What A "Golden Afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                          That afternoon was this past Thursday, August 27, when we went to the Paris Theater in Manhattan for a 75th Anniversary screening of what is my favorite Disney cartoon.  Not since "The Wizard Of Oz" twelve years before, has color been used so brightly and brilliantly.  Not only that, for an 80 plus minute film, the screenwriters manage to cram as much Lewis Carroll into the story, even bits of "Through The Looking Glass," and get it right.

                                                                                

                                  Take a look at the artistry and detail of this shot.  Where is this quality of work done anymore?  I just want to sink into the flowers, like Alice, and I  so wanted to have Alice's hair and wear that blue dress with the white apron, stockings and shoes.  

                                    Disney assembled quite a cast for 'Alice.' Kathryn Beaumont, in the title role, who would go on to voice Wendy in Disney's "Peter Pan," Then there is Richard Haydn, who would go on to play Max Detweiler in "The Sound Of Music," come 1965.  Ed Wynn is unforgettable as the Mad Hunter, as is Sterling Holloway as the White Rabbit., and the scene stealing Verna Felton as the Red Queen, whose "Off with her head!" steals the show each time she says it.

                                   But it is the visuals that make the film, and it amazes me that this did not enjoy success with the drug crowd, but "Fantasia" did.  Even The Beatles reference Lewis Carroll's classic in the lyric "Follow her down to a bridge by a river/Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies."  This is from "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," yet is SO "Alice In Wonderland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                  It had been three years since I last saw this, and I hope in three years, or even less, to see it again.   Underrated at the time, I think it deserves recognition as Disney's best animated feature.

                                   "How do we get to Wonderland," a song lyric asks.

                                     Viewers will want to know after seeing this film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!