Tag Archives: Alice Comedy

October 4, 1926 – The Alice Comedy Alice in the Wooly West is Released

On October 4, 1926, the Alice Comedy Alice in the Wooly West was released. It was the 34^th Alice Comedy, and starred Margie Gay as Alice.

Julius is riding a horse in the old West, doing tricks with his lasso, when a stagecoach robbery passes by. Alice is thrown out of the stagecoach, and is cornered by one of the bandits. Julius watches from a nearby ledge when he and his horse decide to slide in and save the day. One of the bandits rides away with Alice, and Julius follows in hot pursuit. A fight ensues, even as the two fall off a tall rock formation, but Julius manages to confound the bandit by hiding amongst the rocks. Julius finally manages to subdue the robber and rescue a grateful Alice, who proclaims him her hero.

July 1, 1924 – The Alice Comedy Alice and the Dog Catcher is Released to Theaters

“So we must set those poor dogs free.”

On July 1, 1924, the Alice Comedy Alice and the Dog Catcher was released to theaters. It was directed by Walt Disney, and starred Virginia Davis as Alice.

The short begins with a meeting of a secret society, where Alice is the leader. The meeting is interrupted by a latecomer, who warns them of the city dogcatcher rounding up all the strays in the neighborhood. Alice then thinks about her own dog being turned into sausages and starts to cry. Resolved to protect the dogs, she orders the society to sit down as she tells them of her dream. The scene then moves to the cartoon land, where all the dogs are following the dogcatcher as he tricks them with music. The dogcatcher catches all but one, but the dogcatcher finally triumphs and heads off with the dogs. Alice is distraught as she tells her tale, and the boys in the society also cry at the news. She continues with her story, where she comes across parents of the pups, who are beside themselves with worry. Alice heads straight for the pound, where she is sent away immediately. Alice hears the dogs cry for help, and grabs a nearby bomb to blow up the pound, setting all the dogs free. The society then decides to go and rescue all the dogs, much to the annoyance of the dogcatchers. They then drive off with the dogcatcher’s wagon, nearly crashing several times. In the end, the dogcatchers chase after their own car after Alice and her friends jump out, and the society is proud of what they have done to save the dogs of the neighborhood.

February 15, 1926 – The Alice Comedy Alice’s Mysterious Mystery is Released to Theaters

“A couple of Sherlocks on the trail of the missing link…”

On February 15, 1926, the Alice Comedy Alice’s Mysterious Mystery was released to theaters. It was the 31^st Alice Comedy released by Disney, and stars Margie Gay as Alice. The short can be seen as controversial, as the villains are dressed as Klansmen (fortunately, the villains are defeated in the end).

In the cartoon world, a bear smoking a cigar is making his way is his chauffeured car when he comes across the school for puppies. He plots with his chauffer to pretend to be a dog catcher and trucks them all inside before taking the school and placing them inside his dog catcher truck. No sooner has the event occurred that Alice and Julius are on the case, tracking the footprints, which only leads to a dead end of a duck wearing shoes. They hear a cry for help from a dog that is soon captured, and Alice and Julius begin the pursuit. The bear manages to carefully get across a tightrope to the other side of the cliff, but as Alice and Julius make their way across, the bear uses his cigar to burn up the tightrope, leaving the detectives stranded. Having made a clean getaway, the bear uses a new tactic to capture dogs: luring them to an inconspicuous trap door with a pretty female dog standing at her balcony as bait. It is soon revealed that the dogs are being placed in the sausage factory in separate crates, with workers turning the dogs into sausages. Alice and Julius finally make it to the factory, with Julius tricking the bear into falling through the trap door. Julius manages to let the dogs go free, and they all chase the bear and other workers out of town.

November 1, 1924 – The Alice Comedy Alice Gets in Dutch is Released to Theaters

“—-This is what happens when I find balloons in my school room-”

On November 1, 1924, the Alice Comedy Alice Gets in Dutch is released to theaters. It was the eighth Alice Comedy released overall, and the eighth of fourteen that starred Virginia Davis, the original Alice. The short was directed and produced by Walt Disney.

The schoolteacher is teaching her lesson, with the kids loudly (and rather badly) singing. Alice soon gets called to the front of the room with two other students for tuning, and is shown as a good example compared to the other two. A dog sneaks into the classroom and starts to howl along with the students; the teacher believes it to be one of the students at the front. Finally, the students sit down again, and one boy shows Alice a balloon that he fills with ink for a prank. The entire class watches as he blows the balloon up, and he hands it to Alice. The teacher finally notices the commotion, and takes the balloon from her. The students brace themselves, and when the teacher pops the balloon, ink sprays all over the place, covering her. Alice is given the blame for the prank, and is sent to the corner to wear a dunce cap.

Alice dances with Julius after she drifts off to the cartoon world

As Alice pouts in the corner, she falls asleep, and drifts off to the cartoon world. She starts dancing with her friend Julius as other animals play instruments and dance. An evil schoolteacher leaves her schoolhouse and looks to attack Alice and her friends with an army of books called Reading, Writing, and Rithmetic. Everyone flees, and Alice jumps on the back of her donkey friend, who helps carry her to safety. Alice and her friends form an army to get rid of the “old hen,” while the teacher prepares cannons to fire at Alice. A cannon is fired and hits Alice several times. Alice and her friends dodge several cannons, then run to the junk pile to create their own weapons of attack. They create their own cannon, and fire cayenne pepper at the teacher. The pepper causes them to sneeze, with the books destroying themselves with every sneeze. However, the pepper accidentally goes off in front of Alice and her friends, and the group sneezes their arsenal away. The teacher chases Alice to a fence and pokes her with a stick as she tries to get away. Just then, Alice wakes up to see that her teacher is poking her, and Alice falls to the floor in surprise.

May 1, 1924 – The Alice Comedy Alice’s Wild West Show is Released to Theaters

“That’s Tubby O’Brien and his gang – – – they’ll bust up the show sure – – -”

On May 1, 1924, the Alice Comedy Alice’s Wild West Show was released to theaters. It was the fourth Alice Comedy, and stars Virginia Davis as Alice.

All the neighborhood kids have gathered to see the Big Wild West Show, presented by Alice and her friends. They trade various knick-knacks for tickets, and one of Alice’s friends is selling “lemonade.” Finally, the show starts, and Alice gets ready to step on stage. The overture plays, then begins Act 1 of the show. The scene is a cowboy bar, and Alice steps in, having a shoot-out with two cowboys in the bar, which she wins. Unfortunately for Alice, Tubby O’Brien and his gang arrive to disrupt the show. Scared at their appearance, all of Alice’s friends decide to quit the show. She gets an idea, however, and continues the show herself. Tubby tries to distract her, but she will have none of it.

Sheriff Alice surveys the cartoon saloon

She then describes her adventure in the cartoon version of the Wild West, with Alice standing up to a tribe of Indians alone. Unfortunately, she is knocked off her stagecoach, and chased into a cave by one Indian, but the Indian soon limps away after fighting with Alice. The audience cheers, but Tubby’s gang boos loudly. Alice continues her story, which takes place in a saloon. Wild Bill “Hiccup” attempts to steal from the saloon’s safe, as Sheriff Alice stands guard. When Hiccup tries to use a bomb to blow up the safe, Alice spots him, and a shoot-out begins in the saloon, leaving Alice as the only person standing in the end. Hiccup slipped out before the end of the shoot-out with the safe, and Alice quickly chases after him in a motorcar. In the end, Alice is able to retrieve the safe and bring it back to the saloon. Tubby and his gang, at the end of the story, begin throwing rotten vegetables at Alice, but quickly run away after Alice chases after him with a large stick. After a scuffle between Alice and Tubby, Tubby runs away crying, and Alice is victorious.

December 15, 1925 – The Alice Comedy Alice in the Jungle Premieres

On December 15, 1925, the Alice Comedy Alice in the Jungle premiered in theaters. As of now, it one of the few comedies released on DVD for the public, although the Alice Comedies are now in the public domain. The short was directed and produced by Walt Disney, and stars Virginia Davis as Alice.

The short begins with Alice riding on the back of an elephant, holding a shotgun. Her friend Julius spies something and whistles for a bird, who carries him around to spy on the land from above. The bird becomes annoyed with Julius’ antics and kicks him off right over a pool filled with alligators. Luckily, Julius manages to remain uneaten, but is soon attacked by another alligator on shore, who eats his tail. He does manage to retrieve his tail before heading back to Alice.

The barber thanks Julius profusely for his help in reacquiring a barber pole

Two elephants are running around the jungle, dancing and skipping, before they pull the swimsuits out of their “trunks,” and go for a swim in a nearby pool. One of the two climbs a tree to go for a dive, with the other one draining the pool of its water, so as to play a mean prank on their friend. The scene then moves over to the jungle barber shop, with a hippo eating the barber’s striped pole, thinking it to be a candy cane. The barber breaks down in tears before Julius happens to stumble on the situation. The barber explains to Julius what happened, and Julius, spying a nearby tiger, has a plan. He covers the tiger’s tail in starch and wakes it up. The tiger runs away startles, accidentally knocking off its own tail. The barber is overjoyed when he sees the replacement pole.

Alice is then seen chasing a bear, who keeps hitting her with his slingshot. She follows him into a dark cave, but is soon chased out by a lion. She screams for help, and her cry finds Julius, who comes to her rescue. Although he saves her from one lion, a whole herd of them begin to chase Alice and Julius, with the two making their escape on the back of their elephant.