Alice in Wonderland (Masterpiece Edition)
March 2004 Reviewed by: Josh Barber Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Alice in Wonderland was, at the time of its release, a financial disappointment. Though critics surprisingly loved the film, audiences did not turn out in the same numbers for Alice that they had for Bambi or Sleeping Beauty. Re-released in the wake of Yellow Submarine, the film got a bit of counter-culture credibility but still didn't pack the seats. So when the home-video market became ascendant in the early '80s, Alice was one of the first films available to rent on all three formats (VHS, Betamax, and laserdisc) and has been a happy member of personal collections ever since. Disney has now given Alice another home-video push with a Masterpiece Edition DVD.

Depending on which biographer you believe, Alice was created by either an opium addict or a man who just suffered from too many migraines. Whatever the case, Lewis Carroll wrote some seriously mental material; his books are short on plot, but long on literary complexity. When Walt Disney (who had created his first Alice cartoons even before Mickey Mouse) eventually managed to get a feature-length film into production, he adapted the story’s sense of wonder and fantasy rather than attempting to follow the sparse plot.

Because of this, Alice is a rarity among Disney films: The main character does not embark on a journey of deep introspection and discovery, and her only growth comes as the result of a bottle labeled "Drink Me." The Alice who finds her way home is the exact same girl who first fell into the rabbit hole, leaving the film as sublimely bereft of character development as the books that inspired it.

Though Alice in Wonderland was first released to DVD only four years ago, this Masterpiece Edition is far superior. The video quality is very good: the vibrant colors never bleed or flicker, there is no dust, and the edges are all crisp and clear. Shot in the days before widescreen, Alice in Wonderland fills your 4:3 TV from top to bottom, providing plenty of opportunity for errors to leap forth, but nothing ever surfaces.

The sound is weaker. The film was recorded in 1951, so the technicians can't pull digital-quality information out of what must have been a single audio source. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track isn't awful, but it is not a technological wonder.

Like most of Disney's releases of late, Alice comes in a plastic keep case inside a cardboard sleeve. The features on the first disc of this double set seem aimed at the children who could be Alice's peers: a "Virtual Wonderland Party" activity video; an "Adventures in Wonderland" game; and two sing-alongs, "The Unbirthday Song" and "All in the Golden Afternoon."

"Thru the Mirror" is a Carroll-inspired 1936 Mickey Mouse cartoon that has obviously not seen any sort of restoration. There is also a previously unreleased song, "I'm Odd," introduced by Alice's voice and physical model, Kathryn Beaumont. One of the dozens of songs written for the film that never made it to the final print, "I'm Odd" was found while searching the archives for DVD material.

The second disc begins with One Hour in Wonderland, a Christmas special from 1950 that featured Beaumont and was intended to hype the film's pending release. It's surprising that this made it onto the disc, because the special also features segments from Song of the South, a victim of political correctness that has been relegated to Disney's vaults for the near future. The broadcast parts are black and white, but the film clips, including Uncle Remus, are in color.

From 1923 comes An Alice Comedy: Alice's Wonderland, a silent film and one of Walt's very early shots at telling the story. 1951's "Operation Wonderland" finds Walt leading audiences into the studios for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie, complete with several members of the voice cast acting out their roles for the benefit not only of the cameras but also the animators.

A grainy, hissing series of excerpts from The Fred Waring Show features Beaumont and Sterling Holloway (voice of the Cheshire Cat) re-enacting scenes from the film with music provided by Waring's orchestra.

There are two bits of deleted material. "From Wonderland to Never Land" looks at a song called "Beyond the Laughing Sky," which eventually became Peter Pan's "Second Star to the Right." A storyboard sequence titled "Alice Daydreams in the Park" lacks any sort of context or explanation that might make us care about why it was cut in the first place.

Trailers from each of the film's 1951 and 1974 theatrical releases, along with introductions from the Disney TV show in 1954 and 1964, are also included. A gallery of 59 pieces of concept art rounds out the disc.

There have been many adaptations of Carroll's work over the years, some better than others. No matter how many big stars of any era might be in the film, none have the cultural staying power of the film it took Walt Disney most of his professional life to accomplish.

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