Alice in Wonderland
About Alice in Wonderland
Alice goes on a picnic with her sister, falls asleep, and dreams a land of talking animals and walking playing cards. W. W. Young’s version acts out much of the Father William poem, including a back-somersault at the front door in the pose of Tenniel’s drawing. It is the first Alice film to fold chapters of Through the Looking-Glass into Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Most of the looking-glass portion is lost. Viola Savoy plays Alice.
Cast & crew
More about Alice in Wonderland
Young directed and wrote it from Lewis Carroll. American Film Manufacturing Company and Nonpareil handled it. The release date on record is 19 January 1915. It runs 52 minutes. Herbert Rice, Harry Marks, Louis Merkle, and William Tilden are billed with Savoy.
Themes
Making
Young treats the picnic nap as the frame and then stacks two Carroll books. The surviving reel is the one that still has the animals, the cards, and Father William.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A 52-minute version survives. Most of the Through the Looking-Glass portion is lost.
Notes
- The Father William somersault is staged to match Tenniel, not a later illustrator.
- What survives is mostly the Wonderland half. The looking-glass chapters are the missing stretch.
- An Internet Archive copy is filed as AliceinWonderland1915.
- A Commons copy carries the 1915 title.
Scenes
- Alice sleeps at the picnic and the dream starts.
- Father William turns a back-somersault at the front door, as in Tenniel.
Influenced by
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll)
- Through the Looking-Glass (Lewis Carroll)
Also available
- Internet Archive (AliceinWonderland1915)
- Wikimedia Commons (Alice in Wonderland (1915).webm)