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The Transmedia Properties of “Alice in Wonderland”
By: Danielle Nieman, Jenna Zwang, Kristi Mexia and Jennifer Chapski
2 There have been many interpretations into the story of “Alice in Wonderland.” Since 1903, there have been 24 direct film and television retellings, along with 18 comic books that have been written. Alice’s adventures have also been expanded through 13 video and computer games. This transmedia project will show how one umbrella company can unify the “Alice in Wonderland” platform under a variety of transmedia branches. Our goal is to merge Alice fans from different genres back into one mother ship. This transmedia paper will address our ideas for a Web series, an online storybook, a collectible card game and a theme park. Since it has been shown that fans react well to transmedia properties that foster immersion in the story world, one of our strategies will be a webseries that allows fans to explore the backstories of some of the major characters Burton chooses to focus on in the film. The webisodes will be targeted at the same demographic as the film—primarily adults who grew up with the original Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. The purpose is to introduce the characters from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass that the film will feature, but which general audiences might not be familiar with—at least not in Burton’s darker incarnation. The webisodes would also serve to establish the absurdity of Wonderland itself, setting the tone for the film. Each webisode will focus on one character, but they will also show the connections among characters that may not be readily apparent in the film, adding a degree of richness to the Wonderland story world. Burton’s film will function as a sort of sequel to the original Carroll stories; Alice will be 19 years old, and she will not quite remember having visited Wonderland before.
3 The characters Burton focuses on—and hires well-known actors to play—are the Mad Hatter, the White Queen, the Red Queen, and the Knave of Hearts, played by Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Crispin Glover, respectively. These actors, ideally, would also play their characters in the webisodes, but they would be interacting with the young Alice of the Carroll stories rather than with Burton’s 19-yearold Alice. The webisodes would function as small extensions of the movie, not unlike the “deleted scenes” one might find on a DVD. This would allow fans to feel more connected to the story world by encouraging greater engagement with the Alice franchise.
THE MAD HATTER: “THE MURDER OF TIME” In the original Carroll stories, Alice’s interaction with the Mad Hatter explains the Hatter’s connection to the Queen of Hearts (whom Burton, like others before him, combines with the Red Queen) and also explains why it is always tea time for the Hatter. Alice encounters the Mad hatter and the March Hare having tea at a table. The Hatter speaks to Alice in absurd, riddle-like phrases, greatly frustrating her. He explains that he once tried to sing at a celebration for the Red Queen, who accused him of murdering the time. In retaliation, Time has halted itself for the Hatter, who is stuck at 6 o’clock forever. Eventually the Hatter drives Alice away with his absurd remarks, nonsensical poetry, and unanswerable riddles.
THE RED QUEEN: “BECOMING ROYALTY” This webisode establishes Alice’s somewhat antagonistic relationship with the Red Queen and also connects the viewer to Through the Looking Glass, the lesser-known
4 Carroll story. Wandering through Wonderland, Alice encounters the Red Queen in a garden. In front of them is an enormous chess board painted on the ground. The Red Queen explains to Alice the rules of chess, telling her how to get promoted to a queen. All she has to do is start out as a pawn and reach the eighth square on the other side of the board. Despite this advice, the Red Queen and Alice do not get along, as Alice resents the Queen for repeatedly asking absurd riddles and then chastising her for being unable to answer them. Later, Alice is promoted to queen, but the celebration for her goes awry. Alice accuses the Queen of being “the cause of all the mischief and captures her for a checkmate. This webisode also introduces a recurring motif throughout the film and throughout our webseries: card games and chess.
THE WHITE QUEEN: “LEARNING WHAT’S WHITE” The purpose of this webisode is to enrich the story world by demonstrating absurdist, Carroll-esque behavior and to explain the contrast between the Red Queen and White Queen and how they relate to Alice. Unlike the Red Queen, who antagonizes Alice, the White Queen is portrayed as benevolent and on Alice’s side. Alice meets her on the fifth square of the chess board. She gives Alice advice that, in keeping with the absurdity of Wonderland, is slightly strange, but she is clearly trying to be helpful. These bits of advice seem to illustrate the Carroll ethos: for example, the White Queen tells Alice that her life will be enriched if she makes an effort to believe six impossible things before breakfast. The White Queen also exhibits some odd, Carroll-esque behavior; for example, she screams in pain before, not after, pricking her finger on her brooch.
5 THE KNAVE OF HEARTS: “LAW AND DISORDER” This webisode connects the Knave of Hearts to the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter. It also reinforces the absurdity that runs through Wonderland while demonstrating Alice’s important role in the story world. The Knave is on trial for stealing a tart. A large crowd is present, including many of the minor characters seen in the film and associated with some of our other transmedia properties. The Mad Hatter is called as a witness in the trial, but he isn’t a very good one, responding in nonsense phrases and often unable to remember information. The Knave also does a poor job of defending himself, at one point insisting he didn’t write a particular letter but then revealing that he knows the letter isn’t signed. The evidence against the Knave and the way the trial is conducted become increasingly absurd, and Alice defends him when she is called as a witness. The idea behind the virtual storybook is to connect participants and fans of the Lewis Carroll novels to the upcoming Tim Burton film, while at the same time extending their interest in and creating excitement for the world of Wonderland. The virtual storybook will involve character back-stories. The character back-stories will take place after the featured character’s initial encounter with Alice in the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass novels, but before the Tim Burton film occurs. In this way, it will connect the early and most well known version of Alice with the new, darker Burton interpretation by filling in the moments between these Alice properties. The stories will appear online and the participant will have three options of how to engage with the property. First, they will have the choice to turn the pages at their own convenience. This will allow the viewer to engage with the stories at their own pace. It
6 also gives them a certain sense of control over the storybook by allowing them to choose when they are ready to turn the page. Secondly, they will have the option of having the story narrated for them, at an animated pace. By having the story read to them, it will remind the participant of their childhood. It will also create a more leisure atmosphere in which the viewer has only to look and listen to the story being told. Thirdly and lastly, the viewer will have the option to download the stories. This last choice is the most important. If the reader chooses to download the stories to read later or to even re-read them, it shows the highest level of commitment. Downloading the stories takes the most effort from the participant. They have to wait for the stories to download and then wait again to either read them later or even print or possibly share them with others. Therefore, this shows that these viewers have the highest level of commitment for this part of the Alice extension. The stories will be serialized and released bi-weekly on Tim Burton’s Alice website in the weeks leading up to the premiere of the film in March. This serialized format was chosen for its previous successes in other franchises and similar styles, which can be seen in examples like the Heroes’ graphic novels. By having the stories serialized, it will leave the viewer with cliff hangers and gaps of information that need to be filled. This will essentially create a need to return to the stories in order to fill in the missing pieces. In this way, the transmedia team will be able to gauge the storybook’s popularity among fans by calculating how many people participate with the medium. If successful, the stories can be lengthened because they are told in a serialized and chapter-based format. It will also be easier to add to the Alice cannon if there are gaps that need to be filled. At the same time, if the property does not find a large enough audience, it can be
7 ended on a “to be continued” moment. This will leave viewers with anticipation for the film in order to find out additional information about characters they have grown to love. The opportunity to navigate and play in the Wonderland character’s world would lend credibility and support to the stories as an Alice transmedia extension. The pictures that appear on each story page will have the ability to be explored with the click of a mouse. This could potentially open doors for more people to participate with the medium by allowing them to play within it. By taking advantage of the technology at hand, the storybook would be made to come alive for its viewers. It would be possible to explore the world of Wonderland; a journey that is unavailable by just reading the original Carroll novels. Participants would lift, look behind, and open objects present in the virtual story world. This allows the reader to gain additional information and context for the land of dark bliss that is being presented to them on a virtual page. The characters that will be initially featured in the storybooks are The Duchess, Humpty Dumpty, and the Talking Flower Garden. The Mock Turtle and White Knight characters are to be added to the virtual storybook cannon if the series gains a significant or dedicated fan base whom desire more content. All of the featured characters have brief but imaginative encounters with Alice that could and should be more fully developed. Although these characters are deemed as minor, it is important to explore their stories because they add such rich context for Alice’s adventures in both the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass novels. Therefore, it is pertinent to expand upon them because it deepens and enriches the world of Wonderland. It also adds drillability for the Alice fans.
8 The stories themselves will fill in the gaps for fans and participants. This creates a more personal and deep connection between them and the variety of characters that make Wonderland such a rich and inviting fantasy. The character’s stories will be featured in a real storybook. When the viewer clicks on the stories, they will be presented with a dark brown hardcover novel with the words “Alice in Wonderland” etched beautifully into it. The font for the title is an old-world calligraphy, lending an ancient and timely feel to the stories. By titling the book “Alice in Wonderland” it encompasses both of the original novels’ concepts and at the same time adds to them. When viewers click upon the virtual novel it will flutter open to the middle of the book. Then participants will be presented with the stories. Because the book opens in the middle, readers will feel that they just missed these stories the first time they read the books. The first character to be explored in the stories is the Duchess. The Duchess has one of the most famous rhymes in the Alice novels. She is most remembered for beating her baby when he sneezes! In the book, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice has two encounters with the Duchess. Both of which, are unpleasant and shape the consequent storybook tale for the Duchess. In the first, Alice sees the Duchess beating her baby when he sneezes. Immediately horrified, Alice snatches the child and runs promptly away from the small castle with the child in her arms. As she runs away, the baby turns into a pig and is never seen again. In the second encounter, Alice saves the Duchess from being beheaded by the Queen of Hearts, and the incident with the Duchess’ child is never brought up again. Even though the Duchess knows Alice took her child, she suspects the Queen is really the nasty culprit behind her misery. She blames the Queen of Hearts and wants to seek revenge for her near beheading. Thus, begins the era of the Card Wars.
9 The Card Wars stories will effectively set the stage for Burton’s dark interpretation of the film. They are also one of the contributing reasons the world of Wonderland is no longer bright and cheery for Alice when she returns to it in the film. The Card Wars will also set the foundation for Burton’s plot about the Red Queen’s reign of terror, which is a main element of the upcoming film. These reasons will ultimately give deeper meaning to the world of Wonderland. It will offer the participants of the storybook a deeper context of the inner workings of the wonders and horrors which comprise Wonderland. The second character that will be explored is Humpty Dumpty. Humpty Dumpty was chosen because not only is he a recognizable character in the Alice books, but he is a world-renown character known from many nursery rhymes. His story begins after Alice meets him. Humpty Dumpty bravely brags, in a condescending tone, to Alice that even he if does fall off his wall perch that the King has promised that “all of [his] horses and all of [his] men will put Humpty Dumpty together again!” As many people already know, this does not happen. In this story however, Humpty Dumpty is put together again, but not by the King. Instead, the story tells how Humpty Dumpty is put together in a mystery story that parallels aspects of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The story will, at first, explore the adventures and problems that come with putting Humpty Dumpty together again through a series of laboratory experiments. After Humpty is fixed, the reader will notice that he is not quite right. In fact, his new personality and appearance are rather sinister. Humpty Dumpty will quite literally be stitched together. Similar to Mary Shelley’s monster, Humpty Dumpty’s new appearance affects his actions as he develops a tortured temperament. The mystery story will make Humpty Dumpty’s creator a secret
10 until the end. This will keep readers guessing as they try to discover who the mastermind behind this scheme is and whether or not their intentions are evil. The third character that will be explored is rather a set of characters—the Talking Garden. What is intriguing about the Talking Garden is that it is set in a class system, much like the English society Carroll existed in. Different flowers have different ranks and are able to control or rather talk over others. When the flowers meet Alice they are extremely disagreeable and pick and poke at her human appearance. This interaction suggests a sense of snobbery and isolation among the flowers. Perhaps because they are stationary, they do not meet many other creatures of Wonderland. With this in mind, the story that evolves from the Talking Garden centers on their gardener who acts as a king or God figure for the flowers of the Wonderland garden. Because the flowers did not understand or agree with Alice’s appearance, the role will be reversed for them as the gardener will similarly never be quite satisfied with the flowers in his garden. His displeasure with his creations creates a tense atmosphere for the garden flowers of Wonderland. When their gardener appears, simple actions like weeding and pruning become terse and terrifying moments for the poor, pitiful flowers. As a new character to the Wonderland collection, the story will revolve around the gardener, who is a green thumb. It will also encompass the choices that he makes to either add to, or subtract from the garden, which he so carefully watches over and cares for. The target audience for these storybooks is males and females ages thirteen to twenty-five. This demographic was carefully chosen for numerous reasons. Because the format for these stories is indeed a life-like storybook, it will therefore appeal to more young-minded and or, dedicated Wonderland audiences. Consequently, it will remind
11 them of their childhood with the Lewis Carroll novels. While the books’ format might attract a younger audience, its dark, sinister plot lines and content will appeal to an older audience of teens and people in their twenties. It is also more plausible to direct the virtual storybook towards these audiences because they are more likely to participate with it. This demographic spends the most time online, so it is probable that they will participate with this medium more than other younger demographics that might need their parents’ permission to go online or not own their own computer. This makes the storybook less accessible to them as a whole. If the extension does find a large amount of support, the stories can be collected together and released in a hard copy version. This would appeal to dedicated Alice, Tim Burton, and the film’s fans. Additionally, since the stories are designed to be exceptionally visual, like the Burton film, they could be added to the DVD extras. This would act as another incentive to purchase the film once it is released for home entertainment. The story of “Alice in Wonderland” has so many interesting characters involved that a collectible card game makes perfect sense. Developing a card game property mirroring Tim Burton’s darker version of Alice’s adventures is a great way to attract the attention of new and old fans. A card game is also a great starter property to produce before Burton’s movie premieres in March 2010. Anyone familiar with the story of “Alice in Wonderland” knows that there is a reoccurring card theme throughout. We thought it would be fun to expand on the card theme by making it into a playable card game for the public. The collectible card game is a great way to give fans a chance to learn back stories about the characters of “Alice in
12 Wonderland”, while also giving them the opportunity to have fun with a game that will hopefully continue to grow once Burton’s movie is released. The idea is to mirror the “Magic Gatherer” card game because it was a property that was highly successful and popular with the public. For “Alice in Wonderland”, we felt it would be a wise decision to make the card game a simpler version of the “Magic Gatherer” so it would appeal to more fans, and in return, would also be more appealing and marketable to stores like Target and Walmart. Being that we are not game experts, we have not fully developed a playable game at this point, but we do have a basic outline of what the cards would look like and what information would be included on them. The cards will be introduced to fans four months before Burton’s film is released in the spring, which is perfect considering the holidays would be right around the corner. The game would target males and females starting at 12 years old and up. By appealing to a wider audience we hope to be able to attract a bigger base of new and old fans. We know that successful properties are often targeted to a more specific audience, but we thought that a card game was something that people of all ages could gather around and play. Adults may not be as interested in the collectible angle of the cards, but could certainly become invested in the property if they were playing the game with their children. The first deck of cards released would be called a starter pack. This pack would include 60 cards and would introduce four main characters. Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen and the Cheshire Cat would be the first characters released in the starter pack. Each character will have four cards in the deck. The Alice cards would always be worth 30 points and would always be a light blue color. The Mad Hatter’s cards would be
13 green and worth 20 points. The Red Queen’s cards would be worth 50 points and would always be the color red. The Cheshire Cat is worth 10 points and the card would be orange in color. On the back of the cards there will be a back story included giving fans a chance to discover things they would only have learned because they purchased the cards. The 46 cards that are left over in the deck will be called tea party cards. These cards will have various points’ worth anywhere from 1 point up to 30 points. As mentioned before, the card game is not completely playable at this point, but the idea would be that pairing certain cards together would allow players to be able to take down their opponents cards. For example, if a player had an Alice card and a Mad Hatter card together they would be able to take down their opponents Red Queen card. In the starter pack the tea party cards will include an initial back story, which will be explained later on. Once the movie premieres in March we would have a booster pack released that would include more characters, but would also continue to expand on Alice’s back story. The tea party cards would only be included in the starter pack because there is not a back story that will be continued and there is no reason to add more of these cards to the deck. A limited edition pack would be available to fans later on, which would include cards that revealed more back story’s to the characters and would also stand out in appearance from the starter or booster pack cards. This pack of cards would cost more money, but the idea is that at this point fans would be so heavily invested in the collectible card game that they would be willing to spend more money. In the starter pack Alice fans will learn more about her home life. The back of the card will reveal that Alice comes from an abusive and dysfunctional family. While
14 Alice’s sister would escape by losing herself in a book, Alice would often let her own imagination take her away so she could block out the reality of the yelling and fighting in her home. The booster pack will expand on Alice’s relationship with her sister. Fans will learn that Alice’s older sister, Isabelle, was the only one who understood her need for a self-created fantasy land. Her sister in fact realized it was Alice’s tool for coping with the stress of their home life. In the limited edition pack Alice’s relationship with her parents will be revealed. The card will explain that Alice’s parents had never wanted a second child. Their older daughter was the “perfect” child, just as they expected her to be. They showed Isabelle off when it was convenient for them, and left her in the care of a nanny the rest of the time. When Alice came along 8 years later her parents viewed her birth as a huge inconvenience. Everything she did angered them, causing her to act up more. They began to suspect and fear she had inherited a psychological disorder just like her mother’s brother had who was now in a mental institution. In the starter pack we would also learn who the Mad Hatter represented to Alice in her real life outside of wonderland. The card would reveal that the Mad Hatter originated from Alice’s real life uncle. When she was very little she had fond memories of her Uncle Fred coming for tea with the family. She particularly liked the hats he would wear. At some point Uncle Fred stopped coming. Alice overheard her parents whispering that he had gone “mad.” Being so young, Alice thought he was mad at her and it made her sad because she missed him.
15 The Red Queen’s back story in the starter pack would reveal that her character developed from Alice’s real life nanny, Queenie. Queenie, who was never kind to Alice, always complained to Alice’s parents about her behavior. The nanny tolerated Alice’s older sister, but seemed to “love” Alice’s older half-brother. Young Alice saw Queenie as a magical witch figure, capable of turning from evil to good depending on who was watching. She never understood why the nanny’s love for her brother, Charles had turned to hate. Alice would often hear her say, “Your brother Charles is sly and evil like a cat!” In the starter pack fans will learn that the Cheshire Cat character represents to Alice her older, half-brother Charles. Charles comes from Alice’s father’s first marriage. Charles was always mean to Alice and Isabelle when he would come to visit. The girls were always perplexed about the unusually close relationship he appeared to have with their nanny, Queenie. The close “friendship” between Charles and Queenie came to an end when Charles brought home the governor’s daughter and introduced her as his fiancé. From that day forward Queenie seemed to despise him. The initial story of the tea party cards that will be revealed to fans in the starter pack will discuss what the tea party’s represented to Alice in her real life. The tea party cards will feature Alice, the Mad Hatter and the white rabbit having tea. The game will mostly consist of these cards. When Alice was young the family’s butler, James, was the one kind adult in the household. Butler James would warn the girls when their parents or the nanny was in a tirade. He would help them hide from the constant uproars that would take place in their home. Meanwhile, Butler James was also trying to serve Alice’s parents, but it seemed
16 no matter how hard he tried he was always late. Young Alice had heard her mother tell Butler James, “You move like a turtle; you need to be fast like a rabbit!” Alice saw Butler James as the rabbit in her fantasy land guiding her to her next destination in wonderland. The tea parties represented for Alice fond memories of Uncle Fred and Butler James. The “Alice in Wonderland” card game was a property that was developed to reach out to old fans that loved the original story, but also to get a new generation of fans involved as well. We felt that the cards would be a great way to establish excitement about the upcoming Burton film, while also expanding on the story of Alice and the other characters. The selling point about the game property is that it could be released before the movie in order to bring a bigger audience out to the theaters when the movie premieres in the spring of 2010. The theme park would be the final step in expanding the Alice in Wonderland franchise, to be completed after the other transmedia forms have proven successful and established a loyal fanbase. The rides would be based after major turning points in the stories of Through the Looking Glass as well as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The park itself will be laid out in a chronological manner, with earlier events in the stories closer towards the entrance, although attendees will be free to ride the rides in any order. The park would be geared towards teens and adults, as we are trying to follow Tim Burton’s lead with our transmedia translations. We therefore are including a large portion of exciting rides, such as coasters and other rides with dramatic drops. We are upping the thrill factor on some of the rides, such as “Humpty Dumpty’s Great Fall” but we are also including rides that will appeal to all. Several of our rides are milder,
17 allowing adults who wish to attend to have options to bring their children on as well. The park will have a darker feel, but will not be frightening like a haunted house. Instead it will just depict the characters as Tim Burton does; edgier and not as “Disney-esque.” For those adventurers wishing to experience the park the way Alice experienced her journey, there would be white rabbit signs posted throughout the park that direct the attendee to the next attraction. The rabbits would function as signage posted around the park, as well as be on the ground itself to symbolize a path to the attractions. The ride closest to the gate will be the “Down the Rabbit Hole” ride. This ride will be exemplary of Alice’s original entrance into the world of Wonderland. The queue will be shaped and decorated like a tunnel. The ride itself would be a descent into Wonderland, set up similarly to the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. Members would step onto a platform that would drop down slowly, exposing the items that Alice saw on her fall down the rabbit hole. Guests would then board a slow moving coaster that would escort them through a series of Caroll-esque sites and short displays; such as projected 3D films of characters that guests will later see more of. The second ride that guests would encounter if they continued following the white rabbit’s trail would by the “Pool of Tears.” The entrance to the “Pool of Tears” ride would be decorated with paintings of a variety of different bottles, all painted with the words “Drink Me” to represent the bottle that Alice drank from which altered her size. The ride symbolizes the scene in the Alice stories where Alice drinks from the bottle and becomes a giantess. She cries giant tears before drinking from the bottle again and becoming a tiny version of herself. The tears she cried as a Goliath created a lake which whisks her away in the bottle that she drank from. This ride, therefore, would be a water
18 coaster. Guests would board a bottle-shaped car that would carry them through a fastmoving water filled track, filled with plunges similar to those at Disneyland’s “Splash Mountain.” When guests disembarked from the “Pool of Tears,” they would be at the “Talking Flower Garden.” The talking flowers in the Alice stories are incredibly animated characters who provide a colorful backdrop for Alice’s journey. These flowers would be animatronic and interact with guests as they walked by, similar to the Mr. Potato Head character at Disney’s California Adventure. Mr. Potato Head is operated by someone who has cameras trained on the guests as they walk by and is therefore able to speak to them individually. The flowers would have this same ability, although they would also have programmed skits to entertain visitors on their way to the next moving attraction. Guests would then encounter the next attraction on their journey around Wonderland; the “Mad Hatter’s Fun House.” The Mad Hatter seems to be the essence of Carroll-esque writing, with his nonsensical stories and slightly insane appearance. The Fun House’s goal, therefore, would be simply to disorient; to bring guests into a world that intrigues them but that they don’t necessarily understand. This seems to be the relationship that Alice has with the Mad Hatter and is the relationship that we want the guests to have with the fun house. The next ride guests would encounter would by “Humpty Dumpty’s Great Fall.” The nursery rhyme of Humpty Dumpty appears as a fleshed out character in the Carroll stories. The “Great Fall” ride will be a Tower of Terror style ride, with guests entering a cage-like structure on the top of a “great wall.” Guests would enter a the cage structure
19 and we strapped down. When they “fell” the cage would tilt so that the guests were falling with their backs toward the ground instead of their feet. Another attraction guests would find would be the “Queen’s Croquet.” This ride would be set up similarly to both Toy Story rides in Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. Guests would board a two-seater car which has two wii-like remotes attached to it. As they travel through the ride, 3D video screens will appear during which players would use the remotes as croquet mallets in an attempt to get the highest score. A big part of creating another world within the theme park is making sure that all elements correspond to the story we are trying tell. One major portion of this is the concessions. We want to make sure the concessions come directly from Carroll’s tales so that the attendees feel like they are experiencing what Alice and others who live in Wonderland could experience. Drink stands around the park will be entitled “Drink Me,” and will have beverages encased in antique-y looking bottles with tags labeling their contents. Food stands around the park will bear the label “Eat Me,” and will serve food that Alice herself might’ve eaten, such as pastries, meat pies, etc. In the main concession area, there will be several restaurants with titles and menus based off of the stories. One will be “The Walrus and the Carpenter’s,” which will serve a variety of seafood, but specialize in oysters. Within Alice in Wonderland, there is a tale within it which tells of how the Walrus and Carpenter lured oysters onto shore in order to eat them. Therefore, a seafood restaurant seems especially appropriate. There would also be a bakery entitled “The Queen of Hearts’ Tarts,” which would be inspired by the trial of the Knave of Hearts for stealing the aforementioned tarts. The rest of the concessions would also be themed to reflect the whimsical nature of Carroll’s stories.
20 The décor in the park needs to be demonstrative of Carroll’s fanciful tales in order to keep the story alive while guests travel through the theme park. The white rabbit will be a motif throughout the park. While it will be utilized as a marker to direct people throughout the park, it can also act as a hidden symbol. For younger guests taken with their families, looking for the white rabbit can be a fun activity for all ages. The park will establish that a certain number of white rabbits (not including the markers) are hidden throughout the park. It is then up to guests to discover them. The rest of the park will be decorated in a blended Burton-Carroll style. Carroll’s unique characters will all make an appearance, influenced by Burton’s darker expression of them. This park will be geared towards attracting teens and adults. However, we understand that many adults have families, and being able to take their families to the park would allow them to attend more often. Consequently, there will be attractions included that allow for all-aged participation. The rides will not be scary in the frightening sense; just the thrill factor would be increased. The theme would act as a way to connect two groups of people to the Alice franchise. The first would be the evangelical fans, who would travel to the park to be able to connect with a story that they’d loved since childhood. This is the same audience that the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is depending on; fans of the books and movies making a pilgrimage to the park in order to act out what it would be like if they were part of the fantasy world. The park would also act as a way to draw in new fans who had previously not participated in other aspects of the franchise. A park such as Disneyland holds appeal to those who aren’t huge fans of Disney movies because of the draw of the
21 rides. We can bring new people into the franchise and turn them into hard core fans by introducing them to the story of Alice in theme park form. We do not know yet the exact direction Burton will take with his version of “Alice in Wonderland”, but we are confident that the transmedia properties we have presented here will successfully expand on the story of Alice and her wonderland. The web series, the online storybook, the collectible card game and the theme park will all help to unify Alice. The story of Alice is universal, and we hope our media will return the appeal to adults and teens that have grown up with the story and are ready to learn about the 2010 Alice.
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Pictures of the “Alice in Wonderland” Web Series
The front cover of the virtual storybooks.
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After Alice left, things just got worse for the Duchess. She missed her lost son. The Duchess knew Alice had taken him away, but she suspected the Queen was truly responsible.
The Duchess began rhyming her reasons for revenge against the Queen. And so began the long years of the Card Wars. …
An example of a page from the storybook of the character, The Duchess.
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Pictures of the “Alice in Wonderland” Card Game
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