Alice in Wonderland Mousecellaneous

Alice in Wonderland has a strong presence around the parks what with the rides and common meet and greets.  The characters are a common sight at parades and shows around all the parks.  Of course, Alice in Wonderland was also one of the earliest 'live-action remakes', which even lead to a sequel titled (but not based on) Alice Through the Looking Glass.

As with many of the films looked at in my marathon so far, Alice in Wonderland has a presence on the Storybook Land Canal Boats at Disneyland.  An English village with a church and a little rabbit hole represent the film among the many other scenes.

Alice and the White Rabbit appear in the Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland iterations of It's a Small World.

The Queen of Hearts gets her own show in the Queen of Hearts Easter Bonnet Party which is a show at Tokyo Disneyland.  An impressive Wonderland-themed float - replete with cards, red roses and the Queen's distinctive dress pattern - is fronted by the White Rabbit and rolls to the front of the central castle.  After an announcement from the Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts appears.  Next, Tweedledum and Tweedledee arrive in an open-topped car.

The twins leave and then Minnie Mouse appears on the float with the Rabbit and Queen.  Following on from this, is a parade of visitors to the park waving their 'Easter bonnets'.

Near Alice's Curious Labyrinth in Disneyland Paris, is the quick service March Hare Refreshments kiosk.  There also used to be a version at Disney World called Cheshire Cafe.  At March Hare Refreshments you can buy crepes, ice cream and drinks.

Another food outlet is the quick service restaurant Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall in Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland.  Guests enter through a huge heart-shaped hedge into the Queen's castle.  Cards stand guard around the restaurant and a huge arch is formed from the doorknob seen in the film.  Hedges line the booths and bright red chairs sit around tables.  Huge flowers spring from the hedges and a beautiful stained glass window lines one wall.  Characters from the film are seen in shields around the walls.  The food service area is through an archway which the Queen and King sit atop, watching visitors as they move through to order their food.

It's a beautifully themed restaurant and absolutely oozes the craziness and surrealism of Wonderland.

Disneyland also has The Mad Hatter, a shop which specialises in, unsurprisingly, hats.   You can even have one personalised.  It is located in the Wonderland-focussed area of Fantasyland (and is visible in the Disneyland Adventures game).

In the early 90s, Alice in Wonderland was the inspiration for a live action musical comedy Adventures in Wonderland.  It involved a young girl Alice, travelling through the mirror in her bedroom to Wonderland and using her experiences there with all the familiar characters to help her solve a real world problem.  It has a much more modern, contemporary vibe than any of Disney's film versions of Alice in Wonderland and screams early 90s USA in its production values: the White Rabbit travels on roller blades and Tweedledum and Tweedledee are hip hop dancers.

A Poem Is... the series of poetry readings includes clips from Alice in Wonderland among many other Disney films.  Another curio is Alice in Wonderland: A Lesson in Appreciating Differences.  It was part of the Disney's Animated Classics: Lessons in Living series.  It begins with a young girl walking, and a man riding a tractor.  The man is a friend and neighbour to the girl, Alicia and is named 'Uncle Phil' in the credits.  He invites Alicia to take a ride on his tractor and when she expresses disdain for a new boy at school, he stops and take her into the countryside to show her leaves and weeds.  This leads to him telling her a bit of the story of Alice in Wonderland and then the All in a Golden Afternoon song sequence is shown from the film.  It's all in aid of pointing out to Alicia that she's not being very nice to the new boy and she should give him another chance.

It's a very odd short.  The clip is only tenuously connected to the problem Alicia has and it isn't really clear why she doesn't particularly like the unseen boy.  The unfortunate overtones of Uncle Phil offering a teenage girl a ride on his tractor and then a trip into the bushes are hard to ignore with a modern sensibility but it does seem to have good intentions as an educational film even if, by today's standards, it would never see the light of day.