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A Love Letter to American McGee's ALICE

RagnarRox

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MONSTERS OF THE WEEK: American McGee’s Alice

#AmericanMcGeesAlice #AliceReview #MonstersOfTheWeek

American McGee, after making his mark on legendary classics such as Doom and Quake, went solo and created one of the most original and forward-thinking adventure game of the turn of the Millennium: The dark and twisted adaptation of Lewis Carrol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with American McGee’s Alice.
It’s a tale that even precedes psychological horror milestones like Silent Hill 2 with a treatment of mental health related topics with tact and taste, an impeccable emo-goth aesthetic and besides all that, incredibly engaging action adventure/shooter gameplay that still holds up to this day. It’s long overdue for me to sing its praises in Monsters of the Week.

*Support the Channel*
Patreon: RagnarRoxShow

*Support American McGee's Patreon*
Patreon: americanmcgee

Chapters
00:00 Intro: Begin at the Beginning
04:50 Sponsor
06:25 Chapter I. We’re All Mad Here
14:37 Chapter II. Off With Her Head!
19:31 Chapter III. Curiouser and Curiouser
29:12 Epilogue. No Use Going Back to Yesterday.
34:28 Credits

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Credits

Thumbnail- and additional art by Omri Koresh, Art director of Alice: Asylum (Pre-Production Phase)
@omrikoreshart on instagram

Original Script: ‪@MichaelSaba‬

Guest Voice-Over Appearances:
‪@MandaloreGaming‬
‪@eurothug4000‬

Captions (English): Matt Cox
Twitter: pop_primer

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Sources/Gameplay Credits
PC Longplay [085] Ultimate Doom - Episode 1 | ‪@world-of-longplays‬ | by JonL
PC Longplay [085] Ultimate Doom - Episode 1

PC Longplay [089] Doom II: Hell on Earth | World of Longplays | by JonL
PC Longplay [089] Doom II: Hell on Earth (...

PC Longplay [1061] Quake | World of Longplays | by Jumper1k
PC Longplay [1054] Quake (Part 1 of 3)

PC Longplay [093] Hexen Beyond Heretic | World of Longplays | by JonL
PC Longplay [093] Hexen Beyond Heretic (pa...

[PC Longplay] Quake 2 - Single Player - Part 1 of 2 |HD| by DarkShadowRage2
[PC Longplay] Quake 2 - Single Player - Pa...

DOOM 64 Full Game Walkthrough - No Commentary (DOOM 64 Nintendo Switch Full Game Walkthrough) by RabidRetrospectGames
DOOM 64 Full Game Walkthrough - No Comment...

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Music Credits

Contains exclusive tracks by Cecil Opia: Shame, Journey Through Wonderland, Sister With a Motherloving Firearm https://www.cecilopia.com/
Twitter: @cecil_opia

Contains excerpts from:
Doom I and II Soundtracks, American McGee’s Alice OST, Alice: Madness Returns OST, Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit Instrumental, John Murphy - Adagio in D Minor, Quake Main Theme by Nine Inch Nails, Fran Bow OST, X-Files OST

20 Comments

@AmericanMcGeeOfficial 4 years ago Pinned

Thank you, for the very meaningful exploration of the themes contained within Alice. It's wonderful to hear you put into words the emotions that go into crafting these stories. And to know that my intention - to help people struggling with trauma - is being seen and understood ❤️

@cherryblossomdrive-by5797 4 years ago

american mcgee's alice and alice: madness returns were genuinely life-changing for me when i was younger. they were and have remained some of the most influential pieces of media to me in not just my creative work, but in everything i do, and it is so, so lovely to watch this video that understands that this game is so much more than "edgy wonderland" as i've heard it written off so many times. this is such a fascinating and lovely essay, and i do hope you make one about the sequel! your takes are always interesting.

@Knuckleb0ne 4 years ago

honestly, thank you for this dive into why dark games about mental illness can be helpful, cathartic, and even gentle to those of us who struggle. I am so tired of the process of coping with mental illness being "go to therapy, bullet journal, shut up about it". Trauma, and the processing of it, is so messy, such a long, inward journey. Games like Alice, Madness Returns, and Fran Bow (plus more) have helped me so immensely.

@eleonne 4 years ago

" ...because no matter how broken or helpless you may feel, your life has more power and possibility than you realize. All it takes is a willingness to make that first plunge down the rabbit hole." RagnarRox, that was beautiful! >.<

@hemangchauhan2864 4 years ago

Big flipping BUMP

I never read much on McGee himself, so his story was really a shock to me. I love when people get through despite all odds. Can't wait to finish the whole video.

@MeonLights 4 years ago

Teensy little nitpick because I read the story a lot for seminars and such:
The Red Queen and The Queen of Hearts are two different figures that often get mixed together. The Queen of Hearts is from Wonderland and a playing card (the one who beheads people constantly) while The Red Queen is from The Looking Glass and a chess piece.

@ricebread_tm 4 years ago

please please please cover madness return!! also did not realize mcgee was creating content for the 3rd game, definitely going to be checking his patreon now

@BlackSailPass 4 years ago (edited)

25:50 Alice staring intensely at the 'Quit' option is such a subtle, yet powerful visual detail. I never appreciated this before.

@Ner-Va11-A 4 years ago

Rule of Roses first and now American McGee’s Alice!????? My year has already been made ❤️

@bingonight1504 2 years ago

My mom played this game on our living room PC when I was way too little to understand what was going on, but I have a core memory of the Cheshire cat and some of the platforms. My mom's had a lot of mental health struggles so I can tell she was super into this

@Nalfein9k 4 years ago

I always found amusing that how natural American McGee's Alice artstyle looked for me, who never watched bright and colorful Disney's adaptation and only read the books and watched Russian mini-series adaptation (which is really psychedelic, and awesome :) ).

@Messikaze 4 years ago

I got into this series when the 2nd game was released, and fell absolutely in love with it. Still waiting patiently to this day for the 3rd game and get very excited when I hear people talking about the series. I can only speak for myself here but I would love another video on Madness Returns

@chriswroth5792 4 years ago

Love Mcgee's Alice and Madness Returns. Actually have Cheshire and Alice tattooed based on this game's designs.

@RagnarRoxShow Creator 4 years ago

Hey everyone, this is a re-upload after the first video inexplicably glitched 3 hours after release. It was fine until then and suddenly nobody could watch it. YouTube support could do nothing, so I had to unlist, re-export and re-upload it.
Apologies for the inconvenience, I sincerely hope you enjoy it! 🙏😤

@oliverc.6415 4 years ago

27:53 nice reference to The Myth of Sisyphus. Originaly, the myth told a tale of a man doomed to push a giant boulder up to a hill only to watch it fall back forcing him to start over the whole endeavor. Then Albert Camus used this tale as a sort of metaphore for how we all face the absuridities of life, where nothing has any meaning anymore and we are always comdemned to start over. Similarly with some mental illnesses, where improvement is only temporary. Still, Camus's advice is to free ourselves from the worry the the absurdity of life and our tasks create for us by embracing the absurdity, enjoying our moments of joy, and just "do our best" since nothing really matters.
“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” - Albert Camus

@fawn2911 4 years ago (edited)

I played Alice: Madness Returns for the first time almost 10 years ago and to this day it's the best game I've ever played. The realistic depiction of Alice's struggles with mental health issues, the twisted version of Wonderland and the backdrop of Victorian England is the best combo ever. I also appreciate that her clothes aren't sexualised and she's not afraid to stand up for herself. She has flaws like a real person. I can't wait for a third game in the series if there ever is one

@TindraSan 4 years ago

The Alice books were a parody of the adult world as viewed from the eyes of a child, the rules of Wonderland made as much sense as arbitrary social norms, lessons in manners and school curriculums would to a kid (especially at the time it was written)
I mean you can interpret a piece of media in several different ways, but this one seems so obvious that it frustrates me how little I see it being talked of.
It's a wacky cartoon comedy! The first book is the originator of the "talking smack about a person only to find them standing behind you" gag, for crying out loud!
I'm not saying there aren't any dark elements in the books, but most ppl seemingly only read individual bits of them as grimdark bc they ignore the punchlines.

@egaag 4 years ago

Please do madness returns! No one tells about that one enough, either!

@mercurydude 4 years ago (edited)

This is one of my favorite games, and while there are some aspects of it that are a bit clunky, especially by today's standards, you can't beat the atmosphere. This game is what I think everyone expected and wanted when Tim Burton took on Alice, yet Burton actually found a way to make Alice boring. Oh well.... we'll always have American McGee's magnificent Alice games.

edit: Well, I thought we would until I got towards the end of the video and saw the bad news about the state of the game. This game deserves better!

@Rietto 2 years ago (edited)

I read a (true) story about a woman who heard voices her whole life, and while she was young and thought that was normal, they weren't hostile. But once she got old enough to realize that 'hearing voices' was something to inspire fear, the voices changed from neutral to aggressive and scary. She struggled with them for years before she taught herself to instead be friendly and accepting towards the voices -- because of course, the voices are actually just pieces of her own mind and they were reflecting her own dark emotions back at her magnified. Instead of fighting their existence, it was her learning to live with them as a part of herself that she could change their nature. It was a big step to her improving her mental health, and I think it was such a fascinating, literal example of our demons being just our own darkness.