A fun but sloppy entry in the 'Cartoonland' series

Alice Chops the Suey (aka "Alice in Chinatown") (1925)
Starring: Margie Gay
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

When Alice is kidnapped by cartoon Chinese gangsters, her animated cat friend sets out to save her.

 

 "Alice Chops the Suey" is a so-so entry in the "Alice Comedies" (referred to as "Alice in Cartoonland" in these parts where the strengths are almost cancelled out by the weaknesses. It was an early series animated by Walt Disney himself, and if it tells us anything about Disney, it's that his talent for gathering and managing creative teams was superior to his own creative talents.

Coming during the latter half of the series, and ostensibly starring the fourth and final girl to play the live-action character having adventures in a cartoon world, this short film is literally non-stop action from beginning to end. Like some of the other best moments in the series, the fun it has with cartoon-world physics and the malleability of animated characters are also highlights here, especially if you have a taste for surrealism and the absurd.

On the downside though, there is a lack of attention to detail that felt sloppy and that I found frustrating. The most obvious example of this is the way Alice's shape changed to appear more like one of the natives of the Cartooniverse when she was put in a bag and carried off by the gangsters. I've previously commented on how disappointed I was when the live-action Alice turned into an animated Alice for no reason other than to make the scene easier to execute, but it's never been as badly and sloppily done as it is here. At the very least, Disney could have bothered to make the struggling character in the bag thinner, to match Alice.

I was also annoyed by the way this installment opened, but not for the reasons I understand that has frustrated other reviewers.

I've seen negative comments directed at "Alice Chops the Suey" because its opening moments are a clear and obvious "rip-off" of Fleischer Studios' Out of the Inkwell shorts. I didn't see that as a negative, but more as Disney acknowledging where the inspiration for his series mixing live-action and animation came from... even if Fleischer consistently did it better than Disney ever managed to do.

To my mind, the biggest flaw here is that Disney either forgot the set-up of the series and that the "borrowed" opening from Out of the Inkwell doesn't fit with how he uses it. Alice is NOT a creation of pen and ink, but is instead a flesh-and-blood being who enters Cartoonland. It makes no sense for her to pop out of the ink well, especially not since she isn't a drawn character. I don't know if the target audience for the series would be bothered by this, but it cast a pall over the entire episode for me. And the pat ending didn't help. 

Ultimately, though, the good almost cancels out the bad here, with "Alice Chops the Suey" being fast-paced and goofy enough to entertain.

'Alice the Jail Bird' is pretty good

Alice the Jail Bird (1925)
Starring: Margie Gay
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

After stealing a pie and getting caught by the police, Alice and two of her cartoon animal friends are sentenced to prison and hard labor.

"Alice the Jail Bird" is a simple and straight-forward short film that I think will be appreciated even by the modern members of its target audience--six- and seven-year-old kids--more than it will by adults. That said, I think even little kids will be frustrated by the numerous sequences that drag on beyond the point where they are interesting, as well as wonder why one of the three companions is ignored and left behind during the inevitable jailbreak.

Another flaw, although a purely technical one that may bother me more than most viewers, is the poorly executed integration of animation and live action footage. While Alice does interact more with the animated characters than she does in several other entries in the series, the combination of live-action and animation still pales in comparison to the conceptually similar series from the Fleischer Studios, Out of the Inkwell featuring Ko-Ko the Clown. The film also sloppily breaks with its own conceit when live-action Alice is replaced with an animated Alice in the "long shots". Although I doubt it is something that will annoy the target audience--if they even notice--but it annoyed me enough to knock a Star off my rating. The scenes where Live-Action Alice is replaced by Animated Alice also happen to be the ones where there's the greatest degree of action and interaction between Alice and the animated world. It's a shame that Disney didn't have the budget or the technical know-how/equipment to keep the Alice character purely live action, because some of the sequences in this film would have been amazing. As it is, it's just an annoying bit of incompetence that breaks the consistency of the imaginary world of the series.

Despite its flaws, this is still one of the better entries I've seen of this series. The events all tie together to form a fairly coherent story and most of the gags serve action that moves the story forward. Even better, the character of Alice has a role that warrants her name being in the title; she is not central to all the action, but she is a central mover to the plot. 

What I enjoyed the most about "Alice the Jail Bird", though, is the nutty cartoon-world physics that's on display throughout the film. While some of the gags are stretched beyond what's good for them, they remain great examples of the surreal weirdness that makes even these weaker shorts from the 1920s and 1930s still worth watching.
 

And speaking of watching -- you can watch "Alice the Jail Bird" right here in this post. Just click below and sit back.

Alice experiences war in Cartoonland

Alice's Little Parade (1926)
Starring: Margie Gay
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

War breaks out in Cartoonland, and Alice (Gay) leads her animated friends into battle!

I keep hoping that I'll come across an "Alice" film that will show the spark of genius that will, a few years later, would put Walt Disney on the path to building a entertainment empire. However, all I find is proof that his talent was recognizing talent in others and putting that talent to maximum commerical use... but when Disney was helming his own animation projects, they fall short of what was being produced by other animators and studios.

The problems with "Alice's Little Parade" start with the title. It has almost no connection with what happens in this episode. Sure, she parades her troops before they go into battle, but there was more of a parade in the first Alice cartoon than what's in this one. It would have been far better served by a title that invoked what it was about--a war between factions of cartoon characters. (I do realize that the title is a reference to "The Big Parade" (1926), a movie about WWI, but I don't think it serves the cartoon well.)

A more severe problem is the lazy animation. A couple sequences are looped to the point of tedium--the film opens with one of them--and the backgrounds are so sparse that I think that even the Van Beuren animators would feel bad about cashing the paychecks earned creating them.

Finally, although the integration of the live-action footage of the little girl, Alice, was better than in other installments of this series I've watched, there was still very little of it. Compared to the Max Fleischer series that also mixed live-action footage with animation, "Out of the Inkwell", this is a weak effort. Perhaps Disney was constrained by the fact that his live-action performer was a very young child? That might be a sensible theory, as Margie Gay who appears as Alice in this film had already done more than a dozen of them, so maybe it was possible to get a little more elaborate? I will have to specifically look for a few entries toward the end of her 31-episode run to see if that notion holds up.

With all this negativity, you might be wondering why I awarded this film a Five-Star rating. Well, it's a very low Five, but it's based mostly on the fact that I found the portrayal of war between animated characters in this film fascinating. Although it's half-baked (like almost everything about the "Alice in Cartoonland"), there's enough here to show how surreal a conflict between beings who can reshape themselves and their environment at will, can be. (I also loved the cartoon animal field hospital; I don't know whether Disney was making a fourth-wall joke about how generic all the animated characters are in this series, but that's how it came across to me, and I thought it was spot-on as a bit of self-deprecating humor.

"Alice's Little Parade" is great, but it's not completely without merit either. I recommend checking it out if you like early animation... and I invite you to use the Comments section if you think I'm off-base with this review. (The version I've embedded is interesting in that it features a recently composed score that was recorded and synched before a live audience, and features partial restoration to the point where it looks much better than most of the surviving Cartoonland installments.)

It's another disappointing trip to Cartoonland...

Alice Gets Stung (1925)
Starring: Virginia Davis

Director: Walt Disney

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

A cat chases a rabbit while bears make music and dance. It just another day in Cartoonland until Alice (Davis) decides to help that cat and then go bear hunting.

The "Alice in Cartoonland" series was an early effort from Walt Disney and a studio of animators. It's similar in concept to Max Fleischer's "Out of the Inkwell" series in that it merges live action footage with animation, but where Fleischer had animated characters invading the Real World, Disney had a young girl have adventures in the animated universe. Sadly, the Disney effort appears to be inferior to the Fleischer films it was modeled after. In fact, the ones I've seen so far are so weak that I am astonished more than fifty were produced and distributed. 

"Alice Gets Stung" is both one of the best entries I've seen in the series so far, as well as one of the worst.

On the plus side, the animation in this installment is very playful and there's some fun and creative use of cartoon physics during the action scenes. Alice also interacts with her environment more than in most of the others in the series I've previously seen, such as picking up and moving a fire hydrant and even getting in on the cartoon physics action (although in a minor, but still quite creative and visually exciting, way). The level of looping and dragging out gags until they stop being funny is also minimal when compared to previous efforts.

On the negative side, the film is little more than a jumble of disconnected visual gags and set pieces. While they are more innovative and wild than in other outings, there needed to  be a little more of a narrative thread tying them together. Then there's the fact that once a story-thread begins to emerge, Alice ends up as the villain in her own series, attacking bears that are doing nothing more malicious than playing music and dancing in the woods. At least, after Alice tries to murder them, one of the bers is able to turn the tables on her... which leads to the event of the film's title. (I can only assume that Walt Disney was traumatized by a dancing bear as a child, because he seems to have a serious hatred for them.)

I know that I am not the audience for the "Alice in Cartoonlands", as I am not a six-year-old in the 1920s, but I am fairly confident that six-year-old me in the 1970s would have strongly disliked Alice. I keep hoping to find timeless, commercial savvy that Disney displayed later on in these early efforts, but so far I'm not seeing it. Life is too short to spend on things I know I'm not going to enjoy, so Alice will get one or two more views before I decide they are best left in the compost heap of cinematic history.

In the meantime, though, you can watch "Alice Gets Stung" by clicking below. You can also tell me if you think I'm being too harsh or have completely missed the point with my review in the comments section. (You can also agree if you like!)

One of the best 'Alice' entries is still weak

Alice the Whaler (1927)
Starring: Lois Hardwick
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Alice (Hardwick) is the captain of a whaling vessel operated by a literal zoo crew of cartoon animals.

 The "Alice Comedies" (also referred to as "Alice in Cartoonland") was an early series of 50+ short films by Walt Disney. It merged live action footage with animation in a fashion similar to the "Out of the Inkwell" series from Max Fleischer, but much cruder in execution.

"Alice the Whaler" came toward the end of the series, and it's one of the better ones I've watched so far... but it's also incredibly inconsistent in the level of quality as it unfolds. There are some really nice bits of animation with flying birds, some of the crew antics are fairly complex and funny. On the other hand, there are some jokes that get drawn out well beyond the point of being funny and there's some cheaply and lazily executed animation sequences, and the live-action Alice is barely incorporated into any of the cartoon action. 

What really ruins this cartoon, though, is the ending. It involves Alice's whaling ship successfully harpooning the whale, and, given how this is set up, I can't believe that even 100 years ago audiences would have found that turn of events amusing or entertaining. Either Walt Disney conceived of one of the worst endings to a cartoon ever, or the full ending has not survived to present day. (The only satisfying finale *I* can think of for this one, would have seen Alice's ship smashed to bits and she and her zoo crew bobbing in the ocean, clutching flotsam.)

But don't take my word for it--click below and watch for yourself. Aside from the completely botched ending, this is a pretty cute cartoon. The music is also matched nicely to the action.

Alice strikes out in the cartoon big league

Alice in the Big League (1927)
Starring: Lois Hardwick
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Alice proves herself to be the worst baseball umpire in Cartoonland.

A few weeks ago, I posted a review of "Alice's Wonderland" (1923).  In it, I commented that I hoped the "Alice" series would improve over its 50+ episode run. By sheer chance, I recently came across the final entry in the series. Titled "Alice in the Big League" in was released in 1927. It was once considered a lost film, but now there are several different versions available on YouTube.

That said, I can't really recommend it. It's like Disney and his animators stretched three-four minutes of material to fill the eight-minute running time with looped animation, by pounding gags to death, and otherwise delivering a product that makes the Van Beuren output from around this same time absolutely brilliant and the conceptually similar "Out of the Inkwell" series from Fleischer the product of the gods themselves.

 
Although the animated characters aren't as creepily lifeless as they were in the early "Alice" episodes--their eyes aren't quite as dead here as they were in "Wonderland--the degree of integration between the live-action footage and animation has not improved at all. It might even have gotten worse. Take a look at the still used at the top of this post and then look at this one: 

You'd think Alice would be somewhere behind the pitcher mound in the long shot of the game, but she isn't. Even worse, the animators drew a shadow for the soap box the pitcher is standing in, but not one for Alice. This persistent continuity glitch annoys probably more than it should, but it's the most glaring sign that this series probably never came close to "Out of the Inkwell" in quality. Even the film's final moment--where Alice flees cartoon characters enraged by her bad calls--is sloppily done.

On the positive side, I found the various visual gags relating to baseball amusing, and, if the various sequences hadn't be dragged out beyond all reason, I think I would have loved the variety of ways the cartoon characters cheated at the game. Naturally, Alice never called them on the cheating though; all of her calls for of the "umpire, are you blind?!?!" variety. Also, a little more effort appears to have gone into the crowds than in early episodes, and I previously mentioned that the characters didn't seem quite as dead inside as those in the first installment did. But I'm not sure if the visual gags and slightly better animation are enough for you to devote eight minutes of your life to watching this weak effort. The only people I could recommend this short film to are those committed to watching EVERY available "Alice in Cartoonland" film, EVERY baseball-based comedy, or those who love baseball gags so much they thought the "NUELOW Baseball Special" equal parts funny and informative. (Actually, and this might be perceived as arrogant and self-serving, but I think this booklet by L.L. Hundal, Sam Hamm, and myself is far funnier than "Alice in the Big League". Some of the same gags are even implemented better in our product than in the cartoon.)

As mentioned above, "Alice in the Big League" was the final entry in this series. Maybe there was less effort put into this one than others for that reason, so there might still be some better ones between the very first "Alice in Cartoonland" and this last one. I will be watching a few more to find out.

 I am hoping that I DO find some better installments of the series. Although we don't get to see much of Lois Hardwick, who plays Alice in the one, we do see enough to give me the impression that she's a better actress than the original Alice. 

If you want to judge the quality of this cartoon for yourself, or want to watch a film that was once considered lost, it's embedded below for easy viewing!

'Alice's Wonderland' isn't wonderful

Alice's Wonderland (1923)
Starring: Virginia Davis and Walt Disney
Director: Walt Disney
Rating: Three of Ten Stars

The night after visiting the studio where Walt Disney (Disney) and his fellow animators give life to cartoon characters, little Alice (Davis) is transported to Cartoonland as she sleeps. Here, she's treated like a superstar by the cartoon animals... except for the savage lions who want to make her their dinner!

"Alice's Wonderland" (1923) was an early effort from Walt Disney. It spawned a series that ran from 1923 through 1927, with some installments produced... although judging from what's offered in this first one it's a little surprising it even spawned one sequel. 

 
Released as part of the "Laugh-o-Gram" anthology series, each episode "Alice" merged live-action footage with animation in a similar way to what Max Fleischer had been doing with his "Out of the Inkwell" series starring Ko-Ko the Clown. Unfortunately, Fleischer's team did a much better job with this sort of thing that Disney and his cohorts were able to do. In fact, at this stage in the history of animation, and even standard filmmaking, Fleischer & Co. were far, FAR out of Disney's league.

Even at its best--when the live action footage dominates over the animated during the film's first few minutes--this film is clumsy and pedestrian when compared to even early "Out of the Inkwell" installments. From the very beginning, Fleischer attempted to seamlessly merge reality and animation, while Disney barely attempts that, instead mostly keeping the animated characters on a page, even if they are able to interact and acknowledge the "real people" beyond their two-dimensional world. There is nothing like the overlapping of animation and live footage that is commonplace in the Fleischer films.

Where "Alice's Wonderland" truly fails, though, is in the animation department. The jokes and sight gags are uninspired, the character designs are lazy, and the animation is so lazy that it makes the film unintentionally creepy: Most of the animated characters have dead, lifeless eyes and faces. The parade scene from which the still illustrating this review was taken becomes unintentionally creepy because no one blinks, no one shifts their heads to look at Alice as she passes by... they just stand there, frozen. In fact, the parade ends up feeling a bit like some sort of time loop, as the elephant-riding Alice passes the same group of onlookers, over and over, as they stand paralyzed. Alice may be oblivious to the horror of the situation, but I wasn't.

A perhaps even bigger problem is that the second half of the film is made up of sequences that go on entirely too long. Even the amusing climactic chase scene--with Alice fleeing or fighting a pack of hungry lions--goes on and on and on for long enough to become tedious.

"Alice's Wonderland" is yet another early effort from Walt Disney that makes me think he might have been far better at spotting, hiring, and managing creative talent than doing the creating himself. It's another of his early films that has moments, but the overall the bad drags down the good.

But don't just take my word for all of that. Take a few minutes to watch the film for yourself. Let us all know in the comments below if you agree or disagree with my take. (Meanwhile, I'll watch a few more entries in this series to see if they get better and more competently executed as time goes by.)