Alice Comedies
Alice Comedies poster
Directed by	Walt Disney
Produced by	Margaret J. Winkler
Starring	Alice Virginia Davis (October 16, 1923 – February 1, 1925, December 15, 1925) Margie Gay (February 15, 1925 – April 4, 1927) Dawn O'Day (Alice's Egg Plant, May 30, 1925) Lois Hardwick (April 18, 1927 – August 22, 1927)
Animation by	Ub Iwerks Rollin Hamilton Hugh Harman Friz Freleng
Color process	Black-and-white
Production companies	Laugh-O-Gram Studio Walt Disney Studio
Country	United States
Language	English (withintertitles)

TheAlice Comedies are a series oflive-action animated shorts created byWalt Disney in the 1920s, in which a live action little girl named Alice (originally played byVirginia Davis) and an animated cat namedJulius have adventures in an animated landscape. The shorts were the first work by what ultimately becameThe Walt Disney Company.

Disney,Ub Iwerks, and their staff made the firstAlice Comedy, a one-reel (ten-minute) 1923short subject titledAlice's Wonderland, while still heading the failingLaugh-O-Gram Studio inKansas City, Missouri.^[1]

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, this short helped set the stage for what was to come in the laterAlice Comedies, as it established the world as a playful dream and also introduced the elements which would soon define the series. The idea of setting a real-world girl in an animated world was at this point in film history still unique. The design and voice of the later series were all set by this original film.

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 brotherRoy. In California, Disney continued to send out proposals for theAlice series, in hopes of obtaining a distribution agreement. A deal was finally arranged through Winkler Pictures, run byMargaret Winkler^[2] and her fiancé,Charles Mintz. Because of a recent falling out withPat Sullivan, the studio needed a quick replacement for their centerpieceFelix the Cat animated series.^[3] Disney convinced Davis's family to bring her from Missouri to Los Angeles to star in the series.^[4]

Walt Disney both directed and produced all 60 films in this series. Animation was done by Walt Disney, sometimes assisted by Rollin "Ham" Hamilton. Over the course of the series, four actresses played Alice:Virginia Davis (15), Margie Gay (31),Dawn O'Day (1), Lois Hardwick (10) and Zaz Fallerbirg (2). The filmAlice in the Jungle contains only archival footage of Virginia Davis.

The shorts in this series are now all in thepublic domain in the United States.^[a] In 2000, Inkwell Images releasedAlice in Cartoonland – The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney in VHS, and in 2007 in DVD as part of theGolden Classics series with ten of the films as well as a documentary, poster gallery, and DVD ROM. In 2007, Kit Parker Films released another DVD calledAlice in Cartoonland: The 35mm Collector's Set. In 2005 and again in 2007, ten shorts in the series were released as part of theWalt Disney Treasures series. Seven were part of theDisney Rarities that was released in 2005, while three more were released as part ofThe Adventures ofOswald the Lucky Rabbit, released in 2007.

In 2016,Alice shorts held by theEYE Film Institute in Amsterdam were restored for global re-release.^[5]

A total of 18Alice Comedies shorts are thought to be lost, and 1Alice Comedies short (Alice's Auto Race) has been partially found.

• Animation in the United States during the silent era
• Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAlice Comedies.

• Alice Comedies atIMDb
• TheAlice Comedies atDon Markstein's Toonopedia.Archived from the original on April 4, 2012.
• Alice in Cartoonland - The Original Alice Comedies by Walt Disney[1]

• Alice Comedies
• 1920s Disney animated short films
• American silent short films
• American animated black-and-white films
• Film series introduced in 1923
• Works by Walt Disney
• Disney-related lists
• Lost American silent films
• Disney short film series
• 1920s American films
• American films with live action and animation

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use American English from January 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from November 2019
• Pages using infobox film with missing date
• Commons category link from Wikidata
• Articles containing video clips