The Alice Comedies are a series of live-action animated shorts created by Walt Disney and produced by Winkler Pictures. It features a live action little girl named Alice (originally played by Virginia Davis) and an animated cat named Julius having adventures in an animated landscape. The shorts were the first series by what ultimately became Walt Disney Animation Studios.
Alice's Wonderland
Disney, Ub Iwerks, and their staff made the first Alice Comedy, a one-reel (ten-minute) 1923 short subject titled Alice's Wonderland, while still heading the failing Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri.
Alice's Wonderland begins with Alice entering a cartoon studio to witness cartoons being created. Alice is amazed by what she sees: the cartoon characters come to life and play around. After heading to bed that night, she dreams of being in the cartoon world, welcomed by all of the characters. Alice plays with them until a group of lions break free from a cage and chase her. Though never released theatrically, this short pioneered live-action animated films with its contemporary, Bray Productions' Out of the Inkwell series.
The Alice Comedies series begins
thumb|Poster for the 1926 film Alice the Lumber Jack. Margie Gay plays Alice.|left
After completing the film, the studio went bankrupt and was forced to shut down. After raising money by working as a freelance photographer, Disney bought a one-way train ticket to Los Angeles, California to live with his uncle Robert and his brother Roy. In California, Disney continued to send out proposals for the Alice series, in hopes of obtaining a distribution agreement. A deal was finally arranged through Winkler Pictures, run by Margaret Winkler and her fiancé, Charles Mintz. Because of a recent falling out with Pat Sullivan, the studio needed a quick replacement for their centerpiece Felix the Cat animated series. Disney convinced Davis's family to bring her from Missouri to Los Angeles to star in the series.
Shorts and subsequent releases
Walt Disney directed all 57 films in this series. Over the course of the series, four actresses played Alice: Virginia Davis (15), Margie Gay (31), Dawn O'Day (1) and Lois Hardwick (10). The film Alice in the Jungle contains only archival footage of Virginia Davis.
Non-theatrical distribution of Alice's Wonderland was handled by the New York branch of Pictorial Clubs Inc. through an arrangement with Pathé Exchange, who copyrighted the short as Alice in Slumberland on September 29, 1926. In May 1926, it was announced that Film Booking Offices of America would release what would ultimately be the last 26 shorts in the series. The copyrights to the FBO-released shorts were assigned to R-C Pictures, while the copyrights to Alice Solves the Puzzle and Alice Wins the Derby were assigned to M. J. Winkler. They were released between September 1, 1930 and May 15, 1931.
The shorts in this series are now all in the public domain in the United States.