Prod. 2069 (Alice) Seq. 01.0 Sc. 27 explained

Just a quick note: the question was raised in a comment, just how the scene 27 in seq. 01.0 of Alice could "turn" as it did. I added a little graphic explanation in the first posting of the Alice draft!

Dumbo and other drafts...

...or getting around the limited posts shown when clicking on a label.

Michael Barrier, who unwittingly drove my desire for historical information on animation through the invaluable magazine Funnyworld when I first came in contact with it through my mentor Børge Ring in 1978 (where I also saw my first animation drafts) notes on his great site that "unfortunately, I haven't figured out to get to the earliest installments, but a full page of later posts of the draft comes up when you click on the label "Dumbo.""

If you look to the right column, there you find the "Archives" links.
In the case of Dumbo, the first posts are from April 2010, so pressing that link will show them.

This should give you access to most of the 630 earlier postings. Whenever there are too many posts to be able to be shown within a month, this can cause the last ones to "drop off," which has annoyed me for quite some time. In this Blogger template, I do not know how to add an "Older posts" link, and I tried updating to the newer template, but I had problems running the Javascript necessary for te conversions.

John V. wrote a very helpful comment: "As I eventually discovered, if some of the posts "drop off", then go to the last post displayed (this can only be done, I think, by clicking on the "comments" link, then on the title of the post) and on the right hand side of the page there will be links to the previous few posts. Then you can just continue to follow the posts back by clicking on each individual post title."

Ralph Wright, the Oregonian

Little over a month ago, Didier Ghez pointed us at a photo for sale on eBay, of Disney story man Ralph Wright. Just before that, my Alice collecting friend Matt gave me copies of this article in the July 8th, 1951 Sunday Oregonian Magazine, featuring Wright using the same picture of him. Here is the article...Ralph Wright (his personal data seem obscure, and even on IMDb the dates are said to be wrong) worked for Disney from December 1938 to 1945, then from 1950 to 1958 and again from 1966 to 1971. In 1945 he was located in room 3B-4, in 1957 in 3D-5 and in 1967 in 3B-8 in the Animation Building. Somewhere in there, from 1946 to 1949, he had a stint working with Dave hand at Rank's British Cookham studio, but the article obviously does not mention this. Nowadays, of course, he is most known for being the voice of Eeyore...

Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 12.0 - Ending -- Chase

The draft of this last sequence, dated 5/10/51 shows that this, too was directed by Wilfred Jackson assisted by Mike (Holoboff), and layout by MacLaren Stewart. Animation by Harvey Toombs, Don Lusk, Eric Larson (Alice), Hal King (King), Judge Whitaker (cards), Phil Duncan (Caterpillar), Frank Thomas (Doorknob), Bill Justice (sister), Cliff Nordberg (many characters incl. Queen) and effects by George Rowley...This then concludes the draft of Alice in Wonderland, which I am glad to have been able to present to you here for the first time ever.
According to Disney management, more precisely Roy Disney himself, "Unfortunately, ALICE is disappointing, but (...) it will probably give an overall pretty good account of itself."

Mary Blair's production design shines through throughout, and it has some great animation, with highlights of draughtmanship and comedy animation, like the Mad Tea Party, the Walrus and the Carpenter, and Frank Thomas' Doorknob and Queen, just to mention a few. This film is certainly worth a careful study, even if only because it was "the film Walt HAD to make." If he wanted it or not - it was expected of him. As such, it had been in production at least since early 1939, as the first Leica reel detailing the story with paintings by David Hall was produced in July that year.

Let us not forget that Alice had her Disney-roots go back to 1923, when little Virginia Davis appeared for the first time in the Laugh-O-gram produced Alice in Cartoonland, which became the basis for Walt's Los Angeles endeavours. The Alice series ran through 1927, and later featured Dawn O'Day, Lois Hardwicke and Margie Gay - it was finally replaced by the all-cartoon Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series, followed by Mickey Mouse - but you know all this, of course.

As a follow-up of the hugely successful Cinderella, and followed by also successful Peter Pan, most of the artists seem to have been quick to write Alice off as an unfortunate experiment. Through the years it has gathered its own following, and many fans and collectors have embraced Alice as their film of choice.

Luckily, we are all entitled to our own opinion...

[Addition: Check out Steven Hartley's Alice mosaics!!!]

Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 11.0 - Trial (I)

Directed by Wilfred Jackson assisted by Mike (Holoboff), layout by MacLaren Stewart. Animation by Don Lusk, Milt Kahl (Alice), Frank Thomas (Queen), Ollie Johnston, Hal King (King), Woolie Reitherman, Marvin Woodward (Rabbit), George Kreisl (Jurors), Cliff Nordberg (March Hare & cards), George Rowley and Judge Whitaker (cards).
This draft dated 2/28/51...Details: the "Mad Hatter lands with Ed Wynn laugh..."(sc.60) and
Hal King got to do the King, in itself worth a giggle...
Did everybody survive Christmas ok? I think I have.

I am surprised by the lack of comments: here is the complete draft of Alice, two more posts left, and a total of 18 comments including my responses. This does not make for a good dialogue, folks!

Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 10.0 - Croquet Game (II)

The second half of this sequence adds Harvey Toombs as animator on Alice. I would like to see someone writing a book about the lesser-known animators at Disney: Toombs, Hal Ambro, Hal King, Don Lusk, Marvin Woodward, Cliff Nordberg, Eric Cleworth, Jerry Hathcock, Fred Hellmich, Jack Campbell, Julius Svendsen, just to name a few. Where did I hear that someone is researching a book on Hal King?

Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 10.0 - Croquet Game (I)

Directed by one of my favorites, Wilfred Jackson assisted by Mike (Holoboff) with layouts by the prolific MacLaren Stewart.
Animation by Hal Ambro, Milt Kahl (Alice), Frank Thomas, Eric Larson (Queen), Ollie Johnston (King), Marvin Woodward (Rabbit), Hal King (Hedgehog ball) and Judge Whitaker (cards).
This draft of 2/15/51 starts with scene number 302...

Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 09.5 - Painting the Roses Red

This Revised Draft of 5/11/51, two and a half months before the opening, shows that a lot of editing was done after animation was finished, and it is therefor interesting to see that in the place of the assistant director we find editor Lloyd Richardson, whom we see credited on IMDb as working for Disney at least since So Dear to My Heart in 1948. He also edited Disneyland U.S.A., that wonderful documentary that is available in a gorgeous restoration on the great new (and already getting scarce) Disneyland Treasures DVD.

Directed by Ham Luske (who also directed Disneyland U.S.A.) with layout by Charlie Philippi and Ken O'Conner. Animated by Hal Ambro, Harvey Toombs, Ollie Johnston, Don Lusk (Alice), Hal King, Phil Duncan, Hugh Fraser, Judge Whitaker, George Rowley (Cards), Woolie Reitherman (Rabbit), Eric Larson and again Harvey Toombs (Queen) - and Ollie is the King, but we knew this...As always, feel free to comment - I won't bite!

Prod. 2069 (Alice) - Seq. 09.0 - Tulgey Wood

Into the Tulgey Wood with six of the Nine Old Men...
Gerry Geronimi directs, assisted by Ted Sebern, layouts by Tom Codrick and Don Griffith. Animation by Marc Davis, Ollie Johnston, Les Clark, Don Lusk, Milt Kahl and a bit of Hal Ambro (Alice), Hal King, John Lounsbery, Cliff Nordberg and Frank Thomas (creatures) with Lounsbery doing the Cheshire Cat.
This second draft of March 1951...Premiere Day! See below!

Thank you, Mike Barrier, for the kind words. We aim to please...