The Alice Comedies are a series of cartoons created by Walt Disney, in which a real little girl named Alice and an animated cat named Julius have adventures in an animated landscape.

Julius bears a striking resemblance to Felix the Cat. This wasn't accidental: Charles Mintz, who distributed both the Felix series for Pat Sullivan and the Alice series for Walt Disney, had insisted on this in an attempt to emulate Felix's success.

Black Pete made his first appearance in "Alice Solves the Puzzle", released on February 15, 1925, and was a reccuring antagonist in the series. Rumor has it that Clarabelle Cow also made her first appearance in this series, but this hasn't been confirmed.

The series started with "Alice's Wonderland" in 1923, but this was only shown privately to interested distributors and was never officially released. The rest of the cartoons were released between 1924 and 1927. The series ended with "Alice in the Big League", released on August 22, 1927.

Alice was played by four young actresses:

  • Virginia Davis
  • Margie Gay
  • Dawn Evelyn Paris (also known with the stage names of Dawn O'Day and Anne Shirley)
  • Lois Hardwick

See also: Animation Before Hollywood: The Silent Period

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