Walt Disney Productions
Starring: Kathryn Beaumont, Sterling Holloway
Directed by: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Alice (voiced by Kathryn Beaumont) is a dreamy English girl who follows a clothed white rabbit into its hole and stumbles into a bizarre Wonderland.

Cartoon Cats: At the beginning of the film Alice is outside with her older sister and her kitten Dinah.

Alice fashions a crown of daisies and places it on Dinah’s head, which makes Alice laugh.

Dinah the kitten listens with some confusion as Alice tells her what her world would be like.

Dinah is also the first one to see the White Rabbit reflected in a pool of water.

Dinah almost falls down the rabbit hole after Alice but catches herself in time and waves goodbye as Alice falls.  Interestingly enough, Dinah’s eyes are yellow as she peers down the hole instead of her usual blue.

Once in Wonderland, Alice encounters a wide variety of crazy characters, the most memorable of which may well by the Cheshire Cat (voiced by Sterling Holloway).

The Cheshire Cat appears several times throughout the film, usually singing lines from the poem Jabberwocky.  Originally the character was to have his own song entitled I’m Odd but this was not to be.

The Cheshire Cat delights in causing trouble for Alice with the vicious Red Queen.

It has been reported that in one early version of the film Dinah was supposed to also fall down the rabbit hole and become the Cheshire Cat.  But both characters are from the original Lewis Carroll work, although Dinah was not an actual presence in the story.

Final Mewsings: Cats exist comfortably in both reality and fantasy!

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