Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972 film)

1972 British musical film by William Sterling

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1972 British musical film directed by Australian filmmaker William Sterling, based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel of the same name and its 1871 sequel, Through the Looking Glass. It had a distinguished ensemble cast 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 from the first edition of the novel. At the 26th British Academy Film Awards, the film won both of its nominated categories, including Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design.

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.

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 for an unknown young actress to play the title role of Alice. Over 2,000 girls between the ages of thirteen to 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's search for the roles of Romeo and Juliet six years earlier. Some actresses who auditioned for the role of Alice included Lynne Frederick, Rosalyn Landor, Karen Dotrice, 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 film The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972), which came out the same year as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972). Fifteen year old Fiona Fullerton 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.

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 Alice 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.

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

Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref. British Academy Film Awards Best Cinematography Geoffrey Unsworth Best Costume Design Anthony Mendleson

The film has been released on VHS and DVD several times.