- Charming clip from 1915 adaptation shows Alice going down the rabbit hole
- She meets famed characters such as White Rabbit and pipe-smoking caterpillar
- Lewis Carroll’s classic 1865 novel was most famously adapted by Disney in 1951
Rare footage has emerged of a 102-year-old silent film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
The charming clip from the 52-minute retelling of the classic story, released in 1915, shows Alice going down the rabbit hole and meeting familiar characters such as the White Rabbit and the pipe-smoking caterpillar.
Alice, played by Viola Savoy, is also seen swinging a flamingo as a mallet in the peculiar croquet scene, and standing as a witness at the trial to investigate who stole the Queen of Hearts’ tarts.
A clip from the 52-minute retelling of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, released in 1915, shows Alice meeting familiar characters such as the White Rabbit (pictured) and the caterpillar
The charming clip from the early adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic story also shows Alice, played by Viola Savoy, swinging a flamingo as a mallet in the peculiar croquet scene
The scenes make up a silent film released in 1915 by writer and director, WW Young. It is notable for depicting much of the ‘Father William’ poem that appears in Lewis Carroll’s classic 1865 novel.
WW Young might never have guessed that his silent film had tapped into an audience hungry for more of Carroll’s nonsense words and bizarre characters.
His motion picture was a precursor of a world famous cartoon.
These scenes (including Alice and the pipe-smoking caterpillar, pictured) make up a silent film by writer and director, WW Young. It is notable for depicting much of the ‘Father William’ poem that appears in Lewis Carroll’s classic 1865 novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Alice is also seen standing as a witness at the trial for the Queen of Hearts’ stolen tarts (above)
Disney’s 1951 adaptation of the much-loved tale made the girl in the blue dress and her ‘curiouser and curiouser’ dreamworld a household name.
Tim Burton’s animated revival of the story in 2010 drew an all-star cast of British national treasures including Helena Bonham Carter, Timothy Spall and Stephen Fry.
WW Young’s depiction of Alice was not even the earliest film adaptation of Carroll’s novel – a 10-minute 1903 version directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow was released just eight years after the birth of cinema.
Disney’s 1951 adaptation of the much-loved tale made the girl in the blue dress and her ‘curiouser and curiouser’ dreamworld a household name
Tim Burton’s animated revival of the story in 2010 drew an all-star cast of British national treasures including Helena Bonham Carter (pictured), Timothy Spall and Stephen Fry