ALICE IS IN WONDERLAND – BUT ARE YOU?

Everyone and their uncle is excited about Tim Burton's film adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, and they should be! This film will take you on a magical journey through an imaginary world where anything can happen and often it happens twice.

There’s nothing quite like the passive yet cerebral activity of watching a good movie. Still: our generation loves to get our hands dirty with our favorite brands, and the video / online gaming industry is more than happy to oblige. In this case, Disney Interactive Studios will be handling the interactive side of Alice In Wonderland, releasing a brand-new video game adaptation of the classic tale. It will be available for Wii, DS and Windows-based PCs.

Do I even need to tell you what the game is about? Not really.

As imaginative as Alice in Wonderland is, the concepts behind the gaming executions of the story are as predictable and boring as can be.

According to reports, players will play Alice as she travels through wonderland. You connect with characters like the Mad Hatter to the Cheshire Cat to solve puzzles and try and defeat the Red Queen to restore Wonderland.

Basically … you’ll play a game that’s 95% similar to every game that’s ever been adapted from a film.

In my opinion, Disney has missed a huge opportunity here.

The Matrix video game that was released after the success of the film gave game-players the opportunity to select one of 2 basically inconsequential characters in the film, however, the narrative that is developed shows what was happening elsewhere to the primary story and even included supplementary film footage when you passed a level of the game.

This is just one way to expand the narrative, allowing people to dig deeper into the story, really get their hands dirty and allow them to experience amazing worlds and adventures at a more interactive level.

Why would anyone want to be Alice? I think Disney has missed a huge point here. Gaming is about fantasy, role playing and imagination. I think its great that Alice is in Wonderland, but what about the rest of us? With a simple avatar creation feature, we could have our own turn in Wonderland and hopefully visit never before parts of the world, and meet never before seen characters.

This is something that virtual world designers understand very well. Disney has always been the master of linear storytelling, but in this case: this property required more. Mickey Mouse, Hanna Montana and the Little Mermaid could get away with a formulaic video extension and it would be fun, potentially awesome! But Alice in Wonderland is special.

It’s fantastical.

It’s unique.

It’s thought provoking.

It’s wild.

It’s creative.

It’s a work of art.

I just wish the video game version did Lewis Carroll justice.

Am I wrong?