Alice

Review by Matthew Anderson

Original Video Animation

Company: Artsmagic

Running Time: 80 minutes

Region: 0 (All Regions)

Rated: PG-13 (Violence)

EXTERNAL EXAM

Alice is having a very strange day.

What was supposed to be a free trip to the moon has turned into a fight for survival in a frozen wasteland 30 years in the future. She is caught in the middle of a war between the tyrannical armies of Nero and the Liberation Forces, each trying to capture her. With the help of her new friends Yuan and Maria, Alice must not only evade the enemy, but find a way to return to her own time.

As she investigates what happened 30 years ago, she discovers that the fate of the world has been intertwined with not only her own future, but that of her unborn son, and the death of her very best friend Yumi!

DVD VISION TEST

VIDEO: This is one sharp looking transfer. There are no pixels, wrinkles, or blemishes anywhere to be found. This is the benefit of digital based animation. Many of the technical errors of the past are gone.

AUDIO: There is very little difference between the Japanese and English 5.1 audio. Both are pretty low, with little to no directionality.

EDITS: No edits have been noted. However, there are some issue with the subtitles. There are quite a few dropped prepositions, and a couple of badly worded sentences.

EXTRAS: There is an interview with Director Kenichi Maejima, a filmography, staff bios, and concept artwork. The most interesting extra is a seminar on CG animation in Japan, hosted by Anime Encyclopedia co-author Jonathan Clements.

WIDESCREEN REVIEW

STORY: This is a pretty basic anime. While Masahiro Yoshimoto's script has it's moments, it's a pretty bland exercise in Science Fiction storytelling. The dialogue is trite, the situations are laughable, and the dénouement is so obvious, even the dimwitted Alice could figure it out.

ACTING: The Japanese cast is fantastic, but underused. Some of the best voice talent in the industry can be found wasted here, including the "Lain" alum Kaori Shimizu, and Ryo Horikawa "Vegeta" from Dragonball Z.

For the English cast, it is down right horrible. The acting is flat, it's full of awkward pauses, and the voices are down right annoying.

FAN SERVICE: Well, the Maria android under goes three different looks, each one sexier than the last. Other than that, there are a couple passing references to Santa Claus!

FINAL EXAM

The first time I watched "Alice", I was living in Japan at the time. Excited at the prospect of being one of the first Americans to see a cool Japanese CG anime, I rented it the day it came out.

To be honest, "Alice" didn't do a lot for me. The plot was boring, the animation was boring, the action was boring, the actors were boring. Even with my limited Japanese, I pretty much knew how things were going to end. Sure I may have missed the fine points, but really, couldn't they have tried a little harder? At least it takes place in Lapland, the home of Santa Claus!

When I saw that Artsmagic was releasing Alice, two thoughts ran through my mind. The first was that perhaps not having seen it in a few years, and with subtitles, may temper my opinion. The other; I was afraid that it was just as bad as the other two CG films I had seen from Artsmagic: "Malice@Doll" and "Blue Remains". At least it takes place in Lapland, the home of Santa Claus!

Well, you can't say that I don't at least give things a second chance!

Like "Blue Remains, the biggest liability is the mediocre script by Masahiro Yoshimoto. This is a by-the-numbers, time travel story featuring a young protagonist that has about as much personality as a bowl of ramen. You have a male lead, who is more interested in turning the android from Alice's shuttle into a sexdroid, with jet powered inline skates and machine guns, than getting Alice back home. You have a world leader, ruling the world from the North Pole, with a mother fixation that borders on the oedipal. You have good guy that's even more evil than the bad guy, and last but not least you have a dead young girl, who is the one reason why the world is two steps from going to hell!

Ah yes, let talk about Alice's dead friend, Yumi. It seems that Alice's best friend in the whole world was Yumi, an emotionally bland, over conscientious, eco-nut who bemoans the state of the poor and disenfranchised. So saddened by the starving masses, and so desperate to find a way to stop their suffering, she kills herself right before she takes a trip to the moon with her best friend. Thanks to Yumi's constant whining, and Alice's equally bland personality, our young heroine has taken Yumi's words to heart. So strongly in fact, that Yumi's ideals have caused the deaths of billions. At least the story takes place in Lapland, the home of Santa Claus!

The pacing was better than "Blue Remains", but only just. The action sequences were pretty average, with a couple of "cool" moments. The final battle had a couple of really cool moments, but it was anti climatic. Haven't these guys figured ou that if your going to do a movie in CG, you have got to have a really awesome ending! At least the story takes place in Lapland, the home of Santa Claus!

Why is it, when the west make a 100% CG film, the animation is crisp, clean, and fluid, and when the Japanese do a 100% CG film, it looks like something done by Rankin and Bass in the 1960's? Several times, we expected to see the Yeti from "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", or the talking snow man from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" make a cameo. I lost track how many times we all started singing "I'm Mr. White Christmas, I'm Mr. Snow!" from "The Year Without a Santa Claus" during the battles in the snow. And why not? After all, "Alice" takes place in Lapland, the home of Santa Claus!

I do applaud the Japanese in trying to bring CG animation out of the purview of children's fare. I certainly hope that they continue to expand the number of computer generate films, and provide inspiration for others to peruse CG animation as a viable art form. I just hope that as the techniques improve, so does the writing, but at this point, I have serious doubts. At least the story takes place in Lapland, the home of Santa Claus.

The character designs for the Maria the stewardess sexroid were quite nice, although why three separate designs were needed is beyond me. My personal favorite is the second one, the 1940's sex bomb version. Dan seemed partial to the "Raver Maria", the third body type. None of us like the first version.

I really hate trashing someone's hard work, but "Alice" unfortunately has very little about it that makes it worth watching more than once. While it may take place in Lapland, the home of Santa Claus, and has a sexy android, this is an uneventful addition to the world of CG anime. Say what you will about "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", at least it had more to offer visually and emotionally than "Alice".

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