Alice's Wonderland Bakery

Alice's Wonderland Bakery is an American animated television series created for Disney Junior by Chelsea Beyl, inspired by Alice in Wonderland (1951). The series centers on Alice, a young baker who works at the Wonderland Bakery and is the great-granddaughter of the original Alice Pleasance Liddell. Rosa—the Princess of Hearts—Hattie, and Fergie the white rabbit accompany her on her culinary explorations throughout the kingdom. The show intends to highlight the importance of food, which is used as a form of self-expression and creativity. Libby Rue, Abigail Estrella, CJ Uy, Jack Stanton, Secunda Wood, and Audrey Wasilewski voice the primary characters.

The show is produced by Disney Television Animation and aired on Disney Junior from February 9, 2022 to April 15, 2024. On the same day of the premiere, the first six episodes were released early on Disney+. In April 2022, the series was renewed for a second season. In April 2024, the series was announced to end after 2 seasons and 50 episodes. Critical reviews of the show have generally been positive. At the 1st Children's and Family Emmy Awards, Eden Espinosa (who voices the Queen of Hearts) received a nomination for Outstanding Voice Performance in a Preschool Animated Program.

Plot
The series revolves around Alice, the great-granddaughter of the original Alice Pleasance Liddell, who is a young baker working at the Wonderland Bakery. As she explores the kingdom on various culinary adventures, she is accompanied by Fergie the white rabbit, Hattie, and Rosa—the Princess of Hearts.

The teapot-shaped Wonderland Bakery has a kitchen where some of the equipment are animated, namely the oven and the mixer. The bakery also has a pantry which is vertical tunnel where the ingredients are on shelves on the sides, and anyone who enters will mostly float inside as if they are in space. The desserts (and to a lesser extent foods) the characters make are mostly magical, resulting in either troublesome or pleasant effects.

Main

 * Libby Rue as Alice, the great-granddaughter of the original Alice Pleasance Liddell and a promising young baker at the magical Wonderland Bakery.
 * CJ Uy as Hattie, a "mad hatter" boy and Alice's friend who is extremely silly.
 * Jack Stanton as Fergie the White Rabbit, Alice's best friend who admires her greatly.
 * Abigail Estrella as Princess Rosa, the Princess of Hearts and Alice's creative friend.
 * Secunda Wood as Cookie, a magical cookbook previously owned by Alice's great-grandmother.
 * Audrey Wasilewski as Dinah, Alice's pet cat who always accompanies her.

Recurring

 * Craig Ferguson as The Doorknob, an anthropomorphic doorknob who can teleport passers to any place in Wonderland.
 * Eden Espinosa as Queen of Hearts, the ruler of Wonderland.
 * Jon Secada as King of Hearts, the previous ruler of Wonderland, and the Queen's widowed father.
 * Vanessa Bayer and Bobby Moynihan as Tweedle Do and Tweedle Don't respectively, two upbeat twins who help individuals decide on something by debating each other.
 * Donald Faison as Harry the March Hare, an eccentric clothing designer.
 * Rich Sommer as Captain Dodo, a bird sailor who lives in a boat that has gone aground.
 * Max Mittelman as Cheshire Cat
 * George Salazar as Dad Hatter, Hattie's father, and Harry's friend.
 * Melissa van der Schyff as Jojo, Captain Dodo's daughter.
 * Mandy Gonzalez as Mother Rose, the leader of the anthropomorphic flowers, and a brewer of tea remedies.
 * Yvette Nicole Brown as Mama Rabbit, Fergie's mother.
 * Lesley Nicol as Iris, Mother Rose's friend.
 * Ali Stroker as Daisy
 * Merle Dandridge as Silver Queen, the ruler of a hidden realm accessible only to an enchanted mirror in the bakery.
 * Sway Bhatia as Kyra the Knight, an aspiring soldier in the Silver Queen's realm.

Guest

 * Ana Gasteyer as Kiki
 * Yuri Lowenthal as Jay
 * Lamorne Morris as Dandy
 * Christopher Fitzgerald as Thistle
 * Matthew Moy as David of Spades
 * James Monroe Iglehart as Oliver
 * Kausar Mohammed as Mrs. Parvaneh
 * Marcel Nahapetian as Saeed
 * Mark Williams as Ribbitton
 * Karen Fukuhara as Sakura
 * Isabella Abiera as Milly the Carpenter
 * Sam Kalidi as Jacques Mock Turtle
 * Kathryn Beaumont as Original Alice

Development
Alice's Wonderland Bakery is based on Disney's animated feature Alice in Wonderland (1951), which in turn is based on the Alice book series by Lewis Carroll. In the film, there is a scene in which the Mad Hatter hosts a tea party with teapots that pipe music, hats producing three-layer frosted cakes, and exploding firework candles in the sky. Disney Television Animation decided to produce a heritage project based upon the scene, which would also take inspiration from the sense of connection brought by food. Creator Chelsea Beyl said: "I started thinking about all the whimsy, the comedy, and the peculiar characters that are in the original movie and thought, 'Wow, preschoolers are going to love this' ... It's silly. And then we're combining all that with baking, which, of course, kids love to do as well." In May 2021, Disney Junior greenlit the series, to air on the network in 2022.

According to co-executive producer and art director Frank Montagna, the shift in storytelling from a 1950s animated film to a 2022 animated preschool TV series was unexpectedly simple. He stated that there are many enjoyable activities in Wonderland, such as the tea parties, cards, and mazes. The team removed the frightening elements from the original film and kept the entertaining ones. Throughout the book and the film, there are references to the words "Eat me" and "Drink me". Because of this, Montaga came up with the idea of fusing Alice in Wonderland with a bakery when Beyl initially presented the show to him. The show highlights the importance of food, which is used as a form of creativity and self-expression; Alice makes friends and learns of other cultures through food. Beyl stated that "food [is] essentially [Alice's] superpower ... [and] how she connects with all these curious and peculiar characters." The series pays homage to the original Alice, who is always thinking, by having its version of Alice constantly trying to figure out things.

On June 6, 2023, it was announced that Kathryn Beaumont (who voiced Alice in the 1951 Disney film) would be making a guest appearance in the 22-minute special "Alice's First Day in Wonderland".

On April 1, 2024, Disney Junior's social media accounts released a list of their April 2024 programming, announcing the series finale.

Writing and design
It did not take Montagna long to come up with the design for Alice's Wonderland Bakery since the original Alice in Wonderland "has always been such a core part of [his] being". Since the original designs were so shaped-driven and everything was already round, bouncy, and rubbery, he found converting them into 3D models rather easy. The team at ICON Creative Studio, according to Montagna, worked tirelessly to give the show a "bouncy and rubbery" feel, particularly with the Cheshire Cat—the only character from the 1951 film to appear in the series. Montagna believed that the team truly needed him to embody his role from the original film. Since television computer animation budgets were rather small, many factors needed to be considered carefully. For the character to be correctly rigged, the team would need to be very clear about how they wanted the character to look.

The team wanted the characters to truly reflect modern-day children, which also required giving them origins that Carroll may never have imagined. Beyl sought to reimagine some characters from the original film to enrich Wonderland with a wider range of cultures. The Hatter family's character design, kitchen—as well as the recipes Alice and Hattie cook together—are drawn from Japanese culture. Meanwhile, several aspects of the Hearts family were influenced by Cuban cuisine and culture, including their dialogue (which includes Spanish words), clothing, palace, and set design. The show later introduces a Persian-influenced caterpillar family. Certain characters are also gender flipped. Numerous foods from different cultures are featured in the series, including pastelitos (Cuban), mochi (Japanese), carrot calzone, grape gazpacho, huevos habaneros and kuku sib zamini (Persian).

The series references several iterations of Alice in Wonderland, including the 2010 film directed by Tim Burton. The White Rabbit hole served as the model for Alice's pantry, which features an endless supply of food items. For the ingredients, the team aimed to combine wacky Wonderland-style elements with real-world meals. Examples of this are "Bread and Butterflies", "Disa-pears", and "Rea-pears". Since nothing is impossible in Wonderland, the team were able to incorporate many unrealistic ideas of food into the show, including an upside-down cake.

Music
John Kavanaugh was appointed music director. He wrote and composed "The Baking Song", which appears often throughout the show in various forms: the queen sings a salsa rendition, while another episode features a version with Persian instruments. The 1951 film's song "The Unbirthday Song", as well as other songs by Kavanaugh, including "Food for Thought", are used in the series to convey concepts such as flexibility. The voice cast includes former Broadway performers because the emphasis on music required vocal talent. On February 11, 2022, Walt Disney Records released the show's digital soundtrack album. The main title theme was released as a single.

Broadcast
The series originally premiered on February 9, 2022. On the same day, first six episodes were released early on on-demand and Disney+. The first season is streamable on Disney+, FuboTV, and Amazon Prime Video. In April 2022, the show was renewed for a second season, which premiered on June 28, 2023.

Critical response
Harlan Sharpe of Fatherly praised the show for "[not] trying to remake Alice in Wonderland, [but] trying to give families a magical and offbeat show that is pro-baking." GeekMom favorably compared the series to the animated children's show True and the Rainbow Kingdom, writing, "The series aims to celebrate diversity through the use of food to highlight culture, collaboration, and the value of community." Laurel Graeber of The New York Times said that the show highlights creativity, while taking notice of the cultural diversity of the characters and their voice actors compared to the original Alice in Wonderland.

Ashley Moulton of Common Sense Media gave the show a grade of three out of five stars in her review, in which she described it as "a fun treat, but not one of Disney's standouts". She praised the characters, worldbuilding, musical numbers, and themes, stating that "Alice's Wonderland Bakery mines author Lewis Carroll's treasure trove of source material and adds amazing sugary confections". Moulton did, however, express concern over the numerous desserts featured on the show and said there were many other types of foods Alice and her friends could cook. Marisa Lascala of Good Housekeeping included Alice's Wonderland Bakery in their "60 Best Kids' TV Shows and Family Series of All Time" list.

Accolades
Eden Espinosa received nominations for Best Voice-Over Actor (Television) and Outstanding Voice Performance in a Preschool Animated Program at the 2022 Imagen Awards and the 1st Children's and Family Emmy Awards, respectively.