Hello Bloggees! As none of you know, I’ve always been a huge Alice in Wonderland fan. Everything from the classic Lewis Carroll poems and stories, the Disney movie, to that random psychedelic (fitting) 90’s cartoon, “Adventures in Wonderland.” It’s a story that has been translated into countless different mediums. Still my all time favorite version of Alice in Wonderland has to be “American McGee’s Alice,” a cult PC game that I’ve shredded through dozens of times.
Fungiferous Flora
The story of American McGee’s Alice starts with Alice (Duh,) sleeping soundly in her bed, off in dreamland. When an oil lamp, knocked over by a black cat, starts a fire that rapidly blazes across the house. Alice gets out alive, but only after not being able to save her parents as they scream for her to get out of the house. Only Alice survives. Blaming herself for the accident Alice falls into a dark depression. The darkness in her mind seeps into her fantasy world and Wonderland is no longer a place for dreams and teatime. It becomes a land of slaves and despair.
“Only the foolish believe suffering is just wages for being different”
The basis of the game is simple, you play Alice, armed with a myriad of demonic toys and aid her on her journey to the Red Queen, the source of her inner demons. Slay the Queen and you release Alice from her torment. All with the help of rhymes and riddles of the Cheshire Cat, who has a catchy verse for every toy you find (“Here’s a Riddle for you: When if a croquet mallet like a billy club? I’ll tell you: whenever you want it to be.”) Plus you get kick ass power ups like Dogs of War (above) and the crazy bug Tea that lets you jump around something crazy. Did I mention Chris Vrenna of Nine Inch Nails composed the soundtrack? It’s pretty bad ass.
The game is so fucking amazing I can hardly stand it. But now I fear for it’s life. Because something potentially horrible has happened to this cult classic: Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Don’t get me wrong. I own every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and have an unnatural emotional involvement with the characters of both Buffy and Angel. But Miss Gellar has decided that with her small fortune she was going to buy the rights to the American McGee’s Alice film. It seems like most fans are horrified because her owning the film means she gets to star in it.
It doesn’t help that none of the writers have much previous experience. This movie is just one big Crap shoot.
The film’s scheduled for release in July, though that’s a very lose estimate. I’m really not sure how I feel about it. A film could be amazing. . . or it could be horribly tragic. Video Game movies have a really bad habit of sucking (Need I mention Final Fantasy: Advent Child/The Spirits Within or do I dare remind you of Alone in the Dark?)
Click the Poster for some IMDB Goodness
Still I do have hope! And even if the movie sucks major balls at least it won’t ever be the worst Alice in Wonderland film adaptation. I’m pretty sure Alice in Wonderland: The Musical Porno will hold that place forever.




April 20, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Yay, nice post!
Such a fun game. But, ew, yeah, I totally agree with you about the Gellar thing. That really doesn’t give me a good feeling. The whole actors-deciding-they-want-to-help-produce-a-movie thing just makes me uncomfortable to begin with, unless they have really good writers (like with Wolverine, haha) or they’re just damn good actors and therefore it’s forgivable. Besides, you said they don’t have experienced writers, so that’s even worse.
Lmao, a musical porno? God, how do you find these things?
April 21, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I definitely have to find that Musical Porno and see it. I’m sure it’s hysterical.
Also Sarah Michelle Gellar isn’t just helping to Produce it, she owns the complete rights to the movie. The fact that she’s like “Well I own it, so yeah I’m gonna star in it.” Pisses me off. That means she didn’t even have to prove that she could play the role well. She’s just instantly the star.
I dunno. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the movie will totally fucking rule. The biggest crime though: Even if it sucks I’ll still end up seeing it and owning it!
April 21, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Well, I mean, that’s usually how it is when actors want to produce it, too. They’re just automatically in it.
(Of course, Jackman was Wolverine anyway, so it doesn’t matter.)
Haha! Let me know how it is when you see it.
September 3, 2008 at 12:28 am
Yeah, i totally agree, I don’t think that SMG will be a good Alice at all, and I just started playing the game, but I know people who have had it forever, and i”m addicted to it!
September 3, 2008 at 1:08 am
Hehe I cannot even count the amount of times I’ve played it. It’s pretty amazing. Let’s just pray SMG doesn’t totally fuck up…
Thank you for the comment!
May 18, 2009 at 5:47 pm
have had this super cool game since it got out in 2000, it has to be the most fucked up and obscure game i have ever played, and i love it,