Alice in Wonderland (Disneyland attraction)

Last updated

Alice in Wonderland
Alice in Wonderland Dark Ride.JPG
Disneyland
Area Fantasyland
StatusOperating
Opening dateJune 14, 1958 (Original)
April 1984 (reopening)
Closing date1982 (Original)
Ride statistics
Attraction type Dark ride
Manufacturer Arrow Development
Designer WED Enterprises
Theme Alice in Wonderland
Vehicle typeCaterpillars
Duration3:38
Attraction transfer icon.svg Must transfer from wheelchair

Alice in Wonderland is a dark ride in Fantasyland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Based on the 1951 animated Disney film of the same name, the attraction resides next to a second ride, the Mad Tea Party, based on a scene in that same adaptation.

Contents

The ride opened in 1958; the present version opened in 1984, and was updated in 2014.

History

Among the many unrealized concepts brought forth during the early stages of Disneyland's development was an intricately detailed, Fantasyland-based walk-through attraction themed around 1951's Alice in Wonderland. The attraction would have seen guests visiting physical adaptations of nearly every scene in the motion picture, each one featuring some zany gag (often reminiscent of traditional carnival funhouses) such as a forced-perspective "shrinking" effect within the corridors of the rabbit hole and rotating platforms circling Dodo's rock that would have simulated the caucus race. The idea of a walk-through exhibit was eventually scrapped, however, as it was decided that guests proceeding at too slow a pace would inevitably cause traffic hold-ups. [1] An Alice dark ride was then considered as a remedy to this issue, but as a result of strict time and budgetary constraints, the idea was shelved, and the space originally designated to house the attraction would instead be occupied by the Mickey Mouse Club Theatre.

The Alice in Wonderland dark ride concept would resurface in late 1957, when legacy Disney artist and Imagineer Claude Coats (a chief art director of the film along with Mary Blair) was tasked with designing such an attraction. Made possible by the aid of Ken Anderson, Collin Campbell, and Blaine Gibson (all of whom had worked on the film), as well as the talent of special effects engineer Bob Gurr, the ride was finished in under a year's time and opened to the public on June 14, 1958, complete with a televised ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Mousketeer Karen Pendleton dressed as Alice.

Alice in Wonderland differed in quite a few ways from the original three dark rides that had opened in Fantasyland along with the rest of the park three years prior. The ride space was restricted to an oddly shaped extension built onto the rear of the complex housing Peter Pan's Flight and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, an arrangement which resulted in Alice being the first dark ride at Disneyland to occupy two floors. As the attraction's multiple-story configuration hardly could have accommodated a normal loading queue, guests boarded their ride vehicles directly adjacent to a huge outdoor garden consisting of enormous, stylized vines and blades of grass (each constructed of fiberglass and rendered in a variety of pastel colors such as pink and purple) towering over a bed of multi-colored gravel and small shrubs, along with four looming dandelion-shaped light fixtures. Suspended over and amid this garden was a large, winding ramp constructed to appear like a gigantic vine; as guests exited the show building from the second floor, this ramp allowed their ride vehicles to descend back to the ground and return to the loading queue.

The 1951 feature film proved to lend itself well to the format of a themed dark ride. Just as Alice made her way through a linear series of distinct, largely unrelated episodes in the motion picture, guests in the attraction were shuttled through separate, clearly defined scenes by way of a rail-guided fiberglass ride vehicle. These vehicles, modeled to resemble the film's haughty, hookah-smoking caterpillar, were manufactured by Arrow Development [2] and designed with three wheels instead of the usual four to facilitate navigation along the ride's sloping track. The iconic "caterpillar cars" have remained in use for the entire duration of the attraction's existence as of 2024. Much in the same vein as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Snow White and her Adventures, Alice in Wonderland saw guests navigating boxy corridors illuminated with ultraviolet fluorescents and populated by lavishly painted plywood "flats" representing scenery and characters.

One notable trait shared across all of the original Fantasyland dark rides was the deliberate absence of each story's titular character; this was true for Alice in Wonderland as well; Alice herself was nowhere to be found within the ride. Guests were rather made to assume the perspective of Alice themselves, a concept accentuated through the use of brief "storybook-style" narrations delivered by an unseen Alice (portrayed by Kathryn Beaumont, her voice actress from the film) at the beginning of each scene. These narrations might have provided the impression of an older Alice recounting her episodes in Wonderland as guests witnessed them "first-hand" from her point of view.

Largely due to the technological limitations of the era, a number of creative liberties were taken in portraying the various scenes from the film in an attempt to make them more entertaining and madcap, with unique scenarios such as the "Upside-Down Room" and the "Oversized Room" plainly contradicting the events of the original story. Limited ride space meant that many stand-out characters and locales from the film (most notably the Queen of Hearts, royal croquet grounds, and playing card soldiers) were absent from the attraction, and even the scenes that were present were not necessarily arranged in chronological order. All of this resulted in a ride experience that could have been interpreted as unfaithful to the film (albeit intentionally) and only tangentially related to the original 1865 novel by Lewis Carroll. Much more so than the current attraction, the original Alice dark ride was largely a series of out-of-context iconography from the film presented in new and odd ways.

Very few alterations were made to the original Alice in Wonderland ride during its quarter-century lifespan. Various character props were repainted and rebuilt to appear more (or less) on-model with their film counterparts throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but the attraction received next to no considerable changes until it was closed in 1982 to make way for a drastic overhaul in accordance with the New Fantasyland project—a total re-imagining of Fantasyland in which the majority of the section's architecture and attractions were updated with richer, more intricate theming and superior technology. Although New Fantasyland opened to the public at large in May 1983, Alice's refurbishment process was so extensive that it would not be ready to unveil until April 1984. This revamped version of the attraction is largely the same ride that exists today.

Among the copious updates made to the attraction during its excessive redesign were the omission of several sets in favor of scenes better reflecting the events of the film, the addition of fully dimensional animated figures and scenery replacing the original plywood flats, and the inclusion of various characters from the film that the original ride notably lacked. Additionally, a small extension of the ride building to the right side of the loading queue that had been used for vehicle maintenance was demolished to make way for a new ending scene, which is isolated from the rest of the attraction by the winding vine ramp. The ride also received interior soundproofing to prevent audio from bleeding through the set walls as it had previously, as well as an entirely original soundtrack featuring re-orchestrated music, new character voices, and new dialogue from Katheryn Beaumont once again reprising her role as Alice.

The exterior garden was given a significant overhaul as well, as the original gravel, shrubs, and colorful fiberglass sculptures were replaced with actual flowerbeds, topiary heart designs, decorative hedges, and several imported trees, including a gigantic ficus serving as a centerpiece of sorts. Oversized fiberglass leaves and flowers still remained, albeit in far more modest sizes and quantities. The masonry veneer of the ride building itself received a visual upgrade as well, with added texture and detailed mouldings.

Alice in Wonderland would once again remain largely unchanged for another 26 years before it closed without warning on July 15, 2010, for maintenance concerning the exterior vine ramp, which was discovered to violate regulations set in place by California's OSHA department as it lacked handrails for workers. [3] The attraction reopened a month later on August 13, now with a temporary safety platform featuring side railings installed directly underneath the vine ramp, as well as a series of tarps "camouflaged" to appear as stylized vegetation curtaining off most of the queue garden.

On March 10, 2014, the attraction closed once more to undergo mild refurbishments both outside and inside. Most obvious were the removal of the vine ramp's temporary safety platform and hanging tarps, and the subsequent widening of the vine ramp itself along with the addition of decorative, permanent railings along its left side. Interior alterations included reworked gags in several scenes, the addition of many new holographically projected animations, and several animated figures of Alice herself. The ride reopened with these changes in place on July 4, 2014. [4]

1958 version

Upon boarding a fiberglass caterpillar car, guests proceeded past the enormous vines and dandelions looming over the gravel garden before entering the grey, cavernous maw of the rabbit hole and plunging into darkness. Soon, the voice of Kathryn Beaumont reprising her role as Alice was heard through hidden speakers: "My adventures in Wonderland began when I followed the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole. All of a sudden, I fell! Down, down..."

Light returned as guests passed through a set of black crash doors into the attraction's first exhibit, the Upside-Down Room. This spacious black-light chamber, set within the home of the White Rabbit, was characterized by a plethora of stylized furniture fixed upside-down to the ceiling, with the ceiling itself painted to resemble a wooden floor decorated with patterned rugs. Upon entering the room, guests viewed their upside-down reflections in the circular mirror of a ceiling-bound dresser as Alice's voice was heard once again: "The next thing I knew, I was in the Upside-Down Room—with the floor where the ceiling should be." Passing under tables and chairs of various designs, as well as flower vases, bookshelves, gas lamps, and even an occupied fish bowl, the White Rabbit was heard singing I'm Late before swinging upside-down into a doorway at the far end of the room with his trumpet in hand. Guests' caterpillar car then performed a sharp turn into the opposite direction and continued toward a tall fireplace (the same one seen in the film as Alice descends the rabbit hole) complete with flickering fabric flames and a hanging, upside-down tea kettle.

Exiting the Upside-Down Room through the wall left of the fireplace, guests found themselves in the Oversized Room (referred to as "Through the Key Hole" on the attraction's original poster), a sixteen-foot-tall chamber set within the depths of the rabbit hole, where in the film Alice encountered the talking doorknob. This interpretation of the scene was quite different, however, as although the illusion of shrinking to a minuscule size was preserved by means of gargantuan furniture props, there was no glass table here as there was in the film—rather a giant flat of the Cheshire Cat situated atop a suitably large footstool.

As soon as guests entered the Oversized Room, Alice again intervened with a short narration, this time with a slight flavor of worry audible in her voice: "I was getting smaller, and smaller, and smaller!" Guests were carried toward the oversized footstool (to the left of which was a towering fifteen-foot flat of an armchair, and to the rear a massive table topped with a tea pot and tea cup) as the Cheshire Cat laughed ceaselessly above. As his pupils were convex on his subtly recessed sclerae, his eyes appeared to stare guests down as they passed directly under him. Now beneath the footstool, guests' caterpillar car swerved suddenly as the grinning feline appeared once more, swinging down from above the stool as a smaller, silhouette-like figure, his piercing yellow eyes still following riders' movement. Guests then advanced toward the huge living doorknob (whose brass plate spanned the entire back wall of the room) wordlessly peering down at them before continuing straight through his gaping key-hole mouth and into the next scene.

"And then, I found myself in a beautiful garden of live flowers," Alice recounted as riders came upon the forest-like patch of looming, sentient flora. It was at this point that the track began a long, gradual ascent to the second floor of the show building, with the path of guests' caterpillar cars becoming a vine-like surface suspended above the floor. In the garden, a wealth of larger-than-life anthropomorphic flowers—roses, irises, lilies, daffodils, pansies, and other blossoms—swayed gently in tune to the lyrics of All in the Golden Afternoon. All around were huge, stylized leaves and blades of grass rendered in hues of green and turquoise and propped against abstract, gold-tinted backdrops. As guests approached the end of the garden, a concealed "dandy-lion" shot up from beyond the edge of the elevated vine to roar at guests. Riders then veered toward the right, passed through a set of doors disguised as foliage, and made their way into the Tulgey Wood.

"Ooh! The Tulgey Wood... It certainly was brillig." The original iteration of the Tulgey Wood scene was very stark relative to what it would become in 1984, essentially being a series of enormous tree branches and leaves set against an empty black void. In keeping with the trend of gargantuan scenery, each strange bird and plywood bit of vegetation within this scene was rendered with intimidating proportions, despite the fact that Alice, in the film, had grown back to her normal size well before becoming lost in the Tulgey Wood. Heard all around but never seen was the Cheshire Cat, reciting the first verse of Jabberwocky much as he does in the motion picture.

Upon entering the wood, guests first approached ten glowing pairs of red, cut-out eyes staring from the dark, whose pupils would "follow" each caterpillar car veering out of the way into a swift hairpin turn. Guests then continued toward an accordion owl (which extended and retracted its musical neck) resting below a gigantic wooden sign reading "TULGEY WOOD," on top of which was perched a spectacle bird. Ahead were the bird-cage bird (whose cage body contained two fluttering fledglings, both of which were kept in use after the 1984 overhaul [5] ), a jumping umbrella vulture, several honking horn ducks, and a pair of pencil woodpeckers perched near another oversized wooden sign, this one labeled "Mad Hatter." Now having reached the upper level of the ride building, guests passed through another camouflaged set of crash doors and into the attraction's final main exhibit.

"Suddenly I was on a table—at the stupidest tea party I've ever been to in all my life!" Guests now found themselves in the iconic Mad Tea Party scene, as evident by the jovial sounds of The Unbirthday Song and yet another wooden sign, this one marked "Tea Party" and pointing to the right. Just as with the previous Tulgey Wood, the Mad Tea Party was inconsistent with the ride's source material in that it was portrayed with gargantuan proportions, having guests literally on top of the massive table as Alice's narration would suggest. Here, the right-hand wall was painted with the backs of chairs propped against the green hedge enclosing the party, while to the left was a giant flat of a tea pot in the middle of the table, as well as a towering stack of four fully dimensional tea cups (each on its own saucer) all gyrating precariously.

Navigating among the crockery, several cups of tea blocking guests' path swung out of the way before their caterpillar car drew near to the edge of the table, beyond which were the Mad Hatter and the March Hare—both rendered as monstrously sized flats donning crazed expressions. Situated in front of a forced-perspective mural offering a glimpse of a stone path leading into the distant woods and an array of hanging paper lanterns, the party's unhinged duo of hosts popped up suddenly to shout, "Move down! Move down! Move down!" as guests rounded the animated tower of tea cups and began down the other side of the table. One final character, the Dormouse, then emerged from an enormous, flat sugar jar and drowsily commented, "Very very rude indeed..." before guests smashed straight through a tea pot and careened into a black void.

Immediately, guests' senses were assaulted by a loud cymbal crash and a series of starburst patterns illuminated via strobe lights. Accompanied by the sounds of shattering glass and other clamor, Alice was heard gasping in shock before delivering her final, inconclusive narration: "Oh dear... How do I get out? Wha- I've lost my way!" Guests were then carried past a series of confusing, brightly colored directional signs (more or less the same ones seen in the film prior to the introduction of the Cheshire Cat) reading "Yonder," "Go Back," "This Way Out," and other useless instructions. All was silent for a brief interval before guests plowed through three consecutive sets of wooden doors, each one smaller than the previous and coupled with an identical Goofy yell (as voiced by Pinto Colvig) of increasingly higher pitch. A final fourth set of doors, painted entirely black save for a minimalist keyhole in the center, then parted to a different, especially outlandish scream as guests' caterpillar car emerged from the show building. (This final yell in particular, from the 1951 Goofy short Hello Aloha, is still used at the corresponding point in the current version of the attraction.)

Navigating down the winding, vine-shaped ramp suspended amid the exterior garden, guests eventually reached the grey pavement at ground level and turned toward the unloading station.

Current version

A guest riding the Alice in Wonderland ride in 1996. AlicesRide wb.jpg
A guest riding the Alice in Wonderland ride in 1996.

Guests ride in caterpillar vehicles down the rabbit hole. Pieces of furniture, framed art, and vases swirl around as guests "fall" down the tunnel. As guests enter past the Doorknob, they see the White Rabbit running off with Alice in pursuit. Guests then pass by Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and encounter the White Rabbit, worrying about being late.

Next, the guests go through the garden of live flowers, who sing "All in the Golden Afternoon". Riders then pass the Caterpillar, who blows smoky letters and asks "Who are you?". The Tiger Lily replies, thinking that Alice and the riders are weeds and pouts in disgust, while a Dandelion pops up and roars. Next, guests enter the Tulgey Wood, where they and Alice meet the Cheshire Cat, as well as a pencil bird, an accordion owl, an eyeglasses bird, a horn-shaped duck with its ducklings, an umbrella bird, a cage bird, and a pair of hammer birds nailing signs to a tree. They then go through the hedge maze and past some singing playing-cards who are painting a white rose tree red, splashing nearby bushes with paint. The White Rabbit announces the Queen of Hearts (and the King) and she plays croquet, using a flamingo as a club and a hedgehog as a ball. The King tells the riders: "Rule 42: The Queen always wins" and the hedgehog ends up rolling into a rose tree. The guests then enter the Courtroom and the Queen orders their execution while a brigade of playing-cards leap towards the guests. Riders escape by pushing their way through the courtroom doors past two guards poised to attack.

The vehicles then leave the ride building's second floor and descend down a winding path on a giant vine past the ride queue, before heading to the final scene at the Mad Tea Party. After the Mad Hatter and March Hare sing "A Very Merry UnBirthday", Alice proclaims that it is her unbirthday too. The White Rabbit ducks as a giant unbirthday cake with a dynamite candle explodes and the ride vehicles exit to the unload area.

Ride vehicle

A caterpillar ride vehicle from the attraction. Caterpillar car in Alice in Wonderland.jpg
A caterpillar ride vehicle from the attraction.

Prior to the Caterpillar car, Imagineer Claude Coats had proposed a ride vehicle made out of the various playing card soldiers from the film, with the front-facing card donning a similar facial expression to what is worn by the aloof Caterpillar now. Walt Disney disapproved this concept, suggesting instead a vehicle modeled after the Caterpillar. [6] Upon completing the design for the new Caterpillar car, Coats was informed by Disney's legal department that he needed to apply for a patent for the vehicle. Coats attempted to convince them that the patent belonged to Walt Disney, who had suggested the vehicle's design, though the department insisted that it was Coats who was ultimately responsible for the look of it, as he had actually drawn the car. Coats applied for the patent on May 8, 1959, and it was approved by the United States Patent Office on January 12, 1960. It is designated as patent #187,036 and had a term of 14 years. [7] A few days after the patent was approved, the legal team returned to Coats and told him to sell his patent to them for $10, which he did. Coats' son, Alan Coats, still has the original patent paperwork in his possession. [6]

Voice credits

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dark ride</span> Type of amusement ride

A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, such exhibits include tunnels of love, scary themes and interactive stories. Dark rides are intended to tell stories with thematic elements that immerse riders. Not only does the queue tell a story, but the story unfolds throughout the attraction.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (1951 film) Animated film by Walt Disney

Alice in Wonderland is a 1951 American animated musical fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen, and was directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. With the voices of Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Colonna, Verna Felton, J. Pat O'Malley, Bill Thompson, and Heather Angel, the film follows a young girl Alice who falls down a rabbit hole to enter a nonsensical world Wonderland that is ruled by the Queen of Hearts, while encountering strange creatures, including the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tokyo Disneyland</span> Theme park in Chiba, Japan

Tokyo Disneyland is a 115-acre (47 ha) theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to be built outside the United States and it opened on April 15, 1983. The park was constructed by WED Enterprises in the same style as Disneyland in California and Magic Kingdom in Florida. It is owned by The Oriental Land Company, which licenses intellectual property from The Walt Disney Company. Tokyo Disneyland and its companion park, Tokyo DisneySea, are the only Disney parks in the world not owned or operated by The Walt Disney Company in any capacity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matterhorn Bobsleds</span> Roller coasters at Disneyland

Matterhorn Bobsleds are a pair of intertwined steel roller coasters at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It is modeled after the Matterhorn, a mountain in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is the first known tubular steel track roller coaster. Located on the border between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, it employs forced perspective to seem larger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantasyland</span> Themed land at Disney theme parks

Fantasyland is one of the "themed lands" at all of the Magic Kingdom-style parks run by The Walt Disney Company around the world. It is themed after Disney's animated fairy tale feature films. Each Fantasyland has a castle, as well as several gentle rides themed after those Disney animated feature films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mr. Toad's Wild Ride</span> Dark ride at Disneyland

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is a dark ride at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California. It is loosely based on Disney's adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of two segments comprising the animated package film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). The ride is one of the few remaining attractions operational since the park's opening in July 1955, although the current iteration of the ride opened in 1983. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride is located in Fantasyland, a variation of the attraction also existed as an opening day attraction at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World from 1971 until 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Pan's Flight</span> Dark ride at Disney theme parks

Peter Pan's Flight is a rail-suspended dark ride at the Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland theme parks. Located in the Fantasyland area of each park, its story, music, staging, and artwork are based on Walt Disney's Peter Pan, the 1953 animated film version of the classic Peter Pan story by J. M. Barrie. It is also one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on Disneyland's opening day in 1955, although the original version was entirely redesigned in 1983. Five of the six Disney resort destinations feature it, each with a unique exterior, walk-through queue and ride experience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pooh's Hunny Hunt</span> Trackless dark ride at Tokyo Disneyland

Pooh's Hunny Hunt is a unique trackless dark ride located at Tokyo Disneyland. It is based on the 1977 Disney animated film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (attraction)</span> Dark ride at Disney theme parks

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is a dark ride based upon the 1977 film of the same name, itself based on the Winnie-the-Pooh books by A. A. Milne. The attraction exists in slightly different forms at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland Park. Pooh's Hunny Hunt, located in Tokyo Disneyland, is an enhanced "E-ticket class" attraction, featuring full audio animatronics and a trackless ride system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin</span> Disney parks dark ride

Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin is a dark ride located at the Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland theme parks, based on the 1988 Disney/Amblin film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Both versions of the attraction are located in Mickey's Toontown. The Disneyland version opened on January 26, 1994, a year after the Mickey's Toontown area opened, and the Tokyo Disneyland version opened on April 15, 1996. In December 2021, the Disneyland version was updated to include a new plot element of Jessica Rabbit in the role of a detective who is determined to stop a crime wave in Toontown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snow White's Enchanted Wish</span> Dark ride at Disney theme parks

Snow White's Enchanted Wish is a dark ride at the Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris theme parks, and formerly at the Magic Kingdom. Located in Fantasyland, it is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on Disneyland's opening day in 1955, although it has seen several different redesigns over its history. The ride's story is based on Disney's 1937 film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, their first animated feature film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinocchio's Daring Journey</span> Dark ride at Disney theme parks

Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a dark ride at Disneyland in California, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park in Paris. Located in the Fantasyland section of each park, this ride is based on Disney's 1940 animated film version of the classic story, which was the studio's second animated feature film. The attraction tells an abbreviated version of the film, with Pinocchio escaping from Stromboli's puppet show and visiting Pleasure Island, ignoring Jiminy Cricket's advice. Monstro the whale makes an appearance, and Pinocchio is finally reunited with Geppetto and turned into a real boy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mad Tea Party</span> Attraction at Disney theme parks

Mad Tea Party is a spinning tea cup ride at five of the six Disneyland-style theme parks around the world. The ride theme is inspired by the Unbirthday Party scene in Walt Disney's Alice In Wonderland, and plays a carousel version of the film's "Unbirthday Song". It was one of the opening day attractions operating at Disneyland on July 17, 1955.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice's Curious Labyrinth</span> Attraction at Disneyland Paris

Alice's Curious Labyrinth is a hedge maze attraction at the Disneyland Park within Disneyland Paris. It opened in 1992 with the Park, and belongs to the British part of Fantasyland. A similar maze attraction, based on both the 1951 and 2010 Disney film adaptations of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, exists at Shanghai Disneyland Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disneyland</span> Amusement park in Anaheim, California

Disneyland is a theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, and opened on July 17, 1955.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure</span> Dark ride attraction

The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure is a ride attraction based on the 1989 Disney animated film The Little Mermaid, located in Paradise Gardens Park at Disney California Adventure and in Fantasyland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park, where it is titled Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid. The ride opened on June 3, 2011 at Disney California Adventure, and on December 6, 2012 at Magic Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wonderland (fictional country)</span> Setting of Alices Adventures in Wonderland

Wonderland is the setting for Lewis Carroll's 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

<i>Alice in Wonderland</i> (franchise) Disney media franchise based on the Alice books by Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland, or simply Alice, is a Disney media franchise, commencing in 1951 with the theatrical release of the animated film Alice in Wonderland. The film is an adaptation of the books by Lewis Carroll, the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1871 sequel Through the Looking-Glass, which featured his character Alice. A live-action film directed by Tim Burton was released in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast</span> Trackless dark ride at Tokyo Disneyland

Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast is a trackless dark ride at Tokyo Disneyland based on Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991). It opened on September 28, 2020. The attraction opened as part of the Tokyo Disneyland Expansion in 2020, the largest expansion in the history of Tokyo Disneyland. The new section adds around 4.7 hectares to the theme park.

References

  1. Seegar, Alan. "Down the 'Ol Rabbit Hole: Remembering the Original "Alice in Wonderland" Attraction, 1958-1982". Persistence of Vision. Archived from the original on December 17, 2000. Retrieved September 23, 2020.
  2. Gurr, Bob (November 27, 2013). "DESIGN: Those Were The Times – No.23 1955 Arrow Development – Ed Morgan and Karl Bacon". MiceChat. Retrieved November 28, 2013.
  3. Martín, Hugo (July 22, 2010). "Disneyland's Alice in Wonderland ride closed to install safety equipment". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  4. New wonders added to Alice in Wonderland dark ride as Disneyland enhances classic attraction InsidetheMagic.net, Retrieved July 4, 2014
  5. Janzen, Leon; Janzen, Jack (Spring 1999). "Alice in Wonderland". The "E" Ticket.
  6. 1 2 Cornell, Jerry (June 19, 2017). "The Dark Ride Series: Alice In Wonderland". Theme Parkology Documentary DVDs. Retrieved January 9, 2022.
  7. Coats, Claude (January 12, 1960). "Caterpillar Ride Vehicle Patent". United States Patent Office. Retrieved January 9, 2022.

33°48′48″N117°55′07″W / 33.8132°N 117.9185°W / 33.8132; -117.9185