Alice Comedies
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The "Alice Comedies" are a series of animated cartoons created by Walt Disney in the 1920s, in which a live action little girl named Alice, originally played by Virginia Davis and later Dawn O'Day, Margie Gay, and Lois Hardwick and an animated cat named Julius (who had an odd resemblance to Felix the Cat) have adventures in an animated landscape.
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[edit] Alice's Wonderland
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Disney, Ub Iwerks, and their staff made the first Alice Comedy, a one-reel (ten-minute) short subject titled Alice's Wonderland, while still heading the failing Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri. Alice's Wonderland starts off with Alice entering a cartoon studio so she can watch cartoons being created. The cartoon characters come to life and play around, and Alice is amazed by what she sees. After heading to bed that night, Alice dreams that she is in the cartoon world, being welcomed by all the creations. Alice plays around with the cartoons until danger approaches: a group of lions break free from a cage and chase her.
This short helped set the stage for what was to come in the later Alice Comedies, as it established the world as a playful dream, and also introduced the elements which would soon define the series.
[edit] The Alice Comedies series begins
After completing the film, the studio went bankrupt and was forced to shut down. After raising money by working as a freelance photographer, Disney bought a one-way train ticket to Los Angeles, California to live with his uncle Robert and his brother Roy. In California, Disney continued to send out proposals for the Alice series, in hopes of obtaining a distribution deal, which was finally arranged through Winkler Pictures, run by Margaret Winkler and her fianceé, Charles Mintz, on the basis of Alice's Wonderland. Disney convinced Davis' family to bring her from Missouri to Los Angeles to star in the series.[1]
[edit] Content
Although seen as cute and funny in their time, the Alice Comedies contain content which might be considered surprising and somewhat harsh today. Alice is a little girl, yet she spends much of her time avoiding danger, and even getting kidnapped by the cartoon villains, threatened with such perils as being tied to a log in a sawmill. These scenes are parodies of similar scenes in movie serials such as The Perils of Pauline (1914), starring actress Pearl White.
[edit] DVDS
In 2000 Inkwell Images released a dvd "Alice in Cartoonland. The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney" in the series "Golden Classics" with 10 Alice Comedies including some documentary and a poster gallery. In 2007 Kit Parker Films released another dvd "Alice in Cartoonland by Walt Disney. 35 mm Collector's Set" with 10 Alice Comedies and some bonus. 6 of the comedies are on both dvd's so in all there are 14 Alice Comedies on these two dvd's.
In 2005 and again in 2007, 10 Alice Comedies were released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures series. Seven were part of the Disney Rarities that was released in 2005, while three more were released as part of The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, released in 2007.
Then we have 4 dvd's containing selections of the Alice comedies, in all 20 of the 57 Alice Comedies Disney made from 1923 to 1927.
[edit] Shorts
The following shorts were either released on DVD in 2000, 2005 or 2007
II = Inkwell Images (Alice in Cartoonland - the Original Alice Comedies)
KPF = Kit Parker Films (Alice in Cartoonland - 35 mm Collector's Set)
DR = Disney Rarities, OLR = Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,
| Film | DVD | |
| 1923 | Alice's Wonderland | DR |
| 1924 | Alice Gets in Dutch | DR |
| Alice the Toredor | II | |
| Alice's Wild West Show | DR | |
| 1925 | Alice Gets Stung | OLR |
| Alice's Egg Plant | II,KPF,DR | |
| Alice in the Jungle | II,KPF,DR | |
| Alice Solves the Puzzle | II,KPF | |
| Alice Wins the Derby | II | |
| Alice Gets Stage Struck | II | |
| Alice Rattled by Rats | II,KPF | |
| Alice on the Farm | II | |
| Alice's Tin Pony | KPF | |
| Alice Chops the Suey | KPF | |
| Alice the Jail Bird | KPF | |
| 1926 | Alice's Mysterious Mystery | DR |
| Alice in the Wooly West | OLR | |
| Alice's Orphan | II,KPF | |
| Alice's Balloon Race | KPF,OLR | |
| 1927 | Alice the Whaler | KPF,DR |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story, Leslie Iwerks, Walt Disney Pictures, 1999
[edit] External links
- Alice Comedies filmography at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts
