American McGee's Alice: Madness Returns Third Teaser Trailer
Do you see this, Burton? This is what it looks like to have your own shit blown out of the water.
WARNING: Graphic images of violence ahead.
Click to viewWhat usually gets to me about adaptations of Alice in Wonderland is that Alice is written to be a very passive character - wide-eyed, innocent and wandering about Wonderland. From my reading of the books, that's the polar opposite of her personality: she steps to Queens, saves babies, and on the whole doesn't put up with nonsense.
There seems to be two ways of adapting Alice in Wonderland: either it's the story of a little girl lost in dream land OR it's the story of a young girl trying to escape a philosophical, mathematical and linguistic nightmare. And I think Burton tried, as many others have of late, to bridge the gap between the two.
The Burton adaptation is grungy, dim, and actually doesn't make much sense. There was no sense of wonder from the visuals or immediacy to the plot. All the characters were so hopelessly submissive that I didn't care what happened to them. And in some ways I pity it: it was expected to be dark but couldn't be so dark families wouldn't want to see it together. It tried to do both and couldn't make either Alice adaptation work.
American McGee's Alice is at the opposite end of this spectrum: Alice is a murderer in her own imagination, and uses her rage and despair over the death of her parents to bring Wonderland to order. It is a legendary game for it's visuals, music, characters, and writing. Original copies of the game are sold for $200 on eBay.
And for the past few years, American McGee, the game's creator, has been working on a highly-anticipated sequel. They've been releasing teaser trailers for the past few months that are staggering. The plot revolves around Alice's life in Victorian London, post her asylum stay. Wonderland is still intruding on her life and Alice is working with a psychiatrist to once again bring it to order. The game is believed to come out this year or next.
Jesus! Would you just look at this?! How lush it is, how bright! I want to go to there.
One of my favorite things about American McGee's Alice is that he would feature lesser known characters from the original books. Here is the mouse with the very long (and sad) tale.
Oh. My. God.
You know another thing I hated from the Burton version? Alice never smiled. She never seemed to be enjoying herself. This Alice has no such problems.
GAH. And yet (Ooh) Aah! Alice: MR is being produced in China right now and I think Caterpillar's wings are an awesome reflection of this.
Just look at those faces!
And the hellscape that typifies Alice's actual madness and the influence of the Queen of Hearts.
Her dress is beautiful! I love the reinterpretation of it here. The tiny skulls over bows were a hallmark of her original costume. And the ice cream slug is an (admittedly bizarre) stroke of genius.
The Mad Tea Party promises to be more of a party this time around. And the floating landscape is very common in the Alice games.
This bitch is here to get stuff done. And I've always wondered if the Omega symbol she's often featured with is a symbol of her presence as a Destroyer God in Wonderland.
She will stab the glittery blood out of you, and she will enjoy it!
Alice - what have you done?
I CAME.
See all the screenshots here.