HANNA-BARBERA'S NEW ALICE IN WONDERLAND OR WHAT'S A NICE KID LIKE YOU DOING IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?

Publicity poster for Hanna Barbera's New Alice in Wonderland (© Alex Lovy/Hanna-Barbera Productions/Screen Gems - reproduced on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

25 July 2020 marked a major movie triumph for me, inasmuch as that was the momentous day when I finally found and watched an animated film that I'd long wanted to but never thought that I would. Moreover, it must surely have the longest title of any animated movie – possibly of any movie of any genre, in fact. For it is known in full as: Hanna-Barbera's New Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (The Hanna-Barbera's New portion is sometimes omitted, or alternatively just the one word New, but the remainder of it is a single sentence undivided by a comma, dash, or colon.)

Anyway, directed by Alex Lovy and originally screened in 1966, this erstwhile-elusive movie is a 48-minute-long animated TV special produced by the then-prolific animation studio of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and was sponsored when shown on TV by Rexall and Coca-Cola. It is based (very) loosely upon the two Alice books written by Lewis Carroll. However, the dialogue of the various characters owes little if anything to Carroll's originals, because this production's obvious intent is to serve as an affectionate modern-day pastiche rather than as a serious attempt to faithfully recreate the books on screen, being set in 1965, i.e. exactly 100 years after Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (to give it its official title) was first published.

Nevertheless, it boasts some memorable celebrities supplying character voices, including most notably Sammy Davis Jr stealing the show as a jive-talking streetwise Cheshire Cat, Zsa Zsa Gabor as the Queen of Hearts, the famous gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as Hedda Hatter (presumably the Mad Hatter's hitherto-unmentioned wife?), plus Alan Reed & Mel Blanc, the original voices of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, as – yes indeed – Fred & Barney, but here they constitute the heads of a two-headed amphicephalous version of Carroll's Caterpillar character (i.e. it has a head at each end of its body).

Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Hanna-Barbera's New Alice in Wonderland (© Alex Lovy/Hanna-Barbera Productions/Screen Gems - reproduced on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

There is also a W.C. Fields-soundalike King of Hearts voiced by the extremely versatile Daws Butler (a veteran voice provider for numerous H-B cartoon characters over the years), plus a Humphrey Bogart-influenced Humpty Dumpty (voiced by Allan Melvin), and a March Hare voiced by Daws Butler again, but this time mimicking with great aplomb the exceedingly distinctive vocals of American actor Ed Wynn – who just so happened to voice the Mad Hatter in Walt Disney's own classic animated feature Alice in Wonderland (1951). Alice herself is voiced by two different people – Doris Drew when singing, Janet Waldo when speaking. Waldo was another veteran H-B voice performer, also providing the voice of Penelope Pitstop, Judy Jetson, Nancy in the genie cartoon series Shazzan, and Josie in Josie and the Pussycats, among others.

As was typical in H-B's numerous  TV cartoon shows, limited animation takes centre-stage throughout, but the minimalist backgrounds are very colourful and artistic. There are also some tuneful, serviceable songs, plus a truly stand-out example sung by the Cheshire Cat, which shares its lengthy title with the second half of this movie's own exceedingly lengthy title ('What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?'), and is irresistibly hummable after just one listen – click here to watch and listen to this segment on YouTube. (The songs were later released on an LP album, but they were new recordings, and mostly by different singers from those who performed them in the movie.)

I first learnt of this particular A in W movie when watching many many moons ago on TV a documentary about H-B cartoons in which an extremely brief clip featuring the Cheshire Cat singing his song appeared. I subsequently found a couple of equally brief mentions of it in some books on animation, but that was all. I have no recollection of this movie ever being shown on TV here in the UK, and it has never been released anywhere in the world on video, DVD, or Blu-Ray. Clips featuring the songs can be currently found on YouTube, but not the full movie.

The companion LP album to Hanna-Barbera's New Alice in Wonderland (© Alex Lovy/Hanna-Barbera Productions/Screen Gems - reproduced on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

However, that short clip from the H-B documentary has always stayed in my memory, gently prodding it periodically, and as I've been a great fan of the Alice books ever since childhood I always hoped that somehow, some day, I would get to view this most elusive of animated versions. Yesterday, at long last, not only did I discover it on the DailyMotion site for viewing, but on a much more obscure site I actually found it in legally-downloadable MP4 form.

So finally I have successfully tracked down and watched H-B's very enjoyable, novel take on Carroll's Wonderland and Looking Glass characters (in this movie, incidentally, Alice enters Wonderland through the screen of her parents' TV set – a nice update), and I even own it now too. Another longstanding 'Want to Watch' and 'Want to Own' movie has been duly ticked off on both of my lists.

If you'd like to view this entire difficult-to-find movie online for free and totally legally, please click here to watch it on DailyMotion.

And to view a complete listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE!