Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland is a dark ride in Fantasyland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Based on the 1951 animated Disney film of the same name, the attraction resides next to a second ride, the Mad Tea Party, based on a scene in that same adaptation.

Among the many unrealized concepts brought forth during the early stages of Disneyland's development process was an intricately detailed, Fantasyland-based walk-through attraction themed around 1951's Alice in Wonderland that would have seen guests visiting physical adaptations of nearly every scene in the motion picture, each one featuring some zany gag such as a forced-perspective "shrinking" effect within the corridors of the rabbit hole and rotating platforms circling Dodo's rock that would have simulated the caucus race. The idea of a walk-through exhibit was eventually scrapped, however, as it was decided that guests proceeding at too slow a pace would inevitably cause traffic hold-ups. An Alice dark ride was then considered as a remedy to this issue, but as a result of strict time and budgetary constraints, the idea was shelved, and the space originally designated to contain the attraction would instead be occupied by the Mickey Mouse Club Theatre. The Alice in Wonderland dark ride concept would resurface in late 1957, when legacy Disney artist and Imagineer Claude Coats was tasked with designing such an attraction. Made possible by the aid of Ken Anderson, Collin Campbell, and Blaine Gibson , as well as the talent of special effects engineer Bob Gurr, the ride was finished in under a year's time and opened to the public on June 14 of 1958, complete with a televised ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Mousketeer Karen Pendleton dressed as Alice.

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