Alice in Wonderland was going to be the very first animated film by Walt Disney and originally released in 1939, but it was been scrapped as it was been replaced with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs after twelve years later when the 1951 animated film released. The original pitch looked and played out very differently from the final film.
Plot
The film opens with Alice on a riverbank like in the final. She eventually sees the White Rabbit and follows him down a hole leading to a massive void of gems, stars, and ferocious bats. She then meets the talking bottle, who offers to give Alice a drink of his magic, growing her and then shrinking her. When she shrinks, she is washed into Wonderland by her own tears. She is rescued by the Mouse, and then whisked off to the island of the Gryphon and Mock Turtle and participates in the Lobster Quadriddle. The Cheshire Cat then scares them all away, but befriends Alice in her hunt for The White Rabbit.
She visits a mad Tea Party that proves to become a fight for her life rather than an annoyance, as the Mad Hatter and March Hare try to slice her legs off.
Why It Was Cancelled
- Too dark. It would have been very dark for an animated film, as Wonderland's denizens were monstrous and brutal. The Mad Hatter and March Hare were going to slice off Alice's legs with scissors and knives, hostile birds and even Queen of Hearts is going to kill Alice with a realistic guillotine in the end. Hanging corpses, discarded skulls, and instruments of torture all feature.
- Very hard to make it animated as it will cost too much money. The artwork was very grotesquely monstrous and detailed.
Cast
- Cliff Edwards as Anthropomorphic "Drink Me" Bottle
- Rest unknown
Result
- Many years after as Tim Burton directed an 2010 live-action version , it used the dark-tone, it received mixed reviews, but was a box office success.