''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' is a 1972 British

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

directed by Australian filmmaker William Sterling, based on

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's 1865 novel of the same name and its 1871 sequel, ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' is a novel published in December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, Christ Church, University of Oxford. I ...

''. It had a distinguished

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

and a musical score composed by John Barry with lyrics written by Don Black. In addition, make-up artist Stuart Freeborn created film visuals based on the original drawings by

John Tenniel John Tenniel (; 28 February 182025 February 1914) was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knight bachelor ...

from the first edition of the novel. At the

26th British Academy Film Awards The 26th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, took place on 28 February 1973 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 1972. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Telev ...

, the film won both of its nominated categories, including Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.

Plot

Alice is a little girl living in England. One day, she sees a white rabbit, follows it and ends up getting swept away in a rabbit hole to Wonderland, a place unlike anything she has seen before. There, Alice finds a door and realizes it is too small for her. She finds a bottle that says “Drink Me”, drinks it and starts to get smaller. However, Alice realizes she will not be able to go through the door without the key. Alice then finds a cookie that reads “Eat Me”. While eating it, Alice grows in size again, starts singing about how big she is and cries. Her tears flood the room, and she becomes small again. Alice starts to find talking animals, like the Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit. Alice ends up at the rabbit's house and drinks a bottle to change sizes again. Alice ends up being too big for the White Rabbit, so she changes back to her regular size. She joins a tea party, with a man named the Mad Hatter, eventually gets fed up with Wonderland's inhabitants and returns home.

Cast

Fiona Fullerton Fiona Elizabeth Fullerton (born 10 October 1956) is a British actress and singer, known for her role as Alice in the 1972 film ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and as Bond girl KGB spy Pola Ivanova in the 1985's James Bond film ''A View to a ...

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

Hywel Bennett Hywel Thomas Bennett (8 April 1944 – 24 July 2017) was a Welsh film and television actor. He had a lead role in '' The Family Way'' (1966) and played the titular "thinking man's layabout" James Shelley in the television sitcom '' Shelley'' ( ...

Duckworth Duckworth may refer to: * Duckworth (surname), people with the surname ''Duckworth'' * Duckworth (''DuckTales''), fictional butler from the television series ''DuckTales'' * Duckworth Books Duckworth Books, originally Gerald Duckworth and Co ...

Michael Crawford Michael Patrick Smith (born 19 January 1942), known professionally as Michael Crawford, is an English actor, comedian and singer. Crawford is best known for playing the hapless Frank Spencer in the sitcom '' Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', Cornel ...

White Rabbit The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering "Oh dear! Oh dea ...

* Robert Helpmann -

Mad Hatter The Hatter (called Hatta in ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and its 1871 sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. He is often referred to as The Mad Hatter ...

Michael Hordern Sir Michael Murray Hordern (3 October 19112 May 1995) was an English actor. He is best known for his Shakespearean roles, especially King Lear. He often appeared in film, rising from a bit part actor to leading roles; by the time of his death ...

- Mock Turtle *

Michael Jayston Michael A. James (29 October 1935 – 5 February 2024), known professionally as Michael Jayston, was an English actor. He played Nicholas II of Russia in the film '' Nicholas and Alexandra'' (1971). He also made many television appearances, whi ...

- Dodgson * Davy Kaye -

Mouse A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...

Roy Kinnear Roy Mitchell Kinnear (8 January 1934 – 20 September 1988) was an English character actor and comedian. He was known for his acting roles in movies such as Henry Salt in the 1971 film ''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'', Algernon in The Be ...

- Cheshire Cat *

Spike Milligan Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British India, where he spent his ...

- Gryphon *

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. He first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writer-perf ...

Dormouse A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...

* Dennis Price - King of Hearts *

Ralph Richardson Sir Ralph David Richardson (19 December 1902 – 10 October 1983) was an English actor who, with John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, was one of the trinity of male actors who dominated the British stage for much of the 20th century. He wo ...

Caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...

* Flora Robson - Queen of Hearts *

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show''. Sellers featured on a number of hit comi ...

March Hare The March Hare (called Haigha in '' Through the Looking-Glass'') is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''. The main character, Alice, hypothesizes, : " ...

Rodney Bewes Rodney Bewes (27 November 1937 – 21 November 2017) was an English television actor and writer who portrayed Bob Ferris in the BBC television sitcom '' The Likely Lads'' (1964–66) and its colour sequel ''Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? ...

- Knave of Hearts * Ray Brooks - 5 of Spades *

Richard Warwick Richard Warwick (29 April 1945 – 16 December 1997) was an English actor. He was born Richard Carey Winter, the third of four sons, at Meopham, Kent, and made his film debut in Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 production of ''Romeo and Juliet'' in t ...

- 7 of Spades *

Dennis Waterman Dennis Waterman (24 February 1948 – 8 May 2022) was an English actor and singer. He was best known for his tough-guy leading roles in television series including ''The Sweeney'', ''Minder (TV series), Minder'' and ''New Tricks'', singing the ...

- 2 of Spades * Julian Chagrin - Bill the Lizard *

Peter Bull Peter Cecil Bull, (21 March 1912 – 20 May 1984) was a British actor who appeared on the stage and in supporting roles in such films as '' The African Queen'', '' Tom Jones'' and '' Dr. Strangelove''. Peter Bull wrote twelve books. Biograph ...

Duchess Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they a ...

* Patsy Rowlands -

Cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (profession), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * C ...

* Freddie Earlle - Guinea Pig Pat * Freddie and Frank Cox -

Tweedledum and Tweedledee Tweedledum and Tweedledee are characters in an English nursery rhyme and in Lewis Carroll's 1871 book '' Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There''. Their names may have originally come from an epigram written by poet John Byrom. T ...

* William Ellis -

Dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinction, extinct flightless bird that was endemism, endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest relative was the also-extinct and flightles ...

* Mike Elles - Guinea Pig Two * Peter O'Farrell - Fish Footman * Ian Trigger - Frog Footman * Victoria Shallard - Lorina * Pippa Vickers - Edith * Ray Edwards - Eaglet * Stanley Bates - Monkey * Melita Manger - Squirrel * Angela Morgan -

Lory Loriini is a tribe of small to medium-sized arboreal parrots characterized by their specialized brush-tipped tongues for feeding on nectar of various blossoms and soft fruits, preferably berries. The species form a monophyletic group within the p ...

* June Kidd - Magpie * Michael Reardon - Frog * Brian Tipping -

Duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

Production

Casting

It was originally intended to cast an actress who was close to the age of Alice in the original book. They began their search looking for girls who were between seven and ten years old. This concept was later scrapped when they realized that most girls of that age "lose their teeth, lisp a great deal, and have short attention spans." When the decision was made to audition older actresses, the director, William Sterling, orchestrated a nationwide search across

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

for an unknown young actress to play the title role of

. Over 2,000 girls between the ages of thirteen and seventeen auditioned for this highly sought after role. This search had been considered to be one of the biggest in the UK since

Franco Zeffirelli Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (; 12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019) was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post–World War II e ...

's search for the roles of ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'' six years earlier. Some actresses who auditioned for the role of Alice included Lynne Frederick, Rosalyn Landor,

Karen Dotrice Karen Dotrice ( ; born 9 November 1955) is a British actress. She is known primarily for her role as Jane Banks in Walt Disney's ''Mary Poppins'', the feature film adaptation of the ''Mary Poppins'' book series. Dotrice was born in Guernsey in t ...

, Deborah Makepeace, and Chloe Franks. Landor, who had just turned thirteen at the time, impressed everyone at her audition and was asked back a few times, but the producers and director ultimately decided that she was too young. Frederick was nearly eighteen at the time of her audition, and after doing a few screen tests was deemed too sophisticated and mature for the part. Landor and Frederick were later cast in the

Lionel Jeffries Lionel Charles Jeffries (10 June 1926 – 19 February 2010) was an English actor, director, and screenwriter. He appeared primarily in films and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Golden ...

film '' The Amazing Mr. Blunden'' (1972), which came out the same year as ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1972). Fifteen year old

was ultimately cast as Alice. For the role of Alice, Fullerton had her long hip length brown hair dyed chestnut blonde. Fullerton would later star on stage in London's West End in the musicals ''Camelot'' and '' Nymph Errant'', singing on both productions' cast recordings. Robert Helpmann had worked with Sterling several times in Australia.

Deleted scenes

Two songs appear on the film's soundtrack but are not in the final cut of the film: "I've Never Been This Far Before" performed by Alice when she enters the garden outside the Queen of Heart's palace, and "The Moral Song" sung by the Duchess to Alice during the Croquet Game. A dialogue scene was filmed between

and the Cheshire Cat, with the latter perched in a tree. Although some stills survive, the footage itself was cut from the final print and may no longer exist.

Soundtrack

; The Duchess Is Waiting : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Michael Crawford ; Curiouser And Curiouser : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Fiona Fullerton ; You've Got To Know When To Stop : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Davy Kaye ; The Royal Processions : Music by John Barry ; The Last Word Is Mine : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Michael Crawford and Fiona Fullerton ; Digging For Apples : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Freddie Earlle ; There Goes Bill : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Freddie Earlle and Mike Elles ; How Doth The Little Crocodile : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Fiona Fullerton ; Dum And Dee Dance (Nursery Rhyme) : Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Fiona Fullerton ; From The Queen, An Invitation for the Duchess To Play Croquet : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Peter O'Farrell and Ian Trigger ; The Duchess's Lullaby : Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Peter Bull and Patsy Rowlands ; It's More Like A Pig Than A Baby : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Fiona Fullerton ; I See What I Eat : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Fiona Fullerton ; Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Robert Helpmann, Dudley Moore ; The Pun Song : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Robert Helpmann, Peter Sellers, Dudley Moore and Fiona Fullerton ; Off With Their Heads : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Flora Robson ; The Croquet Game : Music by John Barry ; Off With Their Heads (Reprise) : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Flora Robson ; I've Never Been This Far Before : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Fiona Fullerton ; The Moral Song : Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Peter Bull ; The Me I Never Knew : Lyrics by Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Fiona Fullerton ; The Lobster Quadrille (The Mock Turtle's Song) : Music by John Barry ; Will You Walk A Little Faster, Said A Whiting to a Snail : Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Michael Hordern and Spike Milligan ; They Told Me (Evidence Read at the Trial of the Knave of Hearts) : Lyrics by Lewis Carroll and Don Black : Music by John Barry : Performed by Michael Crawford

Reception

Box office

The film was one of the most popular movies of the year at the British box office in 1973.

Accolades

Home media

The film has been released on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

several times.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972 film) 1972 films 1972 children's films 1972 fantasy films 1972 musical films 1970s British films 1970s children's fantasy films 1970s English-language films 1970s musical fantasy films British children's fantasy films British musical fantasy films Cultural depictions of Lewis Carroll English-language musical fantasy films Films about size change Films based on Alice in Wonderland Films based on multiple works of a series Films directed by William Sterling (director) Films scored by John Barry (composer)