Now celebrated as a proto-psychedelic classic, Disney’s visually dazzling version of Alice in Wonderland was poorly received in its first release when it met criticism for not remaining sufficiently faithful to the Lewis Carroll original. Stung by the film’s box-office failure, Walt Disney reportedly vowed the film would not be theatrically released again in his lifetime. Following the countercultural success of Fantasia when it was rediscovered as a “head movie” by youth audiences in the late Sixties, Alice in Wonderland subsequently found a new life when it was rereleased in the early Seventies and became a runaway hit on college campuses, where its oneiric tale of magic mushrooms and rabbit holes had taken on obvious new resonance. – Haden Guest