''Alice Solves the Puzzle'' is a 1925 animated short film directed by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

. It was the 15th film in the ''

Alice Comedies The ''Alice Comedies'' are a series of animated/live-action shorts created by Walt Disney in the 1920s, in which a live action little girl named Alice (originally played by Virginia Davis) and an animated cat named Julius have adventures in an ...

'' series, and is notable for being the first film to feature

Pete Pete or Petes or ''variation'', may refer to: People * Pete (given name) * Pete (nickname) * Pete (surname) Fictional characters * Pete (Disney), a cartoon character in the ''Mickey Mouse'' universe * Pete the Pup (a.k.a. 'Petey'), a character ...

, the longest-recurring Disney character. The film is also notable for being one of the first animated films to have been heavily censored. As of January 1, 2021, this film has fallen into the

public domain in the United States Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by intellectual property rights (such as copyright) at all, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired. All works first published or released in the United States b ...

Plot

A girl named Alice (Margie Gay) is struggling to complete a difficult

crossword A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answ ...

-puzzle when her cat

Julius The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...

tells her they should go to the beach. They swim in the ocean for a while then dry off and Alice continues her puzzle. Just as she begins, Bootleg Pete (a collector of rare crossword-puzzles who discovers that it is the one that he is missing) demands that she give him the puzzle. Alice refuses and even smacks him in the face, enraging Pete. She then runs into a

lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...

and locks the door. Pete breaks down the door and chases Alice around the lighthouse. Alice screams for help and Julius hears her. He climbs to the top and a fight breaks out. Julius wins the fight by knocking Pete off the lighthouse. Alice then discovers the last phrase in her puzzle, "The End".

Film

Legacy

Pete

''Alice Solves the Puzzle'' was the first film to feature the

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...

Pete. He would go on to become the longest running character of all the Disney animated creations. In this first installment he is referred to as "

Bootleg Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to: * Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially * Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence: ** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...

Pete" because of his use of whiskey (at a time when alcohol was illegal due to

prohibition in the US In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, an ...

). Because of his peg used for a right leg, he quickly gained the nickname Peg-Leg Pete. The early Pete was portrayed as a bear, which he would stay for most of his early appearances until the advent of

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

. Pete subsequently became a large cat.

Censorship

When Russell Merritt examined a German print of ''Alice Solves the Puzzle'', he was surprised to find an additional scene missing from American prints. In most prints of Pete's first scene, he is shown speeding in a boat being pulled by a pelican. He passes a police-dog, who blows a whistle and chases him. Pete simply turns and laughs. However, Merrit discovered in the German version that Pete is stopped by a customs inspector who examines the boat, then lets him pass. Pete then opens the pelican's mouth and pulls out a bottle of bootleg whiskey. This scene was cut because the Pennsylvania Censorship Board asked Disney to cut the scene during its first release. Disney then directed Winkler Studios, his distributor, to cut the scene from any further U.S. releases. The only remnant of the scene in the United States is two frames in which Pete's whiskey bottle is still visible.

References

External links

*
''Alice Solves the Puzzle''
a
the Internet Animation Database

''Alice Solves the Puzzle'' in ''Alice in Cartoonland'' at Google Photos
{{Alice Comedies 1925 films Films directed by Walt Disney Alice Comedies 1920s Disney animated short films 1925 animated films American silent short films American black-and-white films Animated films about cats Animated films about bears 1925 comedy films 1925 short films Animated films without speech Films set on beaches Crosswords Films about games 1920s American films