Disney’s Fourteenth Animated Feature – 1953
Walt Disney’s project to become the primary shaper of children’s entertainment went full-tilt in the early 1950’s, when in the space of four years, the studio released three feature-length cartoons: the fairy tale Cinderella, the whimsical Alice in Wonderland, and the action-packed Peter Pan. The heroic, scatterbrained, grownup-hating Peter was a much more recent creation than Cinderella and Alice, having been introduced by playwright (later novelist) J.M. Barrie in 1904, but had already taken his place as one of the most beloved characters in children’s popular culture. Disney’s version includes all the elements necessary in a re-telling of the story: three English siblings, their frustrated father, a canine nursemaid, pirates, orphan boys, a hungry crocodile, and, of course, pixie dust. The result is a somewhat rushed, very tame but thoroughly diverting film, Disney’s fourteenth animated feature.
doesn’t open in the classic Disney fashion, showing the opening of an animated storybook; which is ironic, since Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland is arguably the best source material Disney had worked with to date. Carroll’s fantastical novel with its magical transformations and talking animals begs to be animated. In fact, Disney made his name as an animator in 1923 with a silent, black and white Alice In Wonderland in an animation where he combined footage of a child actor as Alice cavorting in a fanciful, animated world.