Watch Test Footage from Classic Disney Animations
Test footage offers an incredible look at the magic that happens early in a film’s production cycle. Like when they’re testing hoverboards, for example. When it comes to animation though, it’s a glimpse at how art and voice come together to make a movie.
Disney often hired actors to serve as models for animators, but in this test footage for Alice in Wonderland, the voice actors and the physical actors are one and the same. Watching them voice the lines that made it into the iconic film, and seeing Ed Wynn (the Mad Hatter), Jerry Colonna (the March Hare) and Kathryn Beaumont (Alice) having a real life tea party is almost as sweet as one of those little cookies that say “EAT ME.”
Walt Disney Productions bought the rights to Gary K. Wolf’s novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? in 1981 and immediately began adapting it for the screen. Years and multiple scripts later, test footage appeared in a Disney Channel show called Disney Studio Showcase, which offered a behind-the-scenes look at the film. In the clip, you see the production team discussing the story, characters, and process (albeit, quite awkwardly), and watch their sketches come to life with an early Pee Wee-era Paul Reubens voicing Roger Rabbit, Peter Renaday playing Eddie Valiant, and Russi Taylor as Jessica Rabbit.