Same Voice, Different Disney Characters
When Walt Disney was alive, many of his animated films (and some released after his death) featured different characters with the same voice actors. Some of these included Eleanor Audley (who voiced Lady Tremaine and Maleficent), Sterling Halloway (whose character voices included Adult Flower, Cheshire Cat, Kaa, and Winnie the Pooh), and Verna Felton (who voiced the Fairy Godmother, the Queen of Hearts, and Flora).
Among my most favorites is Kathryn Beaumont, who was one of the few child voice actors to voice characters who were also children. She is best remembered for voicing two female protagonists: the titular Alice of Alice in Wonderland and Wendy Darling in Peter Pan. Not only did she perform their voices, but she played both characters as a live action reference model for the animators in the two films. Because they share the same voice actress and model, Alice and Wendy also have extremely similar facial features, including blue eyes. Besides that, these two heroines share some other things in common:
- Both live in England
- Both wear blue clothing (although Alice wears an actual dress, while Wendy wears a nightgown)
- Both are preteens (Alice is ten, Wendy is twelve)
- Both are very imaginative and adventurous
- Both have a pet (Alice has her cat, Dinah, Wendy has her dog, Nana)
- Both interact with characters voiced by Heather Angel and Bill Thompson (Angel voices Alice’s sister and Wendy’s mother, Thompson voices the White Rabbit and Mr. Smee)
- Both of them also wake up from what seems like a dream of their respective fantasy worlds, both of which also end in “land” (although it is made very clear that Alice’s adventures were just a dream, while it doesn’t appear so much that way for Wendy)
Another connection made between the two films is one of the songs. The opening song in Peter Pan, “The Second Star to the Right,” actually contains the recycled melody of a deleted song from Alice in Wonderland, known as “Beyond the Laughing Sky.”