WALT DISNEY’S ALICE IN WONDERLAND

As with 2007’s Walt Disney’s Cinderella, written by Cynthia Rylant, this volume showcases the color sketches of Blair, who was a production designer for many of Disney’s classic animated films. Never intended as illustrations, her pictures effectively capture the look of the movie’s costumes and sets—but the actual figures, from a chubby Alice on down, are just quickly-brushed-in placeholders or, in the case of the March Hare and the Dormouse, not seen at all. Matched to a text that has been whittled to perfunctory captions—“Tweedledee and Tweedledum happily recited their poem about the Curious Oysters. The Oysters were invited to dinner by the Walrus. But they ended up being the dinner”—this isn’t likely to excite more than mild interest in children, although the art may be of interest to film historians. (Picture book. Adult)