Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

This reworking of Lewis Carroll's Alice books, an hour-long (with commercial breaks) TV special by the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, known for their limited animation in TV series such as "The Flintstones," is amusingly clever in parts. The Alice here is told she must finish reading the Alice books for school before she's allowed to watch TV. While interacting with her dog, Fluff, however, she becomes concussed--entering a dream state whereby she follows Fluff through the family TV screen, down the hole of the boob tube, to Wonderland where she meets the game-playing rabbit and other creatures based on Carroll's narratives. A sign informs Alice, "Welcome to Wonderland" and, humorously, "This place is all right in my book -Lewis Carroll."

Fred and Barney from "The Flintstones" appear as actors in the role of the Caterpillar, which almost seems like a joke on the frequency of motion-picture stars appearing in odd roles in Alice movies ever since Paramount's star-studded production in 1933, which disguised, among others, Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty and Gary Cooper as the White Knight. If that weren't cheeky enough, the program ends with Alice breaking the fourth wall to wink through the real TV screen at us, the viewers. Unfortunately, the show also replaces most of Carroll's witty nonsense with songs that, with one exception, are tedious. It imitates the 1951 Disney theatrically-released cartoon, too, by concluding with Alice being homesick. On the other hand, I enjoyed the "Humphrey" (as in Bogart) Dumpty, who's a "hardboiled" "bad egg" locked in jail. Best of all, however, is Sammy Davis Jr. lending his voice to a cool (Cheshire) cat and singing the one catchy tune here, "What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?"

For years I had been asking people if they remembered a cartoon of Alice in Wonderland where Alice went through her TV set, fell down a "computerized" shaft on the other side, and met the white rabbit. They all politely told me I was nuts. Then, a couple of days ago, I happened to catch this on CN's Boomerang channel, and did a Snoopydance out of sheer vindication. I really *did* see this when I was a kid!

Admittedly, there's nothing that stands out about this typical Hanna-Barbara fare -- the most interesting bits (to a child of the time) would have been seeing Fred and Barney as the Caterpillar, and Alice having the same voice as Josie (of Pussycat fame). Still, the framework story is different: our Alice is assigned to read the book "Alice in Wonderland," then falls, hits her head, and dreams up this whole adventure through the TV set. In that sense, it's more like "The Wizard of Oz" than AIW.

Today's children would probably be bored by this show, since it hasn't aged particularly well, and runs for an entire hour. Also, the title song has a line about "watering down the beer" that wouldn't be used today. If you're in the mood for nostalgia, though, see if you can catch it on a Boomerang rerun.

"Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" originally aired a few days after my 7th birthday. I still remember Sammy Davis Junior's Cheshire Cat, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble's 2-headed caterpillar, Zsa Zsa Gabor's Queen of Hearts and Daws Butler's Phil Silver-esque sportscaster and W. C. Fields-ian King of Hearts. Pretty top-shelf work from the Hanna Barbera cartoon factory.

For 49 minutes, this 62-year-old man was a child again. Highly recommended for other children of the 60s. Even though it's almost July, I may fire up 1964's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

Despite the widely held opinion that the material is unfilmable, Lewis Carroll's fantasy/nonsense classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) have frequently been dramatized for films and television. While few of these productions have successfully translated Carroll's verbal and intellectual experimentation into cinema, several are of superior quality and hold an under-appreciated place in the history of the fantastic film.

Alice's Adventures in Videoland have been uneven in quality; there has been a tendency toward parody and experimentation, and several fine productions have been broadcast.

Walt Disney's animated feature Alice in Wonderland (1951) has been criticized as unfaithful and disrespectful to the Carroll classic. Even less for the purist is Hanna-Barbera's prime-time television special Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1966). This hour-long animated musical is a good-natured burlesque whose colorful visuals, wacky script by comic Bill Dana (aka "Jose Jiminez"), and pleasant, tuneful score by Charles Strouse (of "Annie," "Applause" and "Bye Bye Birdie") result in a happy light entertainment.

Alice, a typical mid-1960's suburban American teenager (in hip-boots and mini-skirt), bumps her head while doing a book report on "Alice in Wonderland". She thereafter chases her dog, Fluff, into her TV set, falling into an astonishingly vulgar Wonderland.

Highlights include a guest appearance by cartoon characters Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble as a two-headed Caterpillar, doing the vaudeville-style "They'll Never Split Us Apart"; a Mad Tea Party with the Mad Hatter's wife, Hedda Hatter (voiced by Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper); Bill Dana's diminutive White Knight; Zsa Zsa Gabor's Queen of Hearts ("Off viss zerr heads, dahlink"); and a zany croquet game which degenerates into a frantic amalgam including football, cricket, surfing and Monopoly.

Most memorable is Sammy Davis, Jr.'s performance (as the beatnik Cheshire Cat) of the terrific theme song, "What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?", which was a hit novelty single in 1966.

The show is a superior example of the Hanna-Barbera studio's limited animation (not to mention limited imagination) during the heyday of "Yogi Bear", "The Jetsons" and "Jonny Quest", and as such is recommended to all cartoon fans and to those students of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books who can take a little irreverent spoofing of the classic icon.

This musical spoof of the Lewis Carroll classic,is set in modern times in this grand animated special that was produced by Hanna-Barbera,and was first shown as a prime-time special in full color for ABC-TV on March 30,1966. The sponsors for this hour-long special were Rexall Drugs and the Coca-Cola Bottling Company. In this updated version,it follows the adventures of Alice and her dog Fluff in Wonderland where they meet an amusing assortment of characters,among them Hedda Hatter,a female counterpart of the Mad Hatter;Humphrey Dumpty,whose voice was patterned after that of actor Humphrey Bogart;and the White Knight a character that resembles Bill Dana's Jose Jimenez character(and rightly so). And speaking of the characters,the main character Alice was done by Hanna-Barbera stockplayer Janet Waldo(aka Judy Jetson). Other H-B stockplayers supplying voice talent were regulars Don Messick(the voice of Ranger Smith of Yogi Bear,Dr. Benton Quest of Jonny Quest,and other H-B characters),veteran voice stockplayer Daws Butler(Yogi Bear,Huckleberry Hound,and other Hanna-Barbera characters),Alan Reed(the voice of Fred Flintstone),Harvey Korman(Kazoo),Allan Melvin(Magilla Gorilla),Howard Morris(Atom Ant,and other characters)and Mel Blanc(not only the voice of Bugs Bunny but was also the voice of Barney Rubble of The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely of The Jetsons).

It also featured the voices of Zsa Zsa Gabor(Queen of Hearts);along with Hedda Hopper(Hedda Hatter),Howard Morris(White Rabbit),Mad Hatter (Harvey Korman),Alice's Father/Humphrey Dumpty(Allan Melvin),King of Hearts/March Hare(Daws Butler),Cheshire Cat(Sammy Davis, Jr.),White Knight(Bill Dana in his Jose Jimenez character),and the Caterpillar (Alan Reed/Mel Blanc). Directed by Alex Lovy and Produced by William Hanna and Joesph Barbera,the prime-time special "Alice In Wonderland,or What's A Nice Kid Like You Doing In A Place Like This",was a surprise hit when it first aired and it did very well in the ratings,a first for a animated prime-time special that was shown on a major television network. The title theme song,done by Sammy Davis,Jr. became a top-ten hit on the Billboard charts in 1966. However,do to the success of this prime-time special,ABC rebroadcast it twice in prime-time on November 19, 1967,and for the final time in March of 1969. That was the last time it was ever shown again on network television. Not a bad concept from Hanna-Barbera neither,since its about time this came to DVD.