Disney's Alice in Wonderland... the animated one

Alice in Wonderland, over all other Disney animated classics (with the possible exception of Sleeping Beauty), is my favorite and holds a very dear place in my heart.  When I was younger and my family would travel once or twice a year to visit my grandparents, the whole household had to share the one tv that had cable, and needless to say being the youngest I rarely got access to it (my better chances were always in the morning while everybody else was asleep).  However, my grandparents did obtain a small collection of vhs's for "the kids" to watch, which some of them I would watch repeatedly.  Of these videos there were four Disney films: Bambi, The Jungle Book, Peter Pan, aaaaaaaaaand Alice in Wonderland, which quickly became my movie of preference.  The movie always mesmerized me; I was completely in wonder of Wonderland.  The story is so fantastic, and despite all the crazy impossible things, there is no source such as magic to back up there reasoning.  It's just so.  The animation is so pleasing and at times quite comforting, along with the characters.  I remember wishing it was real and that I could go there.
There's so many wonderful moments, I can't list them all, but my favorite is the opening credits.  The opening song and the pictures that frame the credits are imprinted in my memory.  That's actually the best part of old classic Disney cartoons: the old time chorus music and the beautiful hand drawn animation.  Really, everything was hand drawn, both characters and backgrounds, and its the most wonderful and beautiful quality to the movies.  Alice's song "In A World of My Own" is a lovely little diddy, and I would watch her fall down the rabbit hole in amazement.  And the White Rabbit's house is so damn cute.  It's sad that it got ruined.  And the Mad Hatter's tea party the Queen of Hearts croquet game are highlights for obvious reasons.
Now a couple comments on Alice herself. The character in the movie holds a physical trait that I strangely like, that being she has huge calves and then really tiny feet, much like Katrina from the Sleepy Hollow section of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. I find it dainty somehow, that and her every plushy skirt. Also, Alice's voice (provided by Katherine Beaumont) confuses me.  Is it an English accent?  Or is it just proper?  Hard for me to tell.  And besides this, Alice very well may be the only Disney character who can't very well sing... at all. Not cute. It's a shame.
I am a little surprised that the movie's initial release in 1951 wasn't received very well; it has to be one of the most charming and entertaining animated films ever!  What I'm not surprised about is that a lot of scrutiny came from literary analyst, fans of the novel, and Brits, accusing Disney of destroying and "Americanizing" one of the most renowned stories in the English literature, and of course the overall heavy editing and alteration of the story.  I most certainly protest any criticism of this movie.  It was for the love of the movie why I read the novel to begin with, the first time being when I was in the third grade. 

Of course, the real story holds more adult and intellectual elements, which is probably why the book is always so heavily analyzed in schools.  It should be acknowledged that Disney was creating a movie adaptation for children and young families, so no duh he was going to make it more appealing to children through beautiful colorization (if I do say so myself) and humorizing the characters.  As anyone who has read the novel would know, the characters in the stories aren't nearly as likable as Disney had made them; they were crazy but not funny.  In the movie, I find all the characters lovable (especially the Chesire Cat and the Mad Hatter), with the exception of caterpillar ('cause he has a 'tude) and those talking flowers that were so rude to Alice and thought she was a weed.  Damn racists, that's all they are.
Also, I find it clever how the best elements from both stories, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, where combined into one movie.  Have to admit, I can't see the Mock Turtle being entertaining enough to be a part of the story, nor would I expect children to pick up the concept of characters based on chest pieces or how to even fit them into the movie.  But the addition of the adorable characters found in the Tulgey Wood an excellent touch.  Yes, I do believe the movie's final outcome was amazing.


For more information on the movie, follow the link below:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043274/