Alice Comedies

Animation byUb Iwerks
Rollin Hamilton
Hugh Harman
Friz FrelengColor processBlack-and-white1923-1927CountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish (with intertitles)

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 animated landscape. The shorts were the first work by what ultimately became The Walt Disney Company.

Alice's Wonderland

Disney, Ub Iwerks, and their staff made the first Alice Comedy, a one-reel (ten-minute) 1923 short subject titled Alice's Wonderland, while still heading the failing Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri.^[1]

Alice's Wonderland begins with Alice entering a cartoon studio to witness cartoons being created. Alice is amazed by what she sees: the cartoon characters come to life and play around. After heading to bed that night, she dreams of being in the cartoon world, welcomed by all of the characters. Alice plays with them until a group of lions break free from a cage and chase her. Though never released, this short helped set the stage for what was to come in the later Alice Comedies, as it established the world as a playful dream and also introduced the elements which would soon define the series. The idea of setting a real-world girl in an animated world was at this point in film history still unique. The design and voice of the later series were all set by this original film.

The Alice Comedies series begins

After completing the film, the studio went bankrupt and was forced to shut down. After raising money by working as a freelance photographer, Disney bought a one-way train ticket to Los Angeles, California to live with his uncle Robert and his brother Roy. In California, Disney continued to send out proposals for the Alice series, in hopes of obtaining a distribution agreement. A deal was finally arranged through Winkler Pictures, run by Margaret Winkler^[2] and her fiancé, Charles Mintz. Because of a recent falling out with Pat Sullivan, the studio needed a quick replacement for their centerpiece Felix the Cat animated series.^[3] Disney convinced Davis's family to bring her from Missouri to Los Angeles to star in the series.^[4]

Shorts and subsequent releases

Walt Disney both directed and produced all 57 films in this series. Animation was done by Walt Disney, sometimes assisted by Rollin "Ham" Hamilton. Over the course of the series, four actresses played Alice: Virginia Davis (15), Margie Gay (31), Dawn O'Day (1) and Lois Hardwick (10). The film Alice in the Jungle contains only archival footage of Virginia Davis.

The shorts in this series are now all in the public domain in the United States.^[a] In 2000, Inkwell Images released Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney in VHS, and in 2007 in DVD as part of the Golden Classics series with ten of the films as well as a documentary, poster gallery, and DVD ROM. In 2007, Kit Parker Films released another DVD called Alice in Cartoonland: The 35mm Collector's Set. In 2005 and again in 2007, ten shorts in the series were released as part of the Walt Disney Treasures series. Seven were part of the Disney Rarities that was released in 2005, while three more were released as part of The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, released in 2007.

In 2016, Alice shorts held by the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam were restored for global re-release.^[5]

A total of 16 Alice Comedies shorts are thought to be lost, and 1 Alice Comedies short (Alice's Auto Race) has been partially found.

#	Short film	Date	Actress	Status or DVD release	Short if available
1	Alice's Wonderland	October 16, 1923[6]	Virginia Davis	Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s–1960s and Special "Un-Anniversary" Edition of Alice in Wonderland
2	Alice's Day at Sea	March 1, 1924	Virginia Davis	N/A
3	Alice's Spooky Adventure	April 1, 1924	Virginia Davis	N/A
4	Alice's Wild West Show	May 1, 1924	Virginia Davis	Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s–1960s
5	Alice's Fishy Story	June 1, 1924	Virginia Davis	Unknown
6	Alice and the Dog Catcher	July 1, 1924	Virginia Davis
7	Alice the Peacemaker	August 1, 1924	Virginia Davis	Unknown
8	Alice Gets in Dutch	November 1, 1924	Virginia Davis	Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s–1960s
9	Alice Hunting in Africa	November 15, 1924	Virginia Davis	Unknown
10	Alice and the Three Bears	December 1, 1924	Virginia Davis
11	Alice the Piper	December 15, 1924	Virginia Davis	Unknown
12	Alice Cans the Cannibals	January 1, 1925	Virginia Davis	Unknown
13	Alice the Toreador	January 15, 1925	Virginia Davis	Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney
14	Alice Gets Stung	February 1, 1925	Virginia Davis	Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
15	Alice Solves the Puzzle	February 15, 1925	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney	The first appearance of what would become Pete.
16	Alice's Egg Plant	May 30, 1925	Dawn O'Day	Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s–1960s
17	Alice Loses Out	June 15, 1925	Margie Gay	Unknown
18	Alice Gets Stage Struck	June 30, 1925	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney
19	Alice Wins the Derby	July 15, 1925	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney
20	Alice Picks the Champ	July 30, 1925	Margie Gay	Formerly lost
21	Alice's Tin Pony	August 15, 1925	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – 35 mm Collector's Set
22	Alice Chops the Suey	August 30, 1925	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – 35 mm Collector's Set
23	Alice the Jail Bird	September 15, 1925	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – 35 mm Collector's Set
24	Alice Plays Cupid	October 15, 1925	Margie Gay	Unknown
25	Alice Rattled by Rats	November 15, 1925	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disneyand Technicolor Dreams - And Black & White Nightmares
26	Alice in the Jungle	December 15, 1925	Virginia Davis	Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s–1960s
27	Alice on the Farm	January 1, 1926	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney
28	Alice's Balloon Race	January 15, 1926	Margie Gay	Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
29	Alice's Orphan	January 15, 1926	Margie Gay	Alice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney
30	Alice's Little Parade	February 1, 1926	Margie Gay	Unknown
31	Alice's Mysterious Mystery	February 15, 1926	Margie Gay	Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s–1960s
32	Alice Charms the Fish	September 6, 1926	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon First Alice Comedies short to be distributed by the Film Booking Offices of America.
33	Alice's Monkey Business	September 20, 1926	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
34	Alice in the Wooly West	October 4, 1926	Margie Gay	Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
35	Alice the Fire Fighter	October 18, 1926	Margie Gay	Unknown
36	Alice Cuts the Ice	November 1, 1926	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
37	Alice Helps the Romance	November 15, 1926	Margie Gay	Unknown
38	Alice's Spanish Guitar	November 29, 1926	Margie Gay	Unknown
39	Alice's Brown Derby	December 13, 1926	Margie Gay	Unknown
40	Alice the LumberJack	December 27, 1926	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
41	Alice the Golf Bug	January 10, 1927	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
42	Alice Foils the Pirates	January 24, 1927	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
43	Alice at the Carnival	February 10, 1927	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
44	Alice at the Rodeo	February 21, 1927	Margie Gay	Unknown
45	Alice the Collegiate	March 7, 1927	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
46	Alice in the Alps	March 21, 1927	Margie Gay	Lost cartoon
47	Alice's Auto Race	April 4, 1927	Margie Gay	Partially lost cartoon
48	Alice's Circus Daze	April 18, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Unknown
49	Alice's Knaughty Knight	May 2, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Lost cartoon
50	Alice's Three Bad Eggs	May 16, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Lost cartoon
51	Alice's Picnic	May 30, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Lost cartoon
52	Alice's Channel Swim	June 13, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Lost cartoon
53	Alice in the Klondike	June 27, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Lost cartoon Last appearance of Pete in the Alice Comedies.
54	Alice's Medicine Show	July 11, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Lost cartoon
55	Alice the Whaler	July 25, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s–1960s
56	Alice the Beach Nut	August 8, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Lost cartoon	Last appearance of Julius the Cat.
57	Alice in the Big League	August 22, 1927	Lois Hardwick	Unknown	Last Alice Comedies short to be distributed by the Film Booking Offices of America.

See also

• Animation in the United States during the silent era
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

References

External links

• Alice Comedies at IMDb
• The Alice Comedies at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012.
• Alice in Cartoonland - The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney [1]