I don't know about you, but when I first saw the trailer to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (in theaters this Friday), it seemed very familiar. The CGI characters and darker, more mature take on the Alice in Wonderland story made me think of American Mcgee's Alice, that cult-favorite PC and Mac game that came out a decade(!) ago. Check out the trailer below to see what I mean:
Alice in Wonderland:
American McGee's Alice
There are bound to be many similarities in artistic works based on the same source material, and I seriously doubt Disney's film is going to delve deeply into the Insanity aspect of American McGee's work, but the overlap is interesting -- the overall vibe of both works seem pretty similar, and some of the characters seem pretty similar as well.
I'm not saying that Tim Burton stole anything from McGee -- in fact, you could say McGee owes some of his stylish flair to Burton's earlier, cultish movies-- but both Alice and Alice in Wonderland are the product of idiosyncratic auters taking a classic piece of "cultish" literature and turning it inside out. It's cool how, in this case, gaming seems to have beaten Hollywood to the Alice punch by a full ten years.
Either way, I'll be at the Arclight Theater this Friday night checking out Tim Burton's movie... either that or I'll stay home and read Lewis Carrol's original book, then watch Czechoslovakian animator Jan Svankmajer's Alice, which is came out in 1988 and is definitely weirder than both Burton and McGee's takes on the classic tale.
So which Alice is the best, readers?
Comments
Displaying 1–14 of 14
cheshirecatzbaby
I enjoyed the Tim Burton movie but Mcgee's Alice is still amazing every time I play it. I wish Tim Burton made the movie about mcgee's alice instead but I suppose it wouldn't have appealed to the public as well.
davidthemarine
Who cares which one is the best? I think Burtons realization of this classic looks amazing in its own right. American McGee also put out a milestone as far as where video games were at that time. i give thumbs up to both of them! That last Jan Svankmajer stop motion rendition was uh...interesting.
Oinkness
McGee owes nothing to Burton, sjohnson. I wish I could have been there to STOMP on your hands when you were typing that!
DarthHerter
u guys fail to realize that tim burton always does a dark take on a lot of movies. i mean all of his movies have a dark vibe to it. with that said the original alice in wonderland not the disney cartoon i mean the book was a dark tale in its self so of course that game and this movie would be similar in some ways.
SteveKB
yeah I mentioned the two being similar a while ago :p I was wondering before if they stories would be similar as well.
LyleT
The beauty about Windows 7 is it plays old games like American Mcgee's Alice where older versions of windows failed to play them.
Blindside002
American Mcgee's Alice was one of the best games I have ever played with how creep and messed up it was, but at the same time not meaning to be a horror game. I love Tim Burton and I love Johnny Depp, but I think trying to compare the two is like Apples and Oranges, they have some ideas that are similar, but that is because they are going from the source material. Overall I think they are both great, I can't wait for Tim Burton's Alice and I can't wait for American Mcgee's Alice 2.
bmben
PS... Tim Burton jumped the shark years ago (Sleepy Hollow, though Sweeny Todd was more good than bad). I am not looking forward to this movie at all.
bmben
American McGee's Alice was a visual masterpiece, but original idea it was not. Dark versions of Alice's Adventures Through the Looking Glass have been quite common, such as Jan Svankmajer's bizarre stop-motion film Alice; Dreamchild, which like Tim Burton's film is more of a sequel than a re-imagining; and let's not forget the 1976 porn version. The book itself is dark and demented, leaving the nightmare barely covered in Victorian lace. And, as for McGee owing his dark feel to Burton, Burton is merely reinventing German Expressionism, a style most often associated with The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.
jungleman67
i don't like tim burton
BertSaxby
McGee's Alice was one of those things that come along in gaming once in a lifetime.
Depp is a master actor, also something that doesn't come along very often.
The German film looks like an ad for anti-glue sniffing.
deathsdelivery
He looks more like Simply Red then Annie Lennox.
fishheadblues
American McGee's Alice is better. At least that one doesn't have Johnny Depp impersonating Annie Lennox in it.
fishheadblues
American McGee's Alice is better. At least that one doesn't have Johnny Depp impersonating Annie Lennox in it.
Displaying 1–14 of 14
Add a Comment