October 6 is Mad Hatter Day

There's a holiday for all 365 days in the year now - and it turns out that October 6 is Mad Hatter Day, which invariably gets me thinking of the following cartoon. The Mad Hatter (1940) has nothing to do whatsoever with Lewis Carroll but exemplifies the wonderful strangeness of the Charles Mintz/Screen Gems studio. This bizarre cartoon about a day in the life of an office worker AND insane hat makers was made by Sid Marcus and Arthur Davis, a few years before they both ended up at Warner Brothers (Davis as a top animator for Frank Tashlin and Friz Freleng).



The Walter Lantz studio created a surprising number of excellent classic cartoons, especially during the 1940's stretch when Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy were directors. Among them, The Mad Hatter is one of this cartoon aficionado's favorite Woody Woodpecker adventures and includes stellar work by the legendary Disney animator Freddie Moore.



While October 6th being Mad Hatter Day remains news to me, it's not a bad idea, as cinematic attempts to realize Lewis Carroll's stories date to the very beginning of movies. There were two Alice In Wonderland movies BEFORE 1920!





My favorite cinematic version is still the enjoyably grotesque, dreamlike and surreal 1933 Alice In Wonderland, produced by Paramount Pictures, directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Charlotte Henry as Alice. LOVE IT!



There is even a cartoon segment, The Walrus and The Carpenter sequence, beginning at 3:16. It was animated, strangely enough NOT by Max and Dave Fleischer's studio, the producers of Betty Boop and Popeye cartoons for Paramount, but by the Harman-Ising Studio, led by Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Friz Freleng, who cranked out Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Leon Schlesinger at Warner Brothers.



Paramount's 1933 version of Alice In Wonderland may have played theatrical bills with the Fleischer Studio's very entertaining riff on Alice, Betty In Blunderland. It's one of the last Betty Boop cartoons released theatrically before strict enforcement of the Production Code hit the gal "made of pen and ink who could win you with a wink" like a ton of bricks in July 1934.



Never to be outdone, ESPECIALLY by the Fleischer Studio, the Walt Disney Studio, producers of the mid-1920's Alice In Cartoonland series (which is more reminiscent of Paul Terry's Aesop's Fables than Lewis Carroll) tackled Alice In Wonderland twice. 15 years before the 1951 feature, Disney made a top-notch Mickey Mouse cartoon with Mick taking on Lewis Carroll, Thru The Mirror. This is on the Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse In Color DVD collection, but, unfortunately, not available on Blu-ray; it appears Disney is more interested in selling their cartoons via HD streaming than on Blu-ray.

Walt Disney Productions' 1951 feature length take on Alice In Wonderland is an odd and very busy version of the Lewis Carroll universe dominated by the voice work of Ed Wynn and Jerry Colonna.





Disney's Alice was not the only late 1940's - early 1950's animated version of Alice In Wonderland. Animator, puppeteer, artist, and pioneer of stop-motion Louis 'Lou' Bunin (28 March 1904 – 17 February 1994) tackled Thru The Looking Glass. Do we love the creative stop-motion of Lou Bunin? Yes! Carol Marsh played the lead role of Alice, in a Wonderland populated by a cast of puppets Bunin created.



Stop-motion fans, there is a Louis Bunin Alice In Wonderland playlist. Many of us curators and film collectors have 16mm prints of the Castle Films excerpt from Bunin's Alice.



Which Alice In Wonderland movie is the most mind-blowing and creepiest of them all, much farther down both a rabbit hole and through several warped layers of looking glass than the silent and animated versions? That would be Jan Svankmajer's hallucinogenic Alice!



Svankmajer's Alice is definitely not made for children and at times recalls the equally mind-blowing work of fellow surreal stop-motion genius Ladislaw Starewicz.



There are many more Alice In Wonderland movies and animated shows, but must stop at some point or otherwise will be writing this post for the next three weeks! Hanna-Barbera produced a 1966 version of Alice In Wonderland featuring H-B's customary excellent voice work throughout. Alice is played by Janet Waldo, voice of Judy Jetson. It's entertaining and includes a fun cameo by Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble but makes this cartoon fan pine for Jay Ward Productions or H-B cartoons from a few years earlier. On the plus side, there's Sammy Davis, Jr. as the cheshire cat.



Sounds like sipping some hot tea and watching these aforementioned movies is a good way to spend Mad Hatter Day!

A felicitous followup to today's plunge into the rabbit hole and through the looking glass shall be two outstanding Sunday screenings, big fun for East Coast cartoon and silent comedy fans. Tommy José Stathes presents 16mm Cartoons: Rude, Sexy, & Risqué, randy cartoon fun for mature audiences beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 8 at Roxy Cinema TriBeCa on 2 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. Buy tickets here. On Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. silent film historian Nelson Hughes presents That Slapstick Show: Silent Comedy Treasures From the Library of Congress, vol. 5, at QED Astoria, 27-16 23rd Avenue, Astoria, Queens.

In closing this post for Mad Hatter Day, here is a brilliant John Tenniel "Tea Party" illustration and one of the best Lewis Carroll inspired songs this writer has even heard.

That would be White Rabbit, performed by Grace Slick and the Jefferson Starship at San Francisco's Winterland on November 8, 1975. My guess is that the Jefferson Starship band members would have enjoyed Jan Svankmajer's take on Alice In Wonderland immensely.