Alice Triva!

Trivia for
Alice in Wonderland (1951) More at IMDbPro »advertisementColor screen tests of Mary Pickford as Alice were made for a proposed live-action/animation version of the story.


Kathryn Beaumont, who was the voice of Alice, narrates the "Alice in Wonderland" ride at Disneyland.


Sterling Holloway, who performed the voice of the Cheshire Cat, played the Frog in the 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland (1933).


The first Disney animated feature in which the voice talent is credited on-screen with the characters they each play. This would not occur again until The Jungle Book (1967).


In the Walrus and the Carpenter sequence, the R in the word "March" on the mother oyster's calendar flashes. This alludes to the old adage about only eating oysters in a month with an R in its name. That is because those months without an R are the summer months, when oysters would not keep due to the heat, in the days before refrigeration.


This movie contained Dink Trout's final role.


Originally, Alice was to sing a song different from "In a World of My Own". It would be a slow ballad entitled "Beyond the Laughing Sky", and it was a song about Alice dreaming of a new world, a world better than her own, very much in the spirit of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). However, Kathryn Beaumont had difficulty singing, and it was decided that starting the film off with a slow ballad would be a little risky on audiences. The song we hear today, "In a World of My Own", is livelier, and was easier for Beaumont to sing.


Continuing the pattern of film versions of "Alice in Wonderland" not being commercially successful, this movie was a huge box office failure. However, it did become something of a cult film during the 1960s, where it was viewed as a "head film".


The movie took five years to complete, but was in development for over ten years before it entered active production.


This movie is actually a combination of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books, "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass".


The Doorknob was the only character in the film that did not appear in Lewis Carroll's books.


This was the first Disney theatrical film to be shown on television, in 1954. It was shown as the second installment of the "Disneyland" (1954) TV show, edited to fit into a one hour time slot.


This is the only Disney feature-length cartoon film to have its first theatrical re-release after it had already been shown on television (although the film had been televised only in an edited, one-hour version).


The fish watching the Walrus lure the oysters away are the same fish that watch Pinocchio search for Monstro the whale in Pinocchio (1940).


Early drafts of the script had Alice encounter the Jabberwock (to have been voiced by Stan Freberg), from Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky". The sequence was rejected, either because it slowed the story down, or because of concerns that it would be too frightening. Elements of "Jabberwocky" remain in the film, however: the Cheshire Cat's song "T'was Brillig", consisting of the opening stanza; and the Tulgey Wood sequence, which includes at least one of the creatures mentioned in the poem, "The Mome Raths".


Lewis Carroll wrote the riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" as nonsense - it has no answer. This has not stopped people, despite being repeatedly told that there is not, nor should there be, any answer, from trying to contrive one. Among the suggestions are, "because Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both" and "because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes" (the second of which is very similar to a solution that Carroll himself wearily suggested when he grew tired of people asking him about it).


Though the film was a box-office flop when first released, several years later it became the Disney studio's most requested 16mm film rental title for colleges and private individuals. In 1974, the studio took note of this fact, withdrew the rental prints, and reissued the film nationally themselves.


This was the first feature film for which Walt Disney was able to use television for cross-promotion. Disney's very first television program, One Hour in Wonderland (1950) (TV), which was broadcast on Christmas evening of 1950, was devoted to the production of this film. Naturally, the entire program, including the clips from the movie, were in black and white.


Walt Disney had considered doing a feature film of this story for years. During the very early part of his career, throughout the 1920s, he created a number of shorts with a live action Alice placed in an animated world. He continued to make this series, generally referred to as "The Alice Comedies", which were all silent, right up to time he made Steamboat Willie (1928).


Disney also explored the Wonderland stories in the color Mickey Mouse short, Thru the Mirror (1936), in which Mickey falls asleep reading "Alice in Wonderland", and dreams himself jumping through the looking-glass into Wonderland. Although there are many similarities between the two, the short was much more of a slapstick version (in keeping with the Mickey shorts of the 30's) than the later film. The short is included as a supplemental on some DVD releases of Alice.


"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the Walt Disney version on December 24, 1951 with Kathryn Beaumont, Jerry Colonna and Ed Wynn reprising their film roles





Trivia for
Alice in Wonderland (2010) More at IMDbPro »
advertisementCasting auditions for 250 extras were held in the British city of Plymouth on 6th and 7th August 2008. Requirements were for people with a 'Victorian look' and for applicants to have no visible tattoos, piercings or dyed hair.


Actress Mia Wasikowska beat out several candidates for the role of Alice, including Amanda Seyfried and Lindsay Lohan, who lobbied for the role.


This film marks the 7th time Johnny Depp has worked under the direction of Tim Burton and the 6th time for Helena Bonham Carter.


Principal photography of this movie took 40 days.


Despite the fact that there have been many other Alice in Wonderland films, Tim Burton has said he never felt a emotional connection to it and always thought it was a series of some girl wondering around from one crazy character to another. (In fact, the original books are part of a once-popular fantasy genre in which the character does nothing except wander around from one crazy encounter to another. Those films which replicated this were being true to the spirit of the original books.) So with this, he attempted to create a framework, an emotional grounding, which he felt he never really had seen in any version before. Tim said that was the challenge for him - to make Alice feel like a story as opposed to a series of events.


Tim Burton and Johnny Depp worked hard to give the Mad Hatter more depth and presence than in past portrayals. In fact, the pair swapped sketches and themes for the character prior to creating this new version.


According to Tim Burton, it was Mia Wasikowska's gravity that won her the role.


This marks the 3rd time Michael Gough has come out of retirement to appear in a film by Tim Burton. This also marks his 5th film under Burton's direction.


Johnny Depp, who says that he likes "an obstacle" whilst filming, admitted that he found the process of filming on a green screen "exhausting", and that he felt "befuddled by the end of the day".


Danny Elfman scored the film to green screen footage.


In the trailer, it is visible that the Mad Hatter has mismatched pupils. The right one is dilated and the left one is not. Medically speaking, that implies serious brain injury.


The Los Angeles Times reports that film director Tim Burton based the White Queen on TV cook and cookbook author Nigella Lawson. The character in the movie is played by Anne Hathaway. "There's this very beautiful cooking show host in England named Nigella Lawson and I quietly had her as my image for this character," Burton said. "She's really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there's this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, 'Oh, whoa, she's like really ... nuts.' I mean in a good way. Well, maybe. I don't know."


Helena Bonham Carter stated on a February 17, 2010 "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (2005) show that two weeks before its premiere, Tim Burton was still working on the movie.


Before Tim Burton was involved with the project, Anne Hathaway was offered the titular role of Alice, but she turned it down because it was too similar to other roles she had previously played. However, she was keen to work with Burton, so was pleased to be cast as the White Witch. She shot all her scenes in two weeks.


The first Tim Burton film not to have opening credits.


The name of Alice's father in the movie, Charles, is an homage to the author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass", Lewis Carroll also known as Charles Dodgson.


Michael Sheen was originally cast as the Cheshire Cat, but backed out due to scheduling conflicts.


Dwayne Johnson and David Walliams were considered for the role of The Mad Hatter.


In the scene where the Hatter is making hats, there are two pictures next to the door where the Knave of Hearts enters. One picture is the Mock Turtle from "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and the other is the Walrus from "Through the Looking-Glass".


The Mad Hatter asks Alice several times, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" This is directly from the Lewis Carroll books. Carroll admits that there never was an answer to the question, he made it up without an answer. Some people have claimed the answer is because Edgar Allan Poe worked on both.


The battle scene at the end resembles a chess scene from afar to pay tribute to the chess game that Alice is playing all throughout the original text, "Through the Looking Glass".


Emmy Rossum was considered to play the White Queen, but Tim Burton felt she was too young.


One of Alice's ships at the end is named the "Wonder." This being a Disney film, it is a reference to Disney Cruise Line's "Wonder" ship.


Director Trademark: [Tim Burton] [Black and white stripes] Tweedledum and Tweedledee's shirts.


Johnny Depp watched the Scottish comedy show "Rab C. Nesbitt" (1990) to perfect his character's Glaswegian voice.


Charles Kingsley, the name of Alice's father in this film, is also the name of a famous British Victorian fantasy author. Kingsley's most famous book is Water Babies, which has several similarities to the film.


In the opening minutes of the film, there is a shot of the moon, on which the Cheshire Cat's face is briefly visible.


Aside from his odd color, Absolem the Caterpillar is modeled after the larva of the Monarch butterfly (which are striped in white, yellow and black). When we see Absolem as a butterfly by the end of the film, the pattern on his wings is that of a Monarch, save again for the coloration (Monarch butterflies have orange wings).


At one point when the Dormouse is searching for the Hatter in the Red Queen's castle, she looks in a vacant room. A caricature of Henry VIII can be seen on the far wall.