The attraction would have seen guests visiting physical adaptations of nearly every scene in the motion picture, each one featuring some zany gag (often reminiscent of traditional carnival funhouses) such as a forced-perspective "shrinking" effect within the corridors of the rabbit hole and rotating platforms circling Dodo's rock that would have simulated the caucus race.

[1] An Alice dark ride was then considered as a remedy to this issue, but as a result of strict time and budgetary constraints, the idea was shelved, and the space originally designated to house the attraction would instead be occupied by the Mickey Mouse Club Theatre.

The Alice in Wonderland dark ride concept would resurface in late 1957, when legacy Disney artist and Imagineer Claude Coats (a chief art director of the film along with Mary Blair) was tasked with designing such an attraction.

Made possible by the aid of Ken Anderson, Collin Campbell, and Blaine Gibson (all of whom had worked on the film), as well as the talent of special effects engineer Bob Gurr, the ride was finished in under a year's time and opened to the public on June 14, 1958, complete with a televised ribbon-cutting ceremony featuring Mousketeer Karen Pendleton dressed as Alice.

As the attraction's multiple-story configuration hardly could have accommodated a normal loading queue, guests boarded their ride vehicles directly adjacent to a huge outdoor garden consisting of enormous, stylized vines and blades of grass (each constructed of fiberglass and rendered in a variety of pastel colors such as pink and purple) towering over a bed of multi-colored gravel and small shrubs, along with four looming dandelion-shaped light fixtures.

Much in the same vein as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Snow White and her Adventures, Alice in Wonderland saw guests navigating boxy corridors illuminated with ultraviolet fluorescents and populated by lavishly painted plywood "flats" representing scenery and characters.

Limited ride space meant that many stand-out characters and locales from the film (most notably the Queen of Hearts, royal croquet grounds, and playing card soldiers) were absent from the attraction, and even the scenes that were present were not necessarily arranged in chronological order.

Additionally, a small extension of the ride building to the right side of the loading queue that had been used for vehicle maintenance was demolished to make way for a new ending scene, which is isolated from the rest of the attraction by the winding vine ramp.

The ride also received interior soundproofing to prevent audio from bleeding through the set walls as it had previously, as well as an entirely original soundtrack featuring re-orchestrated music, new character voices, and new dialogue from Kathryn Beaumont once again reprising her role as Alice.

The exterior garden was given a significant overhaul as well, as the original gravel, shrubs, and colorful fiberglass sculptures were replaced with actual flowerbeds, topiary heart designs, decorative hedges, and several imported trees, including a gigantic ficus serving as a centerpiece of sorts.

Alice in Wonderland would once again remain largely unchanged for another 26 years before it closed without warning on July 15, 2010, for maintenance concerning the exterior vine ramp, which was discovered to violate regulations set in place by California's OSHA department as it lacked handrails for workers.

[3] The attraction reopened a month later on August 13, now with a temporary safety platform featuring side railings installed directly underneath the vine ramp, as well as a series of tarps "camouflaged" to appear as stylized vegetation curtaining off most of the queue garden.

[4] Upon boarding a fiberglass caterpillar car, guests proceeded past the enormous vines and dandelions looming over the gravel garden before entering the grey, cavernous maw of the rabbit hole and plunging into darkness.

Passing under tables and chairs of various designs, as well as flower vases, bookshelves, gas lamps, and even an occupied fish bowl, the White Rabbit was heard singing I'm Late before swinging upside-down into a doorway at the far end of the room with his trumpet in hand.

Guests' caterpillar car then performed a sharp turn into the opposite direction and continued toward a tall fireplace (the same one seen in the film as Alice descends the rabbit hole) complete with flickering fabric flames and a hanging, upside-down tea kettle.

This interpretation of the scene was quite different, however, as although the illusion of shrinking to a minuscule size was preserved by means of gargantuan furniture props, there was no glass table here as there was in the film—rather a giant flat of the Cheshire Cat situated atop a suitably large footstool.

In keeping with the trend of gargantuan scenery, each strange bird and plywood bit of vegetation within this scene was rendered with intimidating proportions, despite the fact that Alice, in the film, had grown back to her normal size well before becoming lost in the Tulgey Wood.

Upon entering the wood, guests first approached ten glowing pairs of red, cut-out eyes staring from the dark, whose pupils would "follow" each caterpillar car veering out of the way into a swift hairpin turn.

Ahead were the bird-cage bird (whose cage body contained two fluttering fledglings, both of which were kept in use after the 1984 overhaul[5]), a jumping umbrella vulture, several honking horn ducks, and a pair of pencil woodpeckers perched near another oversized wooden sign, this one labeled "Mad Hatter."

Just as with the previous Tulgey Wood, the Mad Tea Party was inconsistent with the ride's source material in that it was portrayed with gargantuan proportions, having guests literally on top of the massive table as Alice's narration would suggest.

Navigating among the crockery, several cups of tea blocking guests' path swung out of the way before their caterpillar car drew near to the edge of the table, beyond which were the Mad Hatter and the March Hare—both rendered as monstrously sized flats donning crazed expressions.

Situated in front of a forced-perspective mural offering a glimpse of a stone path leading into the distant woods and an array of hanging paper lanterns, the party's unhinged duo of hosts popped up suddenly to shout, "Move down!

A final fourth set of doors, painted entirely black save for a minimalist keyhole in the center, then parted to a different, especially outlandish scream as guests' caterpillar car emerged from the show building.