Released in New York 7/26/51, Alice in Wonderland was the film that Walt felt he HAD to produce - if he wanted to or not. The first Leica Reel with David Hall's paintings was prepared as early as July 1939, and though work on the story virtually stopped during the war, it has always been an obvious choice for the studio, and finally followed the immensely popular Cinderella. It is a classic, though maybe not everybody's favorite - and for the estimated $3,000,000 budget, I believe it pretty much bombed at the box-office, though it became a cult film in the 60's.
We start with the simple front page, and then, after the credits, we have Wilfred "Jaxon" Jackson's Seq. 01.0 which introduces Alice, her cat Dinah, her sister, the White Rabbit and the songs "Cats and Rabbits" and "I'm Late". Assistant director Mike Holoboff, layout the immensely prodigious MacLaren Stewart.
 | In this draft of 5/10/51 we find the animators Bill Justice, Eric Larson, Hal King, Hal Ambro, Judge Whitaker and Harvey Toombs, with effects by George Rowley and Dan McManus... |
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I will post this very regularly: the last page is number 146!
Addition (25 Aug 2015): in a comment, Ross asks - how did they make scene 27? Here is a little explanation. Basically the scene was split into two parts, with an overlay added in the middle of the scene when the camera was at the easternmost field. Though there are several ways of splitting the BGs, the version shown here is how it seems to have been done. On the Blu-Ray you can actually see the cut edges of the overlay. Keeping all water on the same (bottom) BG seems logical for consistency; splitting it can be tricky, since it is a subtle wash, and if it were split where the front right water seems "on top," the leaves of the overlay (or BG2) would pop on. There would not be difference in George Rowley's rather simple water effects either way. However, there seem to be several water levels.
Here are the background and overlay split up:
Click on these two images to see it explained. It's really very simple. Mac Stewart may have had fun with this...
Labels: Alice, Draft
6 Comments:
Another feature draft?! Awesome! I'm saying thanks WAY in advance for this one. Thanks Hans! I'm looking forward to each update you post here!
Many thanks in advance for these documents. I absolutely love this opening sequence from Alice. It's probably my favorite part of the movie. The "World of My Own" song is just exactly my taste. It couldn't have been the easiest sequence to do in this pre-computer pre-xerox era. All those tightly drawn flowers. Yet the mood it gives is wonderful. Introducing flowers they hit upon a theme that Carroll didn't pursue, but it works and helped them find something of their own in the story. Another through line.
I'm going to be looking at these all day, I do hope these would be developed into mosaics. Anyway, I agree with Michael Sporn, the opening is great, I love the White Rabbit's "I'm Late" theme. The effects by George Rowley and Dan MacManus are well-drawn. I love Eric Larson's Dinah.
I saw Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and I didn't like it because I thought they completely ruined the story and they left out a lot of sequences like "The Walrus and the Carpenter", "The Pool of Tears", and we only see about ten seconds of the Croquet Game. Although apart from that the art direction was pretty good. Thanks Hans,
P.S. Could be possible that any time you could post the drafts for Dumbo, because I would love to see them, the only draft I've seen is a bit of the "Pink Elephants" sequence.
Can anyone explain or discuss the movement and layout in scene 27, draft 004? The pan over the little waterfall and stream. You'd have to see it.
Ross, someone had fun planning this, I think. I have added a little explanation of, how this non-Multiplane scene could be planned. Hope it makes sense to you.
I've been mulling this over while involved with my Wilfred project. It's a beautiful, fluid shot. Thanks for the description.
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