Ford Festival - June 14, 1951

Ford Festival

Originally broadcast at 9:30 PM ET on Thursday, June 14, 1951 on ABC.

Plot: A look behind the scenes at the Walt Disney Studios on the production of Alice in Wonderland.

Analysis: This is a bit of an interesting animal as it appears to have originally been about a ten minute segment of the hour-long Ford Festival broadcast that later had a new beginning and ending slapped onto it so it could be shown either in theaters or distributors for Alice in Wonderland promotion. What is pretty obvious though, especially if you know anything about how animated movies are produced, is how much of this little segment is staged for the cameras. It doesn’t diminish the product, just something that sticks out as you are watching it.

Once again, this is little more that a bit of promotional fluff, trying to keep Alice in people’s minds as the release date of the movie creeps closer. It is what it is, not much more, unfortunately.

The Bottom Line: At just ten minutes, it’s hard to really see this as anything more than a long commercial for Alice. That is its purpose and it doesn’t pretend to be anything more or less, but given the hype, one would like a little more substance in what we’re seeing. Then again, this being 1951, the limitations of the television medium and the audience base need to be kept in mind also. It’s worth checking out for those interested in Disney or Alice, but anyone else can skip this and not worry about having missed anything substantial.

The Ford Festival segment is renamed Operation Wonderland and is available as an extra on the Alice in Wonderland: Masterpiece Edition (http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Wonderland-M.... 884274&sr=1-12) and the Alice in Wonderland: Un-Anniversary Edition (http://www.amazon.com/Alice-Wonderland-2....5 884274&sr=1-4). I imagine it will be included on the upcoming Alice blu-ray, but I will let you know if I see or hear differently.

Next time, the end of our first rated television “season”, a look at some of the numbers and where some of the shows we’ve been looking at fall in the scheme of things.