Toon Talk: Alice in Wonderland Masterpiece Edition DVD
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Padding out the remainder of the set are an art gallery (including concept art inspired by the original book illustrations by John Tenniel, as well as a scant collection of Mary Blair’s distinctive and highly influential work for the film, plus model sheets, behind the scenes photos and poster art), two theatrical trailers and two Walt Disney TV introductions (both sets of which are virtually identically, coincidentally), as well as a host of deleted materials. As Beaumont herself states in From Wonderland to Never Land: The Evolution of a Song (detailing how Alice’s “Beyond the Laughing Sky�? became Peter Pan’s “The Second Star to the Right�?), Alice, with fourteen numbers, had more songs then any other Disney animated feature, but dozens of other songs were wrote yet discarded, some of which can be heard here with six original song demos.
All in all, this “Masterpiece Edition�? is a nice, if incomplete, representation of Alice in Wonderland, a film that suffers from its episodic nature and flaky characters, yet redeemable with its clever vocal performances (in addition to Beaumont, Wynn and Colonna, we are treated to Bill Thompson’s White Rabbit, Verna Felton’s Queen of Hearts and Sterling Holloway’s Cheshire Cat, among others), catchy tunes and Oliver Wallace’s Oscar nominated score. Even with its apparent flaws, while re-watching the film now, it’s easy to see why, over the years, so many Alice fans, young and old, have followed her down that rabbit hole.
Toon Talk Rating: B
(c) Disney
The Toon Talk Top
10 - The Girls With Something Extra: In honor of Kathryn Beaumont’s plucky performance as little Alice in Wonderland, we pick our ten favorite young actresses in Disney film history, in chronological order:
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Coming Soon:
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In honor of Black History month, three Disney catalog titles will be released on DVD for the first time February 3rd: Perfect Harmony, Ruby Bridges and Selma, Lord, Selma. Several other catalog titles will also be available that day, including Midnight Madness, Return to Oz, Bon Voyage!, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, Those Calloways and Follow Me, Boys!
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Kurt Russell returns to Disney with the true-life story of the champion 1980 US Olympic hockey team in Miracle, in theaters February 6.
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Timon and Pumbaa tell “their side of the story�? in The Lion King ½, available February 10 in a DVD Special Edition.
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-- Kirby C. Holt
Kirby is a lifelong Disney fan and film buff. He is also an avid list maker and chronic ellipsis user ...
Took Talk: Disney Film & Video Reviews by Kirby C. Holt is posted whenever there's something new to review.
The opinions expressed by our Kirby C. Holt, and all of our columnists, do not necessarily represent the feelings of LaughingPlace.com or any of its employees or advertisers. All speculation and rumors about the future plans of the Walt Disney Company are just that - speculation and rumors - and should be treated as such.
-- Posted January 27, 2004