Lewis Carroll in Film and Television
Versions of Lewis Carroll’s stories in films and on television are too numerous to list; he has inspired and continues to inspire so many people.
Walt Disney, of course, was enormously influenced by the Alice books, and was determined to produce his own version. Early in his career he created a series of short, live-action Alice comedies with a live action little girl as his heroine, in a world of cartoon characters. It was actually the money he earned from these first comic shorts, not Mickey Mouse, that saved his studio and launched his career. Then after a number of false starts, trying to find his own way of envisioning Carroll’s world, Disney produced his 1951 animated version, which was not well-received at the time, but has become an enduring favorite with children over the years. Now in 2010, the Disney company is producing Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which presents Alice and many of the characters from the two books in a new plot of Burton’s own devising.
And Disney is just one example. Think about Neo following the white rabbit tattoo in the film The Matrix, or SyFy channel’s 2009 futuristic Alice miniseries, to name but two. The list is literally endless.
Below is a modest selection to pique your interest and start you off on your own adventures.
Please note: All links provided on this site are for reference only, and do not necessarily represent an endorsement of a given site or its contents. If you know of additional links appropriate for this or any of our other pages, please send the link to us! We are always looking for new, good-quality links relating to Lewis Carroll.
Television
| YEAR | TITLE | DIRECTOR/PRODUCER | COUNTRY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | Dennis Potter’s Alice | Gareth Davies | United States |
| 1983 | Fushigi no Kuni no Alice | Nippon Animation | Japan |
| 1992 | Adventures in Wonderland | The Walt Disney Company | United States |
| 1995 | Alice6 | Kazuya Konata | Japan |
| 2009 | SyFy’s Alice miniseries | Nick Willing | United States |
| 2013 | Once Upon a Time in Wonderland | ABC Studios | United States |
| 2019 | Alix et Les Merveilleux | Radio Canada Televisions | Canada |
| 2020 | Alice & Lewis | TF1 | France |
| 2022 | Alice’s Wonderland Bakery | Disney Junior | United States |
Film
LCSNA member David Schaefer was perhaps the foremost collector and expert on film versions of Alice in the world. Below is his “short list” of notable films, both short and long.
| YEAR | TITLE | DIRECTOR/PRODUCER | COUNTRY |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1903 | Alice in Wonderland | Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow | United Kingdom |
| 1910 | Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Edison Manufacturing | United States |
| 1915 | Alice in Wonderland | Nonpareil Feature Film Company (W. W. Young) | United States |
| 1931 | Alice in Wonderland | “Bud” Pollard Productions (the first Alice talkie) | United States |
| 1932 | Alice in US Land (newsreel) | Paramount News feature about Alice’s visit to NYC | United States |
| 1933 | Alice in Wonderland | Paramount Productions | United States |
| 1934 | Betty in Blunderland | A Max Fleischer cartoon | United States |
| 1936 | Thru the Mirror | A Disney Mickey Mouse cartoon | United States |
| 1948 | Alice in Wonderland | Lou Bunin (live action and puppets) | France |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Disney feature-length cartoon | United States |
| 1960 | Alice Through the Looking Box | Michael Mills | United Kingdom |
| 1960 | The Adventures of Alice | Charles Lefeaux | United Kingdom |
| 1965 | Qui donc a rêvé? | Liliane de Kermadec | France |
| 1966 | Alice in Wonderland or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? | Hanna Barbera cartoon | United States |
| 1966 | Alice in Wonderland | BBC, directed by Jonathan Miller | United Kingdom |
| 1972 | Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland | Shaftel | United Kingdom |
| 1985 | Dreamchild | Dennis Potter | United Kingdom |
| 1988 | Alice | Jan Svankmajer | Czechia |
| 1999 | Alice Underground | Robert E. Lee | United States |
| 2004 | Alice’s Misadventures in Wonderland | Robert Rugan | United Kingdom |
| 2010 | Alice in Wonderland | Tim Burton | United States |
| 2016 | Alice Through the Looking Glass | Tim Burton sequel | United States |
| 2020 | Alice and the Land that Wonders | Giulia Grandinetti | Italy |
| 2021 | Alice Dos Anjos | Daniel Leite Almeida | Brazil |
| 2022 | Alice no Mundo da Internet | Fabrício Bittar | Brazil |
| 2025 | Dive in Wonderland | Toshiya Shinohara | Japan |
| 2025 | Alice in Wonderland | Yury Khmelnitsky | Russia |
Wikipedia Encyclopedia’s extensive list of Carroll-inspired works
Films and television programmes based on Alice in Wonderland
