Entertainment for young girls was far different in 1966. There were no K-Pop Demon Hunters cartoons nor any Taylor Swift (or any other videos). No smartphones, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagrams, or iPads. One thing they did have was a charming movie helmed by one of animation’s most influential figures of the late 1950s and 1960’s.
I do not intend to do a detailed retrospective of Deitch’s amazing career and credits here, as I want to focus on the Alice feature and its antecedents. Gene Deitch was in his formative years as an apprentice at United Productions of America (UPA), an experience that shaped his artistic future. One of his influences was Bob (Bobe) Cannon, a gentle soul who eschewed cartoon violence and produced sweet-natured shorts often featuring child protagonists. Minimalist animation and sparse backgrounds were typical. Deitch’s cartoons during his time as animation director at Terrytoons (1956-1958) suggested a significant UPA influence.
It is worth noting that Alice features two stories adapted from Ludwig Bemelmans’s Madeline books and one adaptation of a James Thurber story; UPA produced its own version of Madeline in 1952, directed by Cannon, and of Thurber’s A Unicorn in the Garden in 1953. I do want to note that when hired to do 13 Tom and Jerry cartoons for MGM in 1961, Deitch initially hedged, thinking that the original cartoons were “needlessly violent.” One cannot underestimate the influence of Deitch’s UPA experiences on his 1966 Alice film. Alice herself is drawn in a stylized way that could have placed her in many contemporary UPA cartoon shorts. Backgrounds appear in watercolor and pastel, more so as the story segments come into focus.
Alice of Wonderland in Paris (also known as Alice in a New Wonderland) was a production of Rembrandt Films in Prague, Czechoslovakia; Deitch had relocated there in 1959 and soon became a lifelong resident after meeting his future wife, Zdenka. Rembrandt was under the direction of William Snyder, for whom Deitch did several animation projects. The animation crew was composed mostly of the same artists who worked on Deitch’s Tom and Jerry shorts. Deitch, of course, directed.
The movie is in anthology form. Alice, now back from her Wonderland adventures, has a powerful yen to visit Paris and meet her hero, Madeline. Meanwhile, we see the first interlude based on Eve Titus’ story, Anatole. This tale involves a French mouse, Anatole, whose superior cheese-tasting abilities elevate him to the vice-presidency of a cheese factory.
Anatole visits Alice to get her opinions on various cheeses, but Alice is only interested in going to Paris. Promising to sample cheese, Alice makes a deal with Anatole to meet Madeline. Anatole has a chunk of cheese made with the magical mushrooms that shrank Alice in her previous adventures, and it does the trick here as well. They ride Anatole’s tiny bike to Paris.
Madeline is not at her boarding school, and a disappointed Alice assumes everyone is at the Spanish Ambassador’s house, leading her to tell Anatole the story of Madeline and the Bad Hat. The Bad Hat is the Ambassador’s loutish prankster of a son. When one of his pranks badly backfires, he is set straight by a scolding Madeline while recovering in a hospital.
The animation is a faithful copy of Bemelman’s artwork as seen in his books, the only such stylistic departure in the film. Bill Melendez and Frank Smith also recreated Bemelman’s style for the 1952 UPA short.
Anatole is increasingly unhappy over Alice’s refusal to sample cheese, and she warns him about being surly using the 1959 story of The Frowning Prince (with the immovable frown) by Crockett Johnson. While the animation at times suggests Crockett’s work, it is not nearly as precise a copy as in the Madeline segments.
A deal is struck! Alice will accompany Anatole to his cheese factory to taste every kind of cheese requested by the insistent mouse. However, Alice ingests too much ‘wine cheese” and becomes a bit tipsy, leading to the tale Many Moons by James Thurber. There is no attempt here to replicate Thurber’s drawing style as in the 1953 UPA short. After relating this story of how the simple logic of a bright young princess shows up the combined knowledge of the king’s most brilliant men, it’s off again to seek out Madeline.
A slight distraction happens, however, in the form of a gypsy carnival. Madeline’s boarding school is visiting, shepherded by Miss Clavel. Through some misadventures, Madeline and a companion flee the carnival in a lion costume, but the gypsies find and return them, ending the adventure with a trip back to the boarding school. Alice finally encounters Madeline, only to find that the French moppet dreams of being Alice in Wonderland! A tout a l’heure mes amis!
Although the animation department was Eastern European, Deitch had several storyboard artists from his Terrytoons days assist them: Eli Bauer, Larx Bourne, and Howard Swift worked alongside Deitch himself.
The voice cast featured several veterans and some surprise guests. Soap Opera star Luce Ennis provided a singing voice. Carl Reiner provided the Gallic accent for Anatole the Mouse. Howard Morris, who went on to voice many animated characters throughout his career, provided several voices for the Frowning Prince segment. Allen Swift, a prodigious animated voice actor who previously worked with Deitch, handled the voicework for Many Moons. And let’s not forget another Deitch associate, Lionel Wilson, also in the Many Moons segment, whose Terrytoons career included all the voice work for Deitch’s Tom Terrific. Trinka Snyder portrayed the precocious Princess Lenore.
And Alice? Her voice came courtesy of the superb voice artist Norma MacMillan (credited in the film as Norma Mac Millan, but please, let’s not get into that again!).
What we have here is an enchanting, genteel film produced by a man whose sensibilities it reflected. While Alice is not an outstanding animated feature, there is little in this movie to quibble about. Deitch retired in 2008 after directing animated adaptations of children’s books for Weston Woods Studios; for those familiar with Alice of Wonderland in Paris, this should surprise no one.
Martin Goodman is a veteran writer specializing in stories about animation. He has written for AWN and Animation Scoop – and lives in Anderson, Indiana.
Gene Deitch was very proud of his experience at UPA and never failed to boast of having been a “UPA man” in the many interviews he gave over the years. By this time, however, the influence of the UPA style upon the animation industry was so prevalent that it affected studios as far afield as Prague and Zagreb (though it seems to have had little impact in Japan). While composer Victor Little (real name Václav Lídl) was Czech and had never worked at UPA, much of his woodwind-dominated score recalls the music of early UPA cartoons, as well as the scores that Deitch coaxed out of Philip Scheib during his tenure at Terrytoons. On the other hand, Little was clearly sensitive to the requirements of the story and was able to adapt his musical style accordingly to suit it. He uses the accordion when needed to provide a specifically Parisian atmosphere, and there’s one lovely solo for the harpsichord, an instrument that had fallen into obsolescence by 1800 but was enjoying a revival in the mid-1960s thanks to “The Addams Family”. At least the weird, reverb-heavy sound effects that plague Deitch’s Tom and Jerry cartoons are kept to a minimum here.
The Madeline books were very popular with girls in the 1960s; my sister and many of my classmates had them. I wonder whether “Alice of Wonderland in Paris” would appeal to children today. I suppose many of them might find it slow-moving and hard to follow.
The princess with the irresistible smile looks like Sue, the girl in the TV commercials with the Cheerios Kid.
I have heard of this movie, but never watched it before. As a devotee of Lewis Carroll’s classic, I tend to be wary of adaptations that stray from the original. Yet this film, while going in a different direction altogether, does give a nod to its inspiration. The opening depicts the Wonderland characters with appropriate respect. That lays a good foundation.
Taken for what it is, this film has its own measure of charm. I remember Madeline and Anatole from childhood reading. Given the episodic nature of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking Glass,” it is somewhat fitting to employ an “anthology” approach to this semi-sequel. And utilizing pre-existing works of French children’s literature serves this film very well. I also enjoy the Parisian style underscoring.
It’s interesting to note that Deitch and Hanna-Barbera released a Wonderland film in the same year, both utilizing the Carroll/Dodgson original as a takeoff point, but each taking the character and concept in bold new directions.
I really appreciate Deitch’s comment that the original Tom and Jerry cartoons were “needlessly violent.” That gives me a fresh reason to re-appraise his work on that series. Not that I minded cartoon violence as a kid. But as we get older we tend to read more into those violent episodes than we used to. I’m glad he made that statement.
Thanks for sharing this post. For me it is an “undiscovered treasure.”
I wonder if ClassicFlix should release this on home video via the Cartoon Logic label given its public domain status? I doubt it though since the shorts themselves from Alice of Wonderland in Paris are still copyrighted.