New Book by Pierre Lambert Hot Off the Press!

 Over the years Pierre Lambert has written a number of excellent and beautiful books on all topics Disney Animation.  This past fall his long awaited (by me at least) book on Alice was published.  It does not disappoint.  If you love Alice, or even just love Disney animation, you'll love this book.  And check out pages 68, 128, 179, and 184 for my minor contributions, only slightly mis-attributed...stupid printer ;-)

The book is entirely in French, but 90% is just beautiful art so don't let that stop you.  Right now it is only available outside of the US, but you can order directly from the publisher here or from the French Amazon here.

Australian Cinema Glass Slide

Today we take a look at something that I didn't think I'd ever see, let alone see again!  This is a glass slide used in movie theaters (or cinemas as our friends down under would say) to advertise upcoming films.  The fact that this has survived almost 70 years in this pristine condition, and loose no less (no holder or cardboard sleeve) is amazing.  I much prefer this one to the one made for the American release.

Everybody's Weekly from July 21st, 1951

This comes in courtesy of my friend Charlie Lovett, Carrollian extraordinaire.  A British publication from the original release, Everybody's, dated July 21, 1951, a mere 5 days before the world premiere in London, priced at 4d (4 pence in 1951 is about 65 cents today).  Let's take a look, shall we?

Everybody's was a weekly tabloid-sized news magazine or paper that was published under various names from 1913-1959.  By the time this particular issue was released, it was being published as simply Everybody's.  Typical tabloid fare for the time, with lots of current events and celebrity stories, original fiction, sports, and of course movies.  That's where we come in.

This particular issue contains a three-page illustrated article on the soon-to-be released Disney's Alice in Wonderland.  As was common at the time in the UK, the movie is referred to as "Alice in Disneyland,"  presumably because of the issue taken with the Disney-fication of such a classic English story.  But I digress.  The article is constructed in much the same way as all of these glorified press releases of the day were constructed, as a series of standard stills from the film with captions describing the action, with some small commentary by the author.  This publication, as with many others from the UK at the time, have this strange black, white, and orange color scheme.  I'm sure there must be a reason for it, but I do not know it.

This article is not only not critical of the Disney adaptation, but practically doesn't mention it all.  The majority of piece expounds on the idiosyncrasies of Lewis Carroll, and hardly mentions the film except to say that the author thinks Carroll would have approved.  A grand total of 4 sentences of the 19 total are devoted to 'the film', one of which isn't really a sentence (this author is the king of the run-on sentence and sentence fragment).  One wonders if the author, Jonathan Routh, even saw it.

Goebel DIS 084 Dinah - Color Sample (!)

It has been quite some time since I've posted here, and as the world has almost COMPLETELY changed it is not surprising.  But, during these crazy times I have still been on the lookout for new additions to the Tulgey Wood, and boy did I find a doozy.

This is the (already super rare) Goebel Dinah figure (DIS 084), but in test colors that are actually film correct!  That's right, the Goebel company actually create color samples of the Dinah figure in the correct colors, submitted them to Disney, and were rejected in favor of the incorrect black color.  One can only assume that at the time the color had not changed, or that the person in charge of approving these things did not know that the colors had changed and was relying on previously distributed color guides.  You can see my previous extensive post on the production version of this figure here.

The key to understanding this piece is the "MM" painted on Dinah's chest.  MM is the abbreviation Goebel used for "Malmuster", which translates (loosely) to Color Sample.

Note that this is a production ready piece, complete with standard Goebel markings on the underside of the figure.

It is unclear exactly how many of these kinds of color samples were made, presumably not very many.  They do turn up from time to time, but this is the first I've seen from the Alice set, and perhaps even from the Disney set as a whole - at least of the vintage 206 figures.

While it is unclear exactly what the origin of this piece is, it was included in a lot of other Goebels, some of which had the archive tag (plombe) attached, which leads me to believe this was part of the massive Goebel archive sale that took place in Germany back in early 2012 - which was the source of the Final Four of my collection.

Many thanks go to my friend Alfred Stumböck for his invaluable assistance in figuring out exactly what this figure is.

Happy 2020! And Boy Has It Been Hectic!

So I'm only 6 weeks late on my New Year's post, but I have an excuse.  Well, part of one anyway.  We had a major SNAFU here at the Wonderland blog, or more accurately in the Tulgey Wood.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, we had a pipe burst and flooded the Tulgey Wood! 

Fortunately we got off pretty easy since Wendy was home at the time and was able to get people out to start correcting things almost immediately.  Losses have been - not minor - but not tragic by any means.  It has just been a real pain and reconstruction has only just begun.  We'll see how we fare once it is all said and done.

But, to leave you on a better note, here is a lovely picture of the cover of the sticker album that goes with the wrapper that is this year's banner.  Post to follow...eventually.