Original Alice in Wonderland Ride

[Clover Bailey]

Yes, although the corner occupied by the suit of armor isn't visible from that particular angle. Using this photo as a reference, it's located at the corner to the left and directly right of the fireplace, exactly where one of the original miniature suits of armor stood.View attachment 528908
In that screenshot of Claude Coats working on the set, you can actually see a diagonal support rod to the far right directly behind the crash doors that led into the main Toad Hall area; these were the first set of doors in the ride after the initial ones painted onto the queue mural. There was a short entrance room between the queue and the majority of Toad Hall so that guests waiting in line couldn't get any premature glimpses into the first real scene.

Fun fact: one weird detail in the first Toad Hall scene (pictured above) is that the forced perspective "room" painted onto the plywood wall would actually make no sense, as this room directly stretches out into the area where the riders literally just boarded their vehicle, as the loading area mural is right on the other side of this "wall". But I guess there's no reason in pointing out logical errors in Mr Toad's Wild Ride of all attractions.

 

[Okee68]

Fun fact: one weird detail in the first Toad Hall scene (pictured above) is that the forced perspective "room" painted onto the plywood wall would actually make no sense, as this room directly stretches out into the area where the riders literally just boarded their vehicle, as the loading area mural is right on the other side of this "wall". But I guess there's no reason in pointing out logical errors in Mr Toad's Wild Ride of all attractions.

The current MTWR has several instances of this as well, such as the mural at the end of the weasel hallway and the rural meadows painted onto the wall that the harbor is on the other side of. That second example in particular is one of the absolute worst attempts at forced perspective ever, by the way. Fake depth to this extent simply doesn't work when it's viewed from the side, and they probably should have stuck with the facades of buildings painted onto both walls in this particular stretch.

Something else interesting: In this 1982 demolition photo of the original Toad, you can actually make out in the foreground what appears to be a discarded chunk of diamond-leaded windows from one of the storefronts on the right side of the long straightaway.

 

[Okee68]

Microscopic details in the Alice audio recording, using this video as a timestamp reference:
- If you think you can make out a vague hint of the Cheshire Cat's laugh at 0:12, in between the two "down"s in Alice's rabbit hole narration, then you probably can.
- You can hear the crackling fire used for the Upside-Down Room's fireplace throughout most of the scene if you know exactly what to listen for.
- In the Garden of Live Flowers, you can very faintly make out the narration for the Oversized Room just after Alice stops speaking.
- You can hear the squealing tea kettle/White Rabbit's trumpet/whatever through the wall at the far end of the flower garden around 0:59 or 1:00.
- In the Tulgey Wood, you can make out the narration for the Mad Tea Party at 1:19.
- In the Mad Tea Party, you can hear the tail-end of the Crash Room narration at 1:45.

You can actually hear nearly every Alice narration both ahead and behind bleeding through the walls, but the examples I've listed are only the less obvious ones.

 

[Clover Bailey]

Microscopic details in the Alice audio recording, using this video as a timestamp reference:
- If you think you can make out a vague hint of the Cheshire Cat's laugh at 0:12, in between the two "down"s in Alice's rabbit hole narration, then you probably can.
- You can hear the crackling fire used for the Upside-Down Room's fireplace throughout most of the scene if you know exactly what to listen for.
- In the Garden of Live Flowers, you can very faintly make out the narration for the Oversized Room just after Alice stops speaking.
- You can hear the squealing tea kettle/White Rabbit's trumpet/whatever through the wall at the far end of the flower garden around 0:59 or 1:00.
- In the Tulgey Wood, you can make out the narration for the Mad Tea Party at 1:19.
- In the Mad Tea Party, you can hear the tail-end of the Crash Room narration at 1:45.

You can actually hear nearly every Alice narration both ahead and behind bleeding through the walls, but the examples I've listed are only the less obvious ones.

Yeah I noticed that a lot. To be very honest the 1958 Alice does not sound nice at all. Everything is loud, brash and repetitive, continuously speaking over one another juxtaposed with dead silences like the Crash Room. And this was recorded on technology from the 70s, so imagine how chaotic the audio would be if recorded with modern technology.

 

[Okee68]

Yeah I noticed that a lot. To be very honest the 1958 Alice does not sound nice at all. Everything is loud, brash and repetitive, continuously speaking over one another juxtaposed with dead silences like the Crash Room. And this was recorded on technology from the 70s, so imagine how chaotic the audio would be if recorded with modern technology.

Yet Alice '58 still didn't sound as bad as either Snow White '71 or Toad '71, which frankly seemed to have had negative soundproofing.

 

[Imhaiki1996]

I wonder how Don Carson managed to find those sound effect audio recordings and isolated voice clips on their own?

 

[Clover Bailey]

I wonder how Don Carson managed to find those sound effect audio recordings and isolated voice clips on their own?

There's some clips (like the March Hare and Dormouse's dialogue) that I still haven't found, but there's actually some audio tracks for the 1984 version you can find online which, for some reason, contain all the original Alice narrations!

3:52 - Upside-Down Room
4:20 - Oversized Room
4:25 - Garden of Live Flowers
6:20 - Tulgey Wood
6:44 - Crash Room
10:03 - Mad Tea Party

 

[Okee68]

There's some clips (like the March Hare and Dormouse's dialogue) that I still haven't found, but there's actually some audio tracks for the 1984 version you can find online which, for some reason, contain all the original Alice narrations!

3:52 - Upside-Down Room
4:20 - Oversized Room
4:25 - Garden of Live Flowers
6:20 - Tulgey Wood
6:44 - Crash Room
10:03 - Mad Tea Party

I almost forgot about this. If this audio is from an official CD that was sold at the park like everything else on that channel, then it kind of baffles me as to why the lads who put it together deliberately went out of their way to jam in all those obsolete bits of dialogue.

 

[Okee68]

 

[Sharon&Susan]

I almost forgot about this. If this audio is from an official CD that was sold at the park like everything else on that channel, then it kind of baffles me as to why the lads who put it together deliberately went out of their way to jam in all those obsolete bits of dialogue.

Could it come from one of those Make your own Disney CDs that they used to sell on Main Street?

 

[Clover Bailey]

 

[Clover Bailey]

This isn't really related to Alice specifically, but I just realised that the current queue for "it's a small world" in the Magic Kingdom is not the original facade. In fact, it was originally much different! Also, it seems that back then, you would board from the front ramp and exit through the back:

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I liked the old one better.

 

[disneyC97]

This isn't really related to Alice specifically, but I just realised that the current queue for "it's a small world" in the Magic Kingdom is not the original facade. In fact, it was originally much different! Also, it seems that back then, you would board from the front ramp and exit through the back:

View attachment 530216View attachment 530217

Correct. Much better than now with the crammed in DL facade. Plus Mary Blair designed the original WDW loading facade including color scheme seen here. Oh and the fountains are gone now too.

 

[Clover Bailey]

More original dark ride images. Two Peter Pan, two Mr. Toad and this really bizarre Snow White pic.

 

[Okee68]

More original dark ride images. Two Peter Pan, two Mr. Toad and this really bizarre Snow White pic.View attachment 530301

I've actually been familiar with that photo of the cop raising his arm for nearly a decade now, and when I was thirteen years old I even featured it on a terrible blog post about the original Toad which was riddled with incorrect observations and assumptions. I really should have posted it here, but the thought never even crossed my mind somehow. The motorcycle cop looks hilariously awful in that photo, by the way, although I'm sure he looked considerably better in real life. (As a side note, reverse-searching this photo impressively comes up with "motorcycling".) Do you happen to know when any of these pictures are from, and can you provide their sources?

Like you, I'm still trying to decipher WHAT IN GOD'S NAME is going on with the Witch's """""face""""" in that photo. This is actually a cursed image, not even just in the meme sense. It looks as if her hair is obscuring most of her face but somehow not hanging down outside of her hood, rather tucked inside of it. And then what tiny sliver of her face/neck is still visible is totally incomprehensible.

 

[Little Green Men]

Correct. Much better than now with the crammed in DL facade. Plus Mary Blair designed the original WDW loading facade including color scheme seen here. Oh and the fountains are gone now too.

Nope the original facade was crap

 

[Clover Bailey]

I've actually been familiar with that photo of the cop raising his arm for nearly a decade now, and when I was thirteen years old I even featured it on a terrible blog post about the original Toad which was riddled with incorrect observations and assumptions. I really should have posted it here, but the thought never even crossed my mind somehow. The motorcycle cop looks hilariously awful in that photo, by the way, although I'm sure he looked considerably better in real life. (As a side note, reverse-searching this photo impressively comes up with "motorcycling".) Do you happen to know when any of these pictures are from, and can you provide their sources?

Like you, I'm still trying to decipher WHAT IN GOD'S NAME is going on with the Witch's """""face""""" in that photo. This is actually a cursed image, not even just in the meme sense. It looks as if her hair is obscuring most of her face but somehow not hanging down outside of her hood, rather tucked inside of it. And then what tiny sliver of her face/neck is still visible is totally incomprehensible.

This witch has to be from the 50s. No way Imagineers would leave such a puzzling figure there in the 70s.

 

[Okee68]

This witch has to be from the 50s. No way Imagineers would leave such a puzzling figure there in the 70s.

I doubt it's from the fifties, as the door is painted differently than it is in that black and white photo from 1955, and it's not very likely that such a random part of the set would have been given such a subtle redesign only four years in.

 

[Okee68]

I forgot to post this back when I was providing examples of pre-1983 FL dark ride photos that capture the ultraviolet lighting, but here's another one of Snow White:

This one is actually a really good shot, because it's not overwhelmingly purple or dark blue like some of the others are. If I had to guess, I would say this is a pretty accurate look at the actual colors and lighting of the original cauldron scene.