Alice in Wonderland, the Masterpiece Edition, on DVD
Not Disneys best, perhaps, but definitely another in Walt and his studios
long line of animated classics.
When all is said and done, Alice in Wonderland is a delightfully strange rendition
of the Lewis Carroll childrens book.
And this Masterpiece Edition brings back the films original luster, making
it a worthy and timeless version for your vault.
Okay, it isnt a Snow White or Little Mermaid, but overall Disney did
a good job of taking the surreal, supposedly drug-induced episodes from the
book and turning it into a family film anyone can enjoy. It takes large liberties
with the book, including bringing in parts of the Through the Looking
Glass sequel, and theyve added song that obviously werent
in the book and put some of the books poetry to music and
the end result is a pretty good time in the home theater.
And of course, in typically Disney fashion, theyve turned it into a state-of-the-art,
two disc DVD that features plenty of value-added extras.
Theres undoubtedly no need to get into the story excessively except to
say that a mad tea party may be the most sane thing about it. There are plenty
of larger (and smaller) than life characters and situations, including some
pretty neat characters that werent in the book, and lots of opportunity
for Disneys famed animators to indulge their art.
Some of the best scenes include the ones where the deck of cards is rising
up and flying at Alice, the Mad Tea Party, the song in the flower garden and,
of course, the Cheshire cat.
And this THX-Certified DVD has been restored and remastered and looks great.
Its a full frame release, alas, so owners of 16x9 TVs will want
to stretch and/or zoom the disc to fit the more radically rectangular screen,
but you wont really mind. In fact, we ended up watching it on the full
setting of our reference HDTV; it should have introduced the most distortion,
but (perhaps because its animated and not real people) found that we barely
noticed it.
The picture is first rate. Its clean and sharp and colorful; just what
weve come to expect from Disney DVDs.
Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, though it sounds mostly mono. Still, the
audio quality of this 1951-vintage film is very good.
Then there are the extras and theres a bunch, indeed.
Heres a listing of whats in the box and on the discs:
Virtual Wonderland Party (includes riddles, silly song & dance,
Teapot orchestra, Mad Hatter Says)
"Thru the Mirror" an animated short featuring Mickey Mouse
"I'm Odd" never before heard song by the Cheshire cat, backed with existing
animation
2 Sing along songs
Set-top game
"One Hour in Wonderland" documentary
"An Alice Comedy: Alice's Wonderland," "Operation Wonderland" featurettes
Excerpt from "The Fred Warring Show"
Deleted Material including "From Wonderland to Never Land," "Song Demos,"
Alice Daydreams in the Park"
Original Walt Disney TV introductions and trailers
Art galleries
match card game set (inside the box)
Tell us at TechnoFile what YOU think