One of my all time favorite animated films – Alice in Wonderland (The Unbirthday Song)

Disney’s 1951 Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time favorite animated films, because it magically captures the surrealism of the World War II and Post War art movement with some of the best voice over actors and musical numbers.

Did you know that Salvador Dali and Walt Disney were close friends? He even animated some stuff for Disney as a sequel to Fantasia, which never got finished until the year 2000. Watch the movie here.

Artist's illustration of Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. These guys are part of the reason people today say surreal when they mean weird.

Today we interviewed mom-blogger Raising My Rainbow about her four year old son C.J., who thinks he might be gay. We certainly share a lot in common, as both of us adore Alice in Wonderland.

I love this film because it’s pure non-stop insanity, giving full focus to all the odd-ball Disney characters, making the plain and simple Alice merely an excuse to have the voice over actors chew the scenery. The film is completely nuts.

Who hasn’t sung a friend the “Unbirthday Song?”

The scene features Alice trying to ask the Mad Hatter, the Hare and the Dormouse for directions on how to find her way home. When the White Rabbit appears, they attempt to fix his pocket watch by jamming it with butter and jam, and the watch goes mad.

Playing the March Hare was Bob Hope’s radio program actor Jerry Colonna and vaudevillian legend Ed Wynn, best known for playing the fey Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins who loved to laugh so much it made him float on the ceiling.

Ed Wynn loved to laugh.

I consider Alice in Wonderland to be one of Disney’s most dazzling, imaginative films ever, full of wonderful moments like this. Still for all it’s achievements, this film never got the recognition it deserved probably because it was always seen as too outlandish and frantic. It’s this wild pace the entire film goes it that has influenced my work as a performer and comedian.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 24th, 2011 at 3:18 am and is filed under Culture & Style, Movies, Music, Musical Theatre, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.