Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 Cheshire Cat: Oh, by the way, if you`d really like to know, he went that way.
Alice: Who did?
Cheshire Cat: The White Rabbit.
Alice: He did?
Cheshire Cat: He did what?
Alice: Went that way.
Cheshire Cat: Who did?
Alice: The White Rabbit.
Cheshire Cat: What rabbit?
Alice: But didn`t you just say - I mean - Oh, dear.
Cheshire Cat: Can you stand on your head?
Alice: Oh! [Alice falls down the rabbit hole and her dress poofs up like a parachute]
Alice: Well, after this I should think nothing of falling down stairs.
White Rabbit: [singing] I`m late / I`m late / For a very important date. / No time to say "Hello." / Goodbye. / I`m late, I`m late, I`m late.
Alice: If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn`t. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn`t be, and what it wouldn`t be, it would. You see?
Daisy: What kind of a garden do you come from?
Alice: Oh, I don`t come from any garden.
Daisy: Do you suppose she`s a wildflower?
Cheshire Cat: If I were looking for a white rabbit, I`d ask the Mad Hatter.
Alice: The Mad Hatter? Oh, no no no...
Cheshire Cat: Or, you could ask the March Hare, in that direction.
Alice: Oh, thank you. I think I`ll see him...
Cheshire Cat: Of course, he`s mad, too.
Alice: But I don`t want to go among mad people.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you can`t help that. Most everyone`s mad here.
[laughs maniacally; starts to disappear]
Cheshire Cat: You may have noticed that I`m not all there myself.
Walrus: The time has come, my little friends, to talk of other things / Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings / And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wigs / Calloo, Callay, come run away / With the cabbages and kings.
Doorknob: Read the directions and directly you will be directed in the right direction.
Alice: It would be so nice if something would make sense for a change.
March Hare: There`s only one way to stop a MAD WATCH.
March Hare: I have an excellent idea, LETS CHANGE THE SUBJECT.
Queen of Hearts: Off with their heads.
Queen of Hearts: Who`s been painting my roses red? WHO`S BEEN PAINTING MY ROSES RED? /Who dares to taint / With vulgar paint / The royal flower bed? / For painting my roses red / Someone will lose his head.
Card Painter: Oh please, your majesty, please! It`s all his fault!
Card Painter: Not me, your grace! The ace, the ace!
Queen of Hearts: You?
Card Painter: No, two!
Queen of Hearts: The two, you say?
Card Painter: Not me! The three!
Queen of Hearts: That`s enough! Off with their heads!
White Rabbit: We need a lazard with a liddle... a lad... can you help us?
Bill: At your service, gov`nor.
Dodo: Bill, my lad. Have you ever been down a chimney?
Bill: Why, gov`nor, I`ve been down more chimneys...
Dodo: Excellent, excellent. Now just hop down the chimney and pull that monster out of there.
Bill: Righto, gov`nor... Monster? Aaaaah!
Mad Hatter: Would you like a little more tea?
Alice: Well, I haven`t had any yet, so I can`t very well take more.
March Hare: Ah, you mean you can`t very well take less.
Mad Hatter: Yes. You can always take more than nothing.
Dodo: Ahoy, and other nautical expressions!
Doorknob: D`ooooh!
Alice: Oh! I beg your pardon...
Doorknob: Quite all right, but you did give me quite a turn.
Alice: You see, I was chasing this...
Doorknob: Rather good, what? Doorknob? Turn? Since one good turn deserves another, what can I do for you?
Dodo: I say, you`ll never get dry that way.
Alice: Get dry?
Dodo: Have to run with the others. First rule of a caucus race, you know.
Alice: Well, when I was lost, I suppose it`s good advice to stay where you are until someone finds you. But who`d ever think to look for me here?
[sigh]
Alice: Good advice. If I listened earlier, I wouldn`t be here. But that`s just the trouble with me. I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it.
Tweedle Dum: If you think we`re waxworks, you ought to pay, you know.
Tweedle Dee: Contrarywise, if you think we`re alive you ought to speak to us.
Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum: That`s logic.
Dormouse: Twinkle twinkle, little bat / How I wonder what you`re at? / Up above the world you fly / Like a tea tray in the sky.
Alice: Oh, pooh. I`m not afraid of you. Why, you`re nothing but a pack of cards.
Alice: Unbirthday? I`m sorry, but I don`t quite understand.
March Hare: It`s very simple. Now, thirty days has Septem -No. wait... An unbirthday, if you have a birthday, then you -
[laughs]
March Hare: She doesn`t know what an unbirthday is.
Alice: Curiouser and curiouser.
Mad Hatter: Oh yes mustard! That`ll do... Mustard? Don`t let`s be silly. Now lemon, that`s different...
Alice: I`m sorry I interrupted your birthday party. Thank you.
March Hare: Birthday? My dear child, this is NOT a birthday party.
Mad Hatter: Of course not. This is an unbirthday party.
Mad Hatter: Clean cup, clean cup. Move down.
Queen of Hearts: I warn you dear child, if I lose my temper, you lose your head. Understand?
[after they have restrained the Dormouse]
Mad Hatter: Ah thank goodness! Those are the things that upset me!
March Hare: See all the trouble you started?
Alice: But I didn`t think...
March Hare: Ah, that`s just it. If you don`t think, then you shouldn`t talk.
Alice: Oh, but that`s nonsense. Flowers can`t talk.
The Rose: But of course we can talk, my dear.
Orchid: If there`s anyone around worth talking to.
Daisy: Or about.
[giggles]
Bud: I think she`s pretty.
The Rose: Quiet, Bud.
The Rose: Just what species or, shall we say, genus are you, my dear?
Alice: Well, I guess you would call me... genus, humanus... Alice.
Daisy: Ever see an alice with a blossom like that?
Orchid: Come to think of it, did you ever see an alice?
Daisy: Yes, and did you notice her petals? Such a peculiar color.
Orchid: And no fragrance.
Daisy: And just look at those stems.
The Rose: Rather scrawny, I`d say.
Bud: I think she`s pretty.
The Rose: Quiet, bud.
Alice: Better read it first, for if one drinks much from a bottle marked "Poison", it`s almost certain to disagree with one sooner or later.
Caterpillar: Who... are... you?
Alice: Why, I hardly know, sir. I`ve changed so much since this morning, you see...
Caterpillar: No, I do not C, explain yourself.
Alice: I`m afraid I can`t explain myself, you see, because I`m not myself, you know.
Caterpillar: I do not know.
Alice: I can`t put it any more clearly, sir, because it isn`t clear to me.
Mad Hatter: Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Alice: Riddles? Now let me see... why is a raven like a writing desk?
Mad Hatter: I beg your pardon?
Alice: Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Mad Hatter: [alarmed] Why is a what?
March Hare: Careful, she`s stark ravin` mad!
Alice: But it`s your silly riddle. You just said...
Mad Hatter: Easy, don`t get excited!
March Hare: How about a nice cup of tea?
Alice: "Have a cup of tea," indeed! Well I`m sorry, but I just haven`t the time!
Mad Hatter: No wonder you`re late. Why, this watch is exactly two days slow.
Alice: In my world, the books would be nothing but pictures.
Alice: Curiosity often leads to trouble.
Alice: I simply must get through!
Doorknob: Sorry, you`re much too big. Simply impassible.
Alice: You mean impossible?
Doorknob: No, impassible. Nothing`s impossible.
White Rabbit: Why, Mary Ann! What are you doing out here?
Alice: Mary Ann?
White Rabbit: Don`t just do something, stand there... Uh... no no! Go go! Go get my gloves! I`m late!
Alice: But late for what? That`s just what I...
White Rabbit: My gloves!
[Blows trumpet]
White Rabbit: At once, do you hear!
Alice: Goodness. I suppose I`ll be taking orders from Dinah next.
Dodo: [singing] We`ll blow the thing there out, we`ll smoke the monster out!
Alice: You can learn a lot of things from the flowers... Huh! Seems to me they could learn a few things about manners!
Caterpillar: Who are you?
Caterpillar: Recite. Alice: Oh. Yes sir. How doth the little bumblebee improve each... Caterpillar: Stop. That is not spoken correctically. It goes: How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail. And pour the waters of the Nile, on every golden scale. How cheerfully he seems to grin, how neatly spreads his claws. And welcomes little fishes in, with gently smiling jaws. Alice: Well, I must say, I`ve never heard it that way before. Caterpillar: I know. I have improoooved it.
Caterpillar: By the way, I have a few more helpful hints. One side will make you grow taller...
Alice: One side of what?
Caterpillar: ...and the other side will make you grow shorter.
Alice: The other side of what?
Caterpillar: THE MUSHROOM, OF COURSE!
Alice: I was sitting on the riverbank with uh... with you know who...
Mad Hatter: I DO?
Alice: I mean my C-A-T.
Mad Hatter: Tea?
March Hare: [slices a tea cup in half] Just half a cup, if you don`t mind.
Mad Hatter: Do you care for tea?
Alice: Why, yes. I`m very fond of tea.
March Hare: If you don`t care for tea, you could at least make polite conversation!
Alice: When I get home I shall write a book about this place... If I ever do get home.
Cheshire Cat: All ways here you see, are the QUEEN`S WAYS!
Alice: But I`ve never met any queen.
Cheshire Cat: You haven`t? You haVEN`T? Oh, but you must! She`ll be mad about you, simply mad!
Alice: How can I find her?
Cheshire Cat: Well, some go this way, some go that way. But as for me, myself, personally, I prefer the shortcut.
Cheshire Cat: You know? We could make her *really* angry! Shall we try?
Alice: Oh, no, no!
Cheshire Cat: Oh, but it`s loads of fun!
Alice: [as a giant] And as for you, your majesty! Your majesty indeed! Why, you`re not a queen,
[shrinking]
Alice: You`re just a fat, pompous, bad tempered old ty...
[normal size]
Alice: tyrant...
Queen of Hearts: [giggles] And uh, just what were you saying, my dear?
Cheshire Cat: Why, she simply said that you`re a fat, pompous, bad tempered old tyrant!
Queen of Hearts: Now then, are you ready for your sentence?
Alice: But there has to be a verdict first.
Queen of Hearts: Sentence first! Verdict afterwards.
Alice: But that just isn`t the way.
Queen of Hearts: [shouting] All ways are...!
Alice: ...your ways, your Majesty.
Cheshire Cat: [singing] `Twas brilig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: / All mimsy were the borogroves, / And the mome raths outgrabe.
Alice: Now where do you suppose...?
Cheshire Cat: Lose something?
Alice: [turns around to find just the Cat`s smile talking to her] Oh my! oh, no no, I was just... uh never mind.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, that`s quite all right. One moment please.
[two eyes drop down on top of the mouth and the full cat form appears]
Cheshire Cat: Second chorus.
[singing]
Cheshire Cat: `Twas brilig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
Alice: Why, why you`re a cat!
Cheshire Cat: A *Cheshire* Cat.
[starts to disappear]
Cheshire Cat: All mimsy were the borogroves...
Alice: Oh wait!
Cheshire Cat: [reappears] There you are! Third chorus...
Alice: Oh, no, no. I was just wondering if you could help me find my way.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn`t matter, as long as...
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn`t matter which way you go.
King of Hearts: What do you know about this unfortunate affair?
March Hare: Nothing.
Queen of Hearts: Nothing whatever?
March Hare: Nothing whatever!
Queen of Hearts: [shouts] That`s very important! Jury, write that down!
[the Caterpillar has called a very frustrated Alice back so he can finish the conversation]
Alice: ...Well?
Caterpillar: ...Keep your temper.
Alice: Is that all?
Caterpillar: No. "Exaketededly" what is your problem?
Alice: Well its exak... exact... Its precisely this. I should like to be a little larger, sir.
Caterpillar: Why?
Alice: Well, after all, three inches is such a wretched height, and...
Caterpillar: [suddenly angry] I am "exaketededly" three inches high, and it is a very good height indeed!
Alice: But I`m not used to it. And you needn`t *shout*!
Bird in the Tree: A serpent! Help! Help! Serpent! Serpeeent!
Alice: But please! Please!
Bird in the Tree: Off with you! Shoo! Shoo! Help! Serpent!
Alice: I`m not a serpent.
Bird in the Tree: You`re not? Then just what are you?
Alice: I`m just a little girl.
Bird in the Tree: Little? Little?
[laughs]
Alice: Well, I am... I mean, I was.
Bird in the Tree: And I suppose you don`t like eggs, either?
Alice: Yes, I like eggs, but...
Bird in the Tree: Aha! I knew it! I knew it! A serpent! Serpent! Serpeeeent!
Alice: Oh, for goodness sake!
Alice: [after the Warlus and the Carpenter] That was a very sad story.
Tweedle Dee: Aye, but there`s a moral to it.
Alice: Oh, a very good moral, if you happen to be an oyster.
Queen of Hearts: Now, where do you come from?
Alice: Well, I`m trying to find my way home...
Queen of Hearts: Your way? All ways here are my ways!
Alice: Yes, I know, but I was just thinking...
Queen of Hearts: Curtsy while you`re thinking. It saves time.
Alice: [curtsying] Yes, Your Majesty, but I just wanted to ask you...
Queen of Hearts: I`ll ask the questions! Do you play croquet?
Alice: Why, yes, Your Majesty.
Queen of Hearts: Then let the game begin!
White Rabbit: Her Imperial Highness, Her Grace, Her Excelency, Her Royal Majesty, the Queen of Hearts!
[Crowd cheers]
White Rabbit: ... And the King.
Voice in crowd: Hooray!
Alice: Well, it all started when I was sitting on the river bank with Dinah.
March Hare: Very interesting - Who`s Dinah?
[Pants lasciviously]
Alice: Oh, Dinah`s my cat. You see...
Dormouse: Cat? CAT!
Alice: Of all the silly nonsense, this is the stupidest tea party I`ve ever been to in all my life.
Orchid: To put it bluntly, a weed.
White Rabbit: Your Majesty, members of the jury, loyal subjects... and the King... the prisoner at the bar stands accused of enticing Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, into a game of croquet, thereby and with malice of forethought, molesting, tormenting, and otherwise annoying our beloved...
Queen of Hearts: Never mind all that! Get to the part where I lose my temper.
White Rabbit: ...thereby causing the Queen to lose her temper.
Queen of Hearts: And who is this?
King of Hearts: Let me see, my dear. It`s certainly not a heart. Do you suppose it`s a club?
King of Hearts: Rule 42: All persons more than a mile high must leave the court immediately.
Alice: I am not a mile high, and I`m not leaving.
Queen of Hearts: Sorry. Rule 42, you know.
Queen of Hearts: [after the Queen of Hearts is hit in the head and covered in the table cloth] Someone`s head IS GOING TO ROLL FOR THIS!
March Hare: Why don`t you start at the begining?
Mad Hatter: Yes and when you reach the end... Stop.
Alice: [after eating a mushroom] I`m tired of being only three inches high.
[suddenly grows out of control]
Alice: Yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!
[Alice reaches the door to escape from the mob]
Doorknob: [tries to open the door] D`oh! Still locked you know!
Alice: [in horror] But the queen! I simply must get out!
Doorknob: [chuckles] But you *are* outside.
Alice: What?
Doorknob: [opens his mouth] See for yourself.
[Alice sees through his mouth and sees herself asleep with Dinah also sleeping on her lap by a tree in a beautiful meadow]
Alice: Why - why that`s me! I`m asleep!
Queen of Hearts: [shout from a distance] Don`t let her get away! Off with her head!
Alice: [in terror, through the Doorknob`s mouth] Alice, wake up! Please, wake up, Alice!
Queen of Hearts: [comes closer with the other mob] Off with her head!
Alice: Alice! Please, wake up, Alice!
[as the mob draws nearer, the screen goes into multicolor until it shows Alice sleeping by the tree]
Alice: [voiceover] Alice! Alice! Alice!
Alice`s sister: [changes to her sister`s] Alice! Alice! Will you kindly pay attention and recite your lesson.
Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum: [singing together] How do ya do and shake hands, shake hands, shake hands. How do ya do and shake hands and state your name and business.
[both spoken]
Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum: That`s manners!
Alice: [turning down an offer for a cup of tea] I`m sorry, but I just haven`t the time!
March Hare: The time! The time! Who`s got the time!
Mad Hatter: [after "fixing" the White Rabbit`s watch] Two days slow, that`s what it is.
[first lines]
Alice`s sister: [reading from a history book] ... leaders, and had been of late much accustomed to usurpation and conquest. Edwin and Morcar, the earls of Mercia and Northumbria, declared for him: and even Stigand... Alice.
[camera zooms out to show Alice sitting in a tree, playing with Dinah and some daisies]
Alice: Hmm? Oh, I`m listening.
Alice`s sister: And even Stigand, the archbishop of Canterbury, agreed to meet with William and offer him the crown. William`s conduct at first was moderate.
[Alice laughs as her daisies fall on her sister`s face]
Alice: [drinks from bottle] Mmm... tastes like cherry tart.
[shrinks down]
Alice: Grapefruit.
[shrinks down]
Alice: Pineapple.
[shrinks down]
Alice: Roast turkey.
[now at minimum size]
Alice: Goodness! What did I do?
Doorknob: You almost went out like a candle!
Alice: Why, look! I`m just the right size!
Doorknob: No use. I forgot to tell you. I`m locked!
Alice: Oh no!
Doorknob: But of course, you`ve got the key, so...
Alice: What key?
Doorknob: Now, don`t tell me you`ve left it up there!
Trivia
Color screen tests of Mary Pickford as Alice were made for a proposed live-action/animation version of the story.
Kathryn Beaumont, who was the voice of Alice, narrates the "Alice in Wonderland" ride at Disneyland.
Sterling Holloway, who performed the voice of the Cheshire Cat, played the Frog in the 1933 version of Alice in Wonderland (1933).
The first Disney animated feature in which the voice talent is credited on-screen with the characters they each play. This would not occur again until The Jungle Book (1967).
In the Walrus and the Carpenter sequence, the R in the word "March" on the mother oyster`s calendar flashes. This alludes to the old adage about only eating oysters in a month with an R in its name. That is because those months without an R are the summer months, when oysters would not keep due to the heat, in the days before refrigeration.
This movie contained Dink Trout`s final role.
Originally, Alice was to sing a song different from "In a World of My Own". It would be a slow ballad entitled "Beyond the Laughing Sky", and it was a song about Alice dreaming of a new world, a world better than her own, very much in the spirit of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939). However, Kathryn Beaumont had difficulty singing, and it was decided that starting the film off with a slow ballad would be a little risky on audiences. The song we hear today, "In a World of My Own", is livelier, and was easier for Kathryn Beaumont to sing.
Continuing the pattern of film versions of "Alice in Wonderland" not being commercially successful, this movie was a huge box office failure. However, it did become something of a cult film during the 1960s, where it was viewed as a "head film".
The movie took five years to complete, but was in development for over ten years before it entered active production.
This movie is actually a combination of Lewis Carroll`s "Alice" books, "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass".
The Doorknob was the only character in Disney`s Alice in Wonderland (1951) that did not appear in Lewis Carroll`s books.
#
# This was the first Disney theatrical film to be shown on television, in 1954. It was shown as the second installment of the "Disneyland" (1954) TV show, edited to fit into a one hour time slot.
This is the only Disney feature-length cartoon film to have its first theatrical re-release after it had already been shown on television (although the film had been televised only in an edited, one-hour version).
The fish watching the Walrus lure the oysters away are the same fish that watch Pinocchio search for Monstro the whale in Pinocchio (1940).
#
# Early drafts of the script had Alice encounter the Jabberwock (to have been voiced by Stan Freberg), from Lewis Carroll`s poem "Jabberwocky". The sequence was rejected, either because it slowed the story down, or because of concerns that it would be too frightening. Elements of "Jabberwocky" remain in the film, however: the Cheshire Cat`s song "Twas Brillig", consisting of the opening stanza; and the Tulgey Wood sequence, which includes at least one of the creatures mentioned in the poem, the Mome Raths.
Lewis Carroll wrote the riddle "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" as nonsense - it has no answer. This has not stopped people, despite being repeatedly told that there is not, nor should there be, any answer, from trying to contrive one. Among the suggestions are, "because Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both" and "because the notes for which they are noted are not noted for being musical notes" (the second of which is very similar to a solution that Lewis Carroll himself wearily suggested when he grew tired of people asking him about it).
Though the film was a box-office flop when first released, several years later it became the Disney studio`s most requested 16mm film rental title for colleges and private individuals. In 1974, the studio took note of this fact, withdrew the rental prints, and reissued the film nationally themselves.
This was the first feature film for which Walt Disney was able to use television for cross-promotion. Walt Disney`s very first television program, One Hour in Wonderland (1950) (TV), which was broadcast on Christmas evening of 1950, was devoted to the production of this film. Naturally, the entire program, including the clips from the movie, were in black and white.
Walt Disney had considered doing a feature film of this story for years. During the very early part of his career, throughout the 1920s, Walt Disney created a number of shorts with a live action Alice placed in an animated world. Walt Disney continued to make this series, generally referred to as "The Alice Comedies", which were all silent, right up to time he made Steamboat Willie (1928).
Disney also explored the Wonderland stories in the black-and-white Mickey Mouse short, Thru the Mirror (1936), in which Mickey falls asleep reading "Alice in Wonderland", and dreams himself jumping through the looking-glass into Wonderland. Although there are many similarities between the two, the short was much more of a slapstick version (in keeping with the Mickey shorts of the 30`s) than the later film. The short is included as a supplemental on some DVD releases of Alice.
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