Walt Disney's ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1951) Blu-Ray Review

Last year, with the release of Tim Burton’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Disney quietly rereleased the original film on DVD. Since the studio has always been one of the best at releasing their films to Blu-ray, it was surprising that no Blu-ray of the film was released. Surely they didn’t think so little of the original that they were disregarding a Blu-ray release.

Well, a year later, they are now releasing the Blu-ray.

It was worth the wait.

1951’s ALICE IN WONDERLAND is one of the more popular Disney animated films. While it may not be considered in the top tier of classic animated films, that may just because it has never gone on the shelf like the other films. Even in the days of VHS, it was always available, as well as frequently shown on TV.

Like all of the recent Disney animated Blu-rays, the film has been restored and looks better than you can imagine. The colors are glorious. Alice’s hair is bright yellow. It looks like a brand new film.

Even if you did break down and buy the film last year on DVD, it is worth an upgrade for a few new extras.

The new extras are:

The film has an audio commentary of sorts where, the film is on one side of the screen with a video clips and interviews on the other side, telling the story of Lewis Carroll, Walt Disney and the making of the film. Interviews with experts on both of the men talk about them.

The film is also shown in “Disney View” where the black bars on either side of the 1.33:1 image are filled with artwork. As I’ve mentioned before, with a plasma TV that is very susceptible to burn in, I wish more studios would have something like this for older films. It sure beats having to zoom in and cut off the picture.

There is also a newly found color version of a TV introduction to the film hosted by Walt Disney. The Black and White version has been around (and was on previous DVDs) but this new footage premieres on the DVD.

The model for Alice, Kathryn Beaumont, also introduces two newly found film clips, one of live action reference footage of Beaumont as well as the pencil tests for one of the scenes.

There is also a game to be played with the remote control.

The Blu-ray also contains all the previous DVD features. These include, deleted scenes and songs, artwork and TV introductions.

The highlight of these extras has to be an hour long special called ONE HOUR IN WONDERLAND. This 1950 Christmas special, sponsored by Coca-Cola, features Walt Disney, Kathryn Beaumont, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd and more. It includes clips from various Disney cartoons (including a lengthy bit from SONG OF THE SOUTH).

There is also a half hour clip from another 1950’s TV show, THE FRED WARING SHOW with the voice cast of ALICE singing the songs on stage, along with Walt Disney’s introduction.

The disc also features a Mickey Mouse cartoon “Thru the Mirror” as well as one of Disney’s early ALICE comedies, “Alice’s Wonderland”.

All in all, this is a fantastic disc, with the extras just as interesting as the film itself.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND will be available on Blu-ray on February 1, 2011.