Each of the four currently available episodes of the “transmedia” story Inanimate Alice have a similar set up: the location of narrator Alice is introduced, something mysterious happens, and Alice triumphs with the help of her imaginary friend, Brad, a character who exists on a gadget she calls a “player.” The audience also uses her player to complete puzzles to move the story forward. The slideshow visuals and musical choices of Inanimate Alice may be familiar to anyone who played computer games in the 1990s, and often do not align with the futuristic setting. However, if the storytelling were richer, the stylistic choices would be less apparent.
The first episode opens in China, where 8 year-old Alice and her parents have moved because of her father’s secretive work. Her father goes missing, and Alice and her mother must conduct a late-night search to find him. The vagueness surrounding his job and the implication that this is not the first time he has disappeared--impedes the building of suspense. Subsequent episodes do little to clarify the situation, and their events, while darkly photographed and mysterious-looking, inevitably fall flat. Episode #3 - Russia is perhaps the most successful of the tales, with Alice hiding in a closet while her parents argue with faceless, angry brutes. This is the first time it feels as if something is truly happening to Alice’s family.
Inanimate Alice is an ambitious and interesting exercise in digital literacy, and one can only hope that the storytelling will improve as more episodes are created. ( )