Description of original 1958 Alice In Wonderland?

[Clover Bailey]

The pre-1983 Fantasyland dark rides don't have much details nowadays, besides maybe a few pictures. However, most of them like Snow White And Her Adventures and Peter Pan's Flight have ride layouts or blueprints online. I've yet to find one for Alice In Wonderland.

I was wondering if anyone on the forums have ridden the original version of the attraction and give me a good description. Wikipedia only has a very discrete description and there is a ride layout online, but it seems to be concept art. I've seen many people toss around references to it but no real ride description. It doesn't help that there is zero footage of any of the Fantasyland dark rides (besides the short clips from Snow White and Mr. Toad in 40 Pounds Of Trouble). Can anyone give me a good description please?

 

[geekza]

Paging @marni1971 . If anyone around here has something like that, he would.

 

[marni1971]

I’m currently doing a bit of dark ride research when I have time. If I find anything I’ll shout.

 

[Clover Bailey]

I’m currently doing a bit of dark ride research when I have time. If I find anything I’ll shout.

Thanks. It's sad that most of these attractions are refitted into basic retellings of the movie, where the original versions had their own ideas. And instead of putting them in a museum, Disney probably destroyed all the original props and plywood cut-outs.

 

[geekza]

Thanks. It's sad that most of these attractions are refitted into basic retellings of the movie, where the original versions had their own ideas. And instead of putting them in a museum, Disney probably destroyed all the original props and plywood cut-outs.

From what I understand, they save things here and there, but gigantic plywood elements would be cost-prohibitive to store indefinitely. It's always difficult for librarians and archivists to make the decision to get rid of things. Outside of those folks, a lot of the other folks just want to get rid of everything to make room for something else. I get it, but it always makes me a little sad. I'm sure they end up at least documenting everything in photographs these days. I've never visited there, but the videos I've seen of the Disney Archives are pretty nifty. As a former librarian, I would have loved to have been able to work somewhere like that.

 

[danyoung56]

The only thing I remember is that the stone tunnel that you fall down at the beginning of the ride was much longer.

 

[Clover Bailey]

The only thing I remember is that the stone tunnel that you fall down at the beginning of the ride was much longer.

I didn't that. I knew that the hole was darker with less lights or effects, but I didn't know it was really long. This is an image of that concept art for the Alice In Wonderland attraction, but I don't think this is the final version that opened in 1958. It looks more like a walkthrough attraction, which makes sense as that's what this was originally supposed to be.

 

[Clover Bailey]

Here is the image.

 

[DisneyAndUniversalFan]

Here is the image.

View attachment 292744

wow! don’t you think it’s a lot different? that’s cool though!

 

[Clover Bailey]

I think I discovered something interesting.

It's a layout for the original Alice In Wonderland walkthrough idea. It's a bit hard to read but you can see some scenes like the Upside-Down Room and the Mad Tea Party.

But what's even more interesting is that to the right it says "Pinocchio Walk Thru". This means that originally there might have been a planned Pinocchio walkthrough attraction.

 

[DisneyAndUniversalFan]

I think I discovered something interesting.

View attachment 292745

It's a layout for the original Alice In Wonderland walkthrough idea. It's a bit hard to read but you can see some scenes like the Upside-Down Room and the Mad Tea Party.

But what's even more interesting is that to the right it says "Pinocchio Walk Thru". This means that originally there might have been a planned Pinocchio walkthrough attraction.

very interesting! where did you find these?

 

[Clover Bailey]

very interesting! where did you find these?

On Google images.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

As a suggestion, we have a dedicated sub-forum here for Disneyland, so you may have better luck asking the posters in there as Disneyland is their home park.