Jackson |
| Cast: | Kathryn Beaumont-Alice, Ed Wynn-Mad Hatter, Richard Haydn-Catepillar, Sterling Holloway-Cheshire Cat; Jerry Colonna-March Hare, Verna Felton-Queen of Hearts, Pat O'Malley-Walrus, Carpenter, Dee, Dum, Bill Thompson-White Rabbit, Dodo |
| Academy Awards: | Nominated for Best Musical Score, 1952. |
| DVD: | Standard 1.33:1; audio English DD 5.0, Spanish Digital Mono; subtitles none; closed-captioned; single side - dual layer; 27 chapters; rated G; 75 min.; $29.99; street date 7/5/00. |
| Supplements: | Alice In Wonderland DVD Storybook; Alice In Wonderland Trivia Game; "Operation Wonderland" Featurette; "The Unbirthday Song" Sing-Along; "All In The Golden Afternoon" Sing-Along; Theatrical Trailer. |
| Purchase: | DVD | Novel - Lewis Carroll | MagicCloth Doll Collection Toy - | Alice In Wonderland - Game Boy |
|
Picture/Sound/Extras: B+/C+/C-
As far as I'm concerned, that's where the similarities between RH and Alice stop. I fully agree with the critics of RH; it really is a lackluster, cheaply-made mess. Alice, on the other hand, is where I don't understand the poor reception. Not only do I disagree with the extreme negative assessments, but I actually find it to be one of Disney's best films; Alice differs from the typical fare, which may be one reason for its less-than-welcome reception, but that's part of the reason I like it so much. Because I never read the Lewis Carroll books, I can't provide a direct comparison of how well Disney adapted the tales. Frankly, I believe such examinations are fairly useless. I don't care if a movie perfectly resembles its source or if it seems radically different; I judge the film on its own, not how well it duplicates other material.
Nonetheless, I believe many of the criticisms of Alice stem from the
fact that Disney did too much to tame the books' anarchic spirit. That
said,
Is Alice consistently and completely successful in this regard? No,
but it works more often than it doesn't. Some criticism - even from Walt
himself - has been leveled at the character of Alice because she's a fairly
cold and distant girl; she lacks the warmth and charm of other Disney
heroines. Personally, I liked that fact. I don't want to see 100
characters who are all variations on the others. At the root, Alice really
isn't much of a character; like many Disney protagonists, she's more of a
spectator in her story than she is an active participant. However, it felt
refreshing to have a character who seemed a bit cold and selfish; too much
perfection gets old.
Don't get me wrong: I think that movies that features morals or lessons are
a positive thing. But every once in a while, it's nice to find one that
doesn't tattoo us with "ways to live". Alice says that there are a
lot of weird people in the world, you won't figure them out most of the
time, but keep on trucking! Or something like that.
Maybe I'm dense and I missed all sorts of lessons, but I find that
Alice is more of an expression of the randomness of life. Not
everything comes wrapped in a neat little bow, and Alice discovers this
through the wildly inconsistent world she experiences. Rules make little
sense and they change rapidly; you can try to figure them out, but you
probably won't succeed. Just do your best and things will probably work out
fine in the end.
I'm officially babbling now, so I'll stop my theories on the "meaning" of
Alice, other than to say I don't think it really has one. In any
case, it works very well, as it packs in more diverse, clever and funny
characters than probably any other Disney film. Surprisingly, however, it
never seems like overkill. That's because it usually gives us the
character, has some fun, then moves on to the next. Yes, some - like the
Cheshire Cat or the mysterious White Rabbit - reappear from time to time,
but even in those cases they remain in the background on later occasions;
never do they wear out their welcomes.
Alice doesn't provide the best animation Disney has to offer, but I
thought the film provided a pleasing visual look. It differs from the
classic appearance we associate with the Carroll books, but it really needed
to do this or else the comparisons would have been even more withering. The
movie probably could have looked less "cute", though in a perverse way, the
sweet look of the characters makes their oddness stand out even more.
Ultimately, I don't know how well Alice In Wonderland stands up to
analysis, and if I were better acquainted with the original stories I may
indeed find it less satisfying. At the current time, however, I really like
the film. Alice provides an unusual and very entertaining Disney
experience.
The DVD:
Sharpness seems consistently strong, with most of the picture appearing
nicely crisp and well-defined. On a few occasions, I encountered some mild
softness during wide shots, but this remained infrequent and minor. Moiré
effects were not an issue, but I did note a few examples of jagged edges,
particularly during some scenes with a lot of camera movement.
At no point does the print used appear to come from a nearly 50-year-old
movie. It seems so clean as to be nearly flawless. I saw no signs of
grain, speckles, scratches, hairs, spots or other problems, with a single
exception: about halfway through the film, I detected some dirt on Alice's
face for one frame. It was small enough that I had to reverse the film to
examine it again, since I thought I might have imagined it. Nope, it's
there, but it remains the only flaw I detected. Say what you will about
Disney, but they take very good care of most of their animated films.
Colors largely appear bold and vibrant, but a few inconsistencies appear.
Fleshtones vary too much; the ostensibly human characters in the film can go
from tan to fairly white to mildly pink throughout the movie. It's not a
radical issue, but it was a moderate concern. I also noticed during a
couple of scenes that used colored lighting that the hues looked a bit heavy
and weren't as soft as they should have appeared. Black levels seemed
nicely deep and dark, and shadow detail was fine. Contrast could be a minor
issue, as sometimes white objects - such as the White Rabbit - appeared
overly bright, but this was also a small concern. Note that my "B+" grade
for Alice is not curved to take the age of the material into
account; I'd give it the same mark if it were made yesterday. As such,
although it has a few concerns, I nonetheless found Alice to look
pretty terrific.
Less scintillating is the film's newly-remixed Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack.
I remain of two minds on the topic of multi-channel remixes from monaural
sources. For the most part, I don't object to them because most of these
stay pretty close to the original track; the extra channels may open up the
sound somewhat, but they rarely try to reinvent the wheel. Also, much of
the time the additional channels offer mainly music, which may have come
from a stereo source; as such, the alterations seem logical and work fairly
well.
Nonetheless, if the soundtracks were designed for mono, one could easily
argue they should stay mono because alterations may corrupt the
original plans. It doesn't seem likely that the multi-channel edition of a
film will harm the material, but we can't say that with any certainty, and
the potential for damage exists.
All of these issues occurred to me as I listened to Alice In
Wonderland because I found it to be an imperfect remix. To be sure, the
5.0 version doesn't try to go nuts with sonic expansion. In fact, the
soundfield stays pretty close to the center. Virtually all singing and
dialogue emerges from the middle speaker, and most effects remain there as
well. It's largely the music that expands to (primarily) the forward right
and left channels, with some light reinforcement of the tunes in the rears.
At no point did I note any particularly discrete audio from the front or
rear sides; the music in the forward speakers offered a mildly stereophonic
impression, but I couldn't point out a single instance in which I heard a
particular distinguishable sound from any of the side speakers. The
surrounds definitely present no discrete audio, and one would be hard
pressed to hear anything of note from them.
Since this track is so mildly remixed, why do I maintain any objections?
Because it features a slight thinness that's not present in the original
version. Pretty much any soundtrack from 1951 will appear relatively thin
and tinny to our ears; that's due to those nasty technological restrictions
again. However, many the wan qualities of Alice seemed to result
mainly from some "bleed through" problems; this occurs when the audio
spreads to places where it wasn't supposed to go.
The effects appear especially ill-defined in this regard; at times they'll
seep through to all the front channels for no apparent reason. The music
stays more clearly distinct and doesn't suffer from this concern as much,
though the songs largely lack heft and are moderately bland. Dialogue can
sound a bit rough at times, although it remains intelligible and clear.
Clearly I didn't dislike the 5.0 soundtrack of Alice; my "C+"
reflects some affection for it, and the remix does spread out the music
nicely. However, the quality appears weaker than it should, and some
"bleed-through" concerns exist. Whatever additional spatiality the 5.0
environment adds seems counterbalanced by the decrease in quality; my grade
for the mono original would probably have been a "C+", so it appears like
wasted effort that this one was redone.
One part of the LD set that ports to the DVD is "Operation Wonderland", an
11 minute and 20 second TV clip from 1951. Although it's little more than a
primitive version of today's featurettes - otherwise known as "glorified
trailers" - I enjoyed the piece simply because it provides a little
behind-the-scenes action from the Disney studios. Whereas this kind of
material seems like nothing special for new movies, since we're so inundated
with it, when it comes for an older film, it becomes much more delightful,
simply because so little similar stuff exists. The emphasis remains largely
promotional in this program, but it's quite entertaining nonetheless.
Two "Disney Sing-Alongs" appear on the DVD. These show the respective
scenes from the movie and accompany the tunes with lyrics at the bottom of
the screen; the words show highlighting to indicate what to sing. We get
"The Unbirthday Song" and "All In the Golden Afternoon" in this segment.
This feature did absolutely nothing for me.
A few other "Gold Classic Collection" staples round out the package. We
find the film's theatrical trailer - actually one for a reissue of the
movie - plus a "Read-Along Storybook" that reiterates the plot for the
kiddies as they follow the text. Finally, a simple 16-question trivia game
completes the package. These games are all quite easy, but here's a way to
make them a little tougher: only read the answers when a question appears.
You can still figure out the correct response pretty quickly, but it's a bit
more of a challenge this way, especially because every once in a while, they
toss in an alternate answer that fits within the context of the film.
It's that time again: here come my standard comments about some of the other
aspects of this and other Disney DVDs. (If you've been down this road
before, feel free to jump to the final paragraph - I don't mind!)
Alice continues the questionable trend we now find on most of their
product: a slew of advertisements that appear prior to the main menu. The
DVD starts with the usual copyright warning, and then it launches
immediately into an announcer with his usual "Coming soon to own on video
and DVD..." line. We find ads for the Disney Gold Classic Collection as a
whole plus promos for The Little Mermaid II, The Tigger Movie
and Toy Story 2. I don't particularly mind these ads; they offer
some potentially interesting information and my Panasonic players allow me
to quickly and easily skip them through the "chapter skip" button.
However, many others detest these trailers; some feel that way just due to
the principle of the thing, whereas others have had a trouble bypassing the
commercials as easily as I could do so. It appears some DVD players have
more difficulty with them than others, though I haven't heard of any
concrete trends that indicate any particular models that all refuse to
advance. Whether these ads are a serious negative or just a mild nuisance
is up to you, but be warned that they're there. At this point, I've started
to hate the stupid things just because so many of the DVDs have the same
ads; this is almost the same lineup we saw three months ago on The
Aristocats, and it's varied little since then. C'mon, folks - shake up
the roster a bit!
Some drawbacks to that offer exist. For one, there's a limit of $23.49 that
you can receive, so if you paid more than that, you're out of luck. Also,
the forms indicate that "store cash register receipts must emanate from the
same state as the consumer address." That's nuts! That excludes most of
the folks who buy their DVDs online - which probably was the intention - but
also may affect those who live in areas that intersect closely. For
example, I live in Virginia but I work in Maryland, which is all of five
miles from my apartment. If I stop by a store on the way home from work and
grab a Disney title there, I'm out of luck in regard to this plan because I
don't live in Maryland. What difference does it make in which state the
person bought the DVD? As long as the receipt backs up the purchase, it
shouldn't matter. Why complicate something intended as a public relations
gesture?
An (apparently) more clear-cut positive comes from a $5 rebate that previous
owners of Alice can receive if they buy this DVD. If you send in
your receipt and proof of purchase for the DVD with the proof of purchase
from your prior copy of the film plus the certificate that comes with the
DVD, you can then get $5 back from Disney.
Because this DVD of Alice In Wonderland almost completely omits the
supplements that appeared on its last LD issue, I can't call it a complete
success, but I like it nonetheless. Yes, I'm in the minority, but I find
Alice to be a very entertaining Disney film; it's funnier and
quirkier than most, especially for its era. The DVD offers very good
picture plus decent though mildly flawed sound and a few minor extras. A
more comprehensive supplemental section would make my recommendation easier,
but even as a fairly basic DVD, I still encourage fans of Disney animation
to give this one a whirl.
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Perhaps the folks at Disney have a perverse sense of humor. Why else would
they release two of their least-liked animated films on DVD on the same day?
For whatever reason, that's exactly what they did - and on Independence Day,
as well! Both 
I also was mildly happy to see a film that really didn't try to teach us
many lessons. Throughout her adventure, Alice makes mistakes and gets into
all sorts of predicaments, but she doesn't seem to learn much from these.
If anything, the movie serves as an anti-lesson; Alice finds that she can
fall into many binds but still emerge fine, as the whole thing was just a
dream. One gets the feeling that after this fantasy, Alice hasn't changed
one iota.
Alice In Wonderland appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio
of approximately 1.33:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; due to
those dimensions, the image has not been enhanced for 16X9 televisions.
Although it sports a few flaws, Alice generally looks quite splendid,
and it virtually never belies its advanced age.
On the other hand, there's something to be said for sticking to the original
material. The vast majority of monaural soundtracks exist in that state
because of technological confinements from the period; yeah, some folks like
Woody Allen still like mono, and Kubrick used it pretty late into his career
as well, but since various multi-channel formats have become common, this
happens very rarely. It's clear that most monaural movies aren't that way
because of a conscious stylistic choice; they use that kind of audio because
it was pretty much all that was available.
In late 1995, Disney released a deluxe laserdisc boxed set of Alice In
Wonderland. That set included some terrific supplemental features.
This DVD doesn't. It gives us a few, but little to raise the pulse.
A more positive feature appears on this and other Disney "Gold Classic
Collection" DVDs. According to Disney, they're supporting the DVD with a
30-day money-back guarantee; if you don't like the DVD for any reason,
they'll refund your cost. I have no idea how easy or difficult it'll be to
do so, but I thought this made for a nice gesture.