Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972 film)


Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a 1972 British musical film based on Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel of the same name and its 1871 sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, directed by Australian television producer-director William Sterling. It had a distinguished ensemble cast with a musical score by John Barry and lyrics, Don Black.
In 1973, the film won the BAFTA Film Award at the BAFTA Awards Ceremony for Best Cinematography, won by Geoffrey Unsworth, and Best Costume Design, won by Anthony Mendleson. Stuart Freeborn created make-up for the film based closely on the original John Tenniel drawings in the first edition of the novel.

Premise

In this musical film, young Alice falls in a rabbit hole. From there, she enters an unusual land of unusual people and talking creatures.

Cast

Casting

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 years old 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.
In addition to Fiona Fullerton, other actresses who auditioned for the coveted role included Rosalyn Landor and Lynne Frederick. 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. Lynne Frederick was nearing the age of eighteen at the time, 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, which came out the same year as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Fifteen year old Fiona Fullerton was ultimately cast as Alice. For the role of Alice, Fullerton had her long waist length brown hair dyed chestnut blonde.

Possible Deleted Scene

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.

Soundtrack

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