| "Alice's Wonderland" was the film that birthed the Walt Disney Company in 1923. Watch it on YouTube with Dr. Peter and Dayle's reaction in celebration of Disney100.
It all began in 1923 when Walt Disney's company Laugh-o-Gram Films produced the first hybrid live-action and animation short "Alice's Wonderland," the first in the Alice Comedies series starring little Virginia Davis along with her animated cat Julius (the Felix the Cat lookalike competitor and the predecessor to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) and Walt Disney, himself who also directed all films in the series. Filming took place in Kansas City, Missouri at the studio and in the Davis' home. After the company failed that same year, Walt bought a one-way ticket to California to meet up with his brother Roy and they established the Disney Brothers Studio. "Alice's Wonderland" was taken up by New York cartoon distributor Margaret Winkler, and with the newly signed contracts signed on October 23, 1923, the Disney enterprise was born. The Davis Family moved to California where they continued filming the series. They produced 56 more Alice Comedies until 1927. Three other girls played Alice after 1925: Margie Gay, Dawn O’Day, and Lois Hardwick. Animator Ub Iwerks, Disney's chief animator from his previous ventures, also moved to Los Angeles and continued work on the Alice Comedies, then Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and finally was instrumental in developing Mickey Mouse in 1928 with the new era of talkies. It is Mickey to whom Walt attributed his success saying, "I hope we never lose sight of one thing—that it was all started by a mouse." Perhaps Mickey secured Disney's fame, but let us pay tribute this year to a little girl named Alice who laid the groundwork, dancing her way into the hearts of many a silent film-goer just 5 years prior.
"Alice's Wonderland" begins with Alice entering a cartoon studio. She is invited in to watch the cartoons being drawn, which come to life before her eyes to her amazement. That night, Alice dreams that she is being welcomed by the characters of Cartoonland and does a dance to thank them. Suddenly, a group of lions breaks free from the zoo and they chase her until she awakens from the dream in her own bed safe at home.
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