Posted in Art Appreciation

Review- The Art of Alice: Madness Returns

Posted on by ignitedmoth

It’s no secret if you’ve been following my blog that I have a passion for art and books. Because of this, I’ve always enjoyed books featuring art collections that range from rough concept sketches to beautifully detailed prints. My mom shares this interest and so we’ve collected many art books throughout the years. I figured I’d make a new category in my blog specifically for art appreciation where I can do artist spotlights and review some of the amazing art books in our collections. 🙂

To kick things off we’ll start with one of mine, a hardcover video game concept art book for American McGee’s Alice: Madness Returns.

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Just look at this creepy, gorgeous cover!

This book takes us down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass so that we can get a good peek at the creative process behind American McGee’s haunting version of Wonderland. With an introduction by McGee himself, we really get to see the long and creative journey that went into making this game. Different chapters cover subjects like pre-production, creating the final look for Alice and her costumes, the separate world building that went into London and Wonderland, cinematics and more!

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Whether you’ve played the game or not, this book is enjoyable for fans of all things Alice (assuming they don’t mind a good measure of horror thrown in the mix), as well as just art lovers in general. The images presented in the book are gorgeous and it’s definitely one of my favorite art books I’ve ever purchased. I’d highly recommend it! If you’re not already acquainted with this game, check out this old trailer for it. As I’m sure you can tell from the concept art seen above, it’s quite the surreal, nightmarish version of Wonderland.

Do you enjoy art books as well? What sorts do you prefer or collect? I’d love to hear about it! 🙂

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36 thoughts on “Review- The Art of Alice: Madness Returns”

  8. Man, I was *just* thinking about revisiting this game over the weekend. Loved Madness Returns so much that it became my PSN ID (PepperedSnoot — though it should have been snout, snoot sounded cuter to my girlfriend). I never got around to playing the original.

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  12. I want to say Amerian McGee was the fist person to subvert Wonderland in this way! Or maybe he was just the first person I saw lol. I loved that game though I didn’t play much of it, and this art book looks positively, dare I say, wonderful 😉

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    1. Yeah, he certainly did make it his own! 🙂 It wasn’t anywhere near as haunting as McGee’s version of Wonderland, but there is an old Czech movie from the 80’s called Alice that has pretty disturbing imagery at times. I remember the white rabbit in it was this creepy taxidermy stuffed rabbit, and every time he checked his pocket watch he’d pull it out of his chest cavity while clicking his teeth as a bunch of saw dust came out of his torso. lol It was live action/stop motion and I don’t remember a whole lot of it other than that crazy white rabbit but it made a lasting impression. I definitely prefer McGee’s version though. 🙂

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  14. I loved the games! Though the first game had a massively frustrating section to it. Alice works so well when it’s all dark and twisted. I read Alice by Christina Henry last year – it was amazing, well worth a read if you haven’t already!

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