What’s that on top of the mushroom ticket booth at Alice in Wonderland? It looks like somebody left their shoes up there? But whose shoes could they be? And why are they up there?
I think we all know that one of the things that separates Disney from all the other amusement and theme parks is their attention to detail. It’s so easy to miss these brilliant-little details, because the “big picture” of the park has so much packed into it. But that’s why I’m here – to point out the genius in Disney’s design – right down to these easy-to-miss, little details.
If you’ve been to Disneyland and taken a ride on the Alice in Wonderland attraction, you may not have noticed that there’s a large mushroom in the loading area. This used to be a ticket booth before the 1984 refurbishment, where you would buy the “D” ticket to ride on Alice in Wonderland.
If you look closely, on the roof of that mushroom, there are 6 mysterious shoes (only 4 are visible in the picture below). But whose are they?
In the original Disney movie, Alice in Wonderland (1951), Alice meets a caterpillar smoking a hookah pipe. After a brief conversation, the caterpillar turns into a butterfly and leaves his caterpillar shoes behind. And there you have it – the caterpillar’s shoes are on the roof of the mushroom.
You can see the sequence of Alice meeting the caterpillar in a 4:40 clip from the original movie below. If you want, skip ahead to the 4:15 mark where the caterpillar begins to turn into a butterfly.
YouTube Video
Above: vintage ticket booth at Alice in Wonderland, courtesy of @DisneylandToday
About Lewis Carroll, author
The English author, Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), published the story, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in 1865. It is believed that the book is based on a story he told to a 10 year old girl named, Alice Liddell, while on a boating trip. Alice loved the story so much that he began writing it down the next day.
Here is an excerpt from the original book written by Lewis Carroll. (image: Public Domain)
One reply on “Alice in Wonderland Caterpillar Shoes in Disneyland”
[…] of the Alice in Wonderland queue. Next time you walk by, look closely and you might see that the Caterpillar left his shoes on top of the mushroom. (Alice in Wonderland was a B-level ticket in the ticket book pictured […]