Alice in Wonderland (1983 anime)

Fushigi no Kuni no Alice (ふしぎの国のアリス, Fushigi no Kuni no Arisu) is an anime adaptation of the 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which ran on the TV Tokyo network and other local stations across Japan from October 10, 1983 to March 26, 1984. The series was a Japanese-German co-production between Nippon Animation, TV Tokyo affiliate station TV Osaka, and Apollo Films. The series consists of 52 episodes, however, only 26 made it to the US.

In the English language, this series is generally overshadowed by the success of Disney's 1951 feature film version of the story; however, the anime series was quite popular in various European countries, in Israel, in the Philippines, in Latin America, in Iran, and in the Arabic-speaking world. The series was also dubbed into Hindi by the national film development board of India and telecast on Doordarshan in the early 1990s.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The show somewhat stays faithful to it's source material. Not only because it's based off of the story of the same name by Lewis Caroll, but also because the anime had the real-world settings in England, as well as having the characters sound British when it got dubbed in English (either if they were voiced by British actors and actresses or by non-British actors/actresses putting on British accents).
 * 2) * The anime has most of the episodes based off of events that happened in both the first Alice story and "Through the Looking Glass" and even using elements from both stories, although it also included events that didn't happen in the story.
 * 3) The character designs are quite decent looking.
 * 4) The show introduced characters for this anime series, with one example being the character Benny Bunny, a white rabbit who comes out of an old magician's hat Alice bought from a shop who was only made for the anime series.
 * 5) * For the real-world segments in the beginning or end of each episode included characters like Alice's parents, Mrs. Spiceham the cook, and the Dawson Twins.
 * 6) The idea of having the inhabitants of Wonderland interact with each other is a thoughtful idea for this anime.
 * 7) The characters are likeable and tolerable, such as Alice herself of course, Benny Bunny, Alice's parents (her mother who tries way to hard to teach both of her daughters to become proper ladies and Alice's father), Celia (sometimes, despite her attitude), Mrs. Spiceham and more.
 * 8) * In fact, the writers decided to give Alice's elder sister a name in this version, which is Celia.
 * 9) The anime includes some catchy songs, though when dubbed in different languages, the lyrics were changed. (One example being the French dub where in the third episode, Benny Bunny's song had him and Alice yodel in the English dub, when it was replaced by them going "la la la".)
 * 10) The animation can be a bit decent-looking, since being produced in 1983 it looks a bit old.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Celia, Alice's sister, can be a bit brash, impulsive, bossy, rude, and cocky towards Alice much to her annoyance, resulting to them quarreling, though this is understandable because Celia finds Alice annoying because of her overactive imagination, sassy tongue and love of animals while Celia herself strives to become the proper lady their mother is educating both of them to, while Alice finds her bossy and overbearing.
 * 2) Although the voice acting is decent, some of it is a bit annoying, with Benny Bunny's voice being one example (his voice sounds a bit scratchy and grating like a child with a permanent cold).
 * 3) Besides Celia, there are other unlikeable characters in this show, such as the Queen of Hearts of course prior to her domineering and tyrant-like behaviour.
 * 4) *Even the Knave of Hearts is unlikeable in some of his appearances as he is presented as a petulant spoiled brat who throws tantrums, gets away with stealing food, and accuses people for treating him badly whenever they properly call him out, showing he can't take constructive criticism.
 * 5) The show lasted for one season, though understandable since it inspires two books.
 * 6) The animation, while decent, is a bit generic.