Walt Disney had originally toyed with the idea of bringing Lewis Carroll"s phantasmagorical classic to the screen in the "30s as one of his first live-action feature films. Paramount beat him to the punch with their 1933 all-star version, but, through patience or sheer stubbornness, Disney finally prevailed, turning the story into one of his studio"s string of postwar animated classics. Though somewhat odd by most film musical standards (the songs are sometimes fragmentary and tend to punctuate the story rather than stop it to showcase themselves), the score utilizes Oliver Wallace"s playful underscore and no less than eight songwriters (including Mack David, Sammy Fain, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston) to bring Carroll"s magical world to life, often using his own verse in the bargain. Marking the first time all of Alice"s original music has been available outside the film, this edition presents it in a seamlessly edited manner that both evokes the story"s atmospherics and showcases its Carroll-inspired songcraft. --Jerry McCulley