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Description

The impact that “American McGee’s Alice” and its sequel, “Alice: Madness Returns,” have had on the public perception of Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice” stories can hardly be exaggerated. While there were some “dark Wonderland” concepts before the original 2000 video game, it was the American McGee creations that really popularized the idea for the mainstream, and provided a series of tropes and character ideas that later takes on Wonderland would expand upon and toy with in their own ways. For gamers, the titles are cult classics; for Carrollians, they are some of the most important pieces of Alice’s long history in media.

Recently, fans of the franchise were struck a devastating blow: after several years of pre-creation development, a planned third game for the series - “Alice: Asylum,” a prequel to the first game that would expand on the origins of this universe and its characters - was bluntly and abruptly canceled. The cancelation itself was not the only tragedy: American McGee - the mastermind behind the entire project - announced that, partially due to the failure of this endeavor, he would be retiring from video game creation henceforth. So, even if a time comes where a new game DOES come about, the chances of the original creator - or many of those involved in the first two games or the planning for “Asylum” - ever returning to the characters and world are slim to none.

I was especially disappointed by this, because I’ve been following development closely, and I was extremely excited to see what would happen with “Asylum” when it came out…but alas and alack, I suppose some things are not meant to be. While I’ve always had some sort of iffy feelings about elements of both games, I do still have a soft spot for them in my twisted black heart. So, in memoriam of the deranged, depraved, and yet delightful journey these titles took me and others on, I figure it’s time to look at the denizens of Wonderland that McGee and his team conjured up, and showcase my personal favorites.

One quick note: one important character you WON’T see on this list is Alice herself. Why? Well, to be perfectly honest, while I do have a fondness for these games, I’ve never particular liked Alice in them. In the first game she’s alright, but in the second game, in my opinion, she becomes EXTREMELY unlikeable as a protagonist. So my apologies to her personal fans; opinions will always differ. Also, BEWARE OF SPOILERS AHEAD! With that said…here are My Top 10 Favorite Characters from American McGee’s Alice!

10. The White Rabbit.
In the first game, the Rabbit has a small but important role, as the first act of the game’s story is basically all about Alice chasing the Rabbit through Wonderland as he tries to lead her to the oracular Caterpillar. He seems definitive to his character: a good ally, albeit slightly neurotic and a bit snippy, as well as forever fearing for punctuality and its virtues. Tragically, the Rabbit is killed by the Mad Hatter before he can succeed in his mission. Like most of the other characters in Wonderland, the Rabbit was restored at the end of the first game’s story, so you’d think he’d have some sort of role in the sequel…but aside from popping up in a few cameo spots, the character is largely absent from “Madness Returns.” As iconic as he is, it’s the smallness of the Rabbit’s role that lands him in the bottom spot. There’s nothing wrong with this take on the character, I like the design and his voice in each game (he’s played by Andrew Chaikin in the first, and Roger L. Jackson in the second), but he just doesn’t have a whole lot to do.

9. The Gryphon.
The Gryphon is a major player in the first game, and, notably, one of the few American characters in the game. (Most of the cast, for obvious reasons, have English dialects, but the Gryphon has a decidedly American voice in the first game.) Sometime prior to the events of the story, the Gryphon was captured by the Hatter, presumably to be used in some diabolical experiment. He helps Alice in preparing for her final confrontation with the mad milliner, and after she rescues him following the Hatter’s demise, joins her on her quest to combat the Queen. He is tragically killed in a mortal duel with the Jabberwock; in fact, the second and final boss battle against the monster is done around the creature as he is struggling for life, dramatically enough. While not in the game for too long, and having no real appearance in the second, the Gryphon’s role is impactful, and he is certainly one of the closest allies Alice makes on her adventure through the dystopian Wonderland of this universe.

8. The Carpenter.
Just as the Gryphon was only present in the first game, the Carpenter is only present in the second. In “Madness Returns,” Alice enters an underwater city, which is seemingly governed by the Walrus and the Carpenter. The Carpenter has taken the role of a theatrical impresario, whose theater is the highlight of this underwater world. However, it’s ultimately revealed the show is all a lure and a facade: secretly, the Carpenter uses his theater as a means of luring fish and oysters, for the Walrus to devour. It’s indicated that the Carpenter is doing this in an attempt to protect his part of Wonderland, in a twisted way: playing out his and the Walrus’ role in the original stories to try and keep their world from being further ruined. The character’s ambiguous morality makes him interesting, and his over-the-top, zany personality makes him a ton of fun to watch. Apparently, the Carpenter is one of American McGee’s favorite characters from the games; it’s not hard to see why.

7. The Duchess.
In the first game, the Duchess is the first boss Alice encounters on her travels. While searching for the White Rabbit, she finds the Mock Turtle, robbed of his shell. Convinced to help him, she goes to find the Duchess, who took the shell to use in her cooking. It’s revealed that, in the newer, more mad than ever Wonderland, the Duchess has become nastier than she ever was before: she’s been transformed into a cannibalistic hag, who uses a machine-gun-esque pepper grinder to deal with threats and season her prey. She threatens to devour Alice, only for her own poisonous pepper to be her undoing, as she ends up quite literally sneezing her own head off. In the second game, the Duchess reappears: she’s been restored with the rest of Wonderland, but has apparently toned down her cannibalistic ways. Indeed, she claims she’s on a “strictly porcine diet,” eating nothing but bacon. She gives Alice the very grinder she used as a weapon in the first game for her travels, and asks Alice to send Pig Snouts to her for use in her cooking. When Alice collects enough Snouts, the Duchess - throughout the game - will send her gift baskets with extra goodies to help her along, including health and currency. It’s always interesting to see an enemy become an ally.

6. Tweedledee & Tweedledum.

In the games, it’s left ambiguous just how real or how totally imagined Wonderland truly is. While it’s plainly indicated that her own mental state has an effect on this universe, and that things in the real world affect Wonderland in general, there’s also a great deal of overlap that makes it hard to distinguish the fantasy and the reality from each other. A key example of this comes in the form of the brutish twins, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. The once happy-go-lucky and playful pair have been transformed into sadistic and thuggish cannibals. It’s indicated that the pair are “inspired” by two nasty orderlies who work at Rutledge Asylum, where Alice is incarcerated following her psychotic breakdown before the events of the first game. In “American McGee’s Alice,” the Tweedles are the henchmen of the Mad Hatter, keeping a watchful eye on the villain’s clockwork creations. It’s indicated they are no longer totally human themselves, as they have effectively been turned into human nesting dolls, able to spawn smaller versions of themselves to help them in battle. In the second game, much like the White Rabbit, their role is greatly reduced, as they appear in an elongated hallucination sequence where Alice imagines herself back at Rutledge, the orderlies swapping out with the Tweedles repeatedly as they speak random bits of nonsense mixed with cruel taunts. They’re two of the most ghastly gruesomes in the cast, but for some reason I enjoy this interpretation in its own despicable way.

5. Queen of Hearts.
The Queen of Hearts is one of the most important characters in these games. She’s the main antagonist of the first game; the cause of all the misery in Wonderland. With the growing malignancy in Wonderland, the Queen has become more tyrannical and more monstrous than ever. She is the representation of Alice’s dark side: all of her trauma, her insanity, her pain, and her inner cruelty given physical life. While she is only onscreen for a short time, the impact she has on the story is insurmountable: every single thing wrong with Wonderland in that game is either the direct or indirect result of the Queen’s rising power and increased horribility. The idea of “Alice vs. the Queen,” with a story focused on Alice trying to save Wonderland from the Queen’s tyranny, wasn’t really something that had been done before, surprisingly. Nowadays, that trope is so common, you’d think it was part of the original book, but it really wasn’t: in the original “Alice,” the Queen was simply an obstacle in Alice’s path. She was simply the most dangerous one. All later reimaginings that used this concept or some variation on the idea - such as the Tim Burton movies, the SyFy miniseries, or “The Looking-Glass Wars” novels - really have the first McGee game to thank. In the second game, the Queen returns, but in a greatly weakened state: her influence only stretches through her own territory of Queensland, which has been reduced to a desiccated husk of its former hideousness. Here, she has taken an appearance based on Alice’s long-dead sister, Lizzie, and holds secrets Alice must learn in order to save Wonderland from a threat even worse than the Queen used to be. Horrors do abound…

4. Jabberwock.
Another character who only appeared in one of the two games. Once again, however, this does little to ruin the impact. In the first game, the Jabberwock is a deplorable dragon-like beast who has been resurrected by the Mad Hatter, becoming a steam-powered cyborganic monstrosity. The Jabberwock is one of the Queen’s lieutenants, along with the Hatter himself, and leads her forces in the final battle against the rebellion. He kills the Gryphon after the lion-bird tears out one of his eyes; gaining the Jabberwock’s eye is an important part of the story, as part of Alice’s journey requires her to create the Jabberwock’s Eyestaff, so she can part the veil of lost souls that surround the Queen’s castle. This horrible gargoyle is a representation of Alice’s guilt and regret; while he’s incredibly strong and powerful physically, perhaps what makes the Jabberwock most horrid is his cruel and mocking nature, as he knows exactly the right words to use to hurt Alice without needing to lay a claw upon her. He plays with her guilt in a most vile manner, reducing her to tears and wails long before ever directly harming her. Even his lair is inside a warped version of her family home. It was a shame this beast never returned in the sequel, although he is referenced a few times: what appears to be his skeleton is found in the Vale of Tears, and Alice hallucinates people with Jabberwock heads a couple of times in the real world, as well as seeing his face in the fire surrounding her home in a dream. Even without his direct influence, one can easily presume these incidents were signs of just how deep Alice’s guilt went, and how hard it truly was and always would be to shake away.

3. Caterpillar.
Much like the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar was what you might call a “trope starter” for multiple versions of Wonderland that would follow in the first game’s footsteps. In the original “American McGee’s Alice,” the Caterpillar is the leader of the Resistance against the Queen, and stays in hiding for his own safety. He is an oracular figure, who seems to know everything about Wonderland and its denizens, as well as Alice herself; indeed, aside from possibly the Cheshire Cat, no one is wiser in all of Wonderland. While he can be curt and cryptic, he is always helpful in his own way, and always has genuine nuggets of logic and wisdom to offer; something necessary in a world of total lunacy. Many later Wonderlands would borrow from this idea a great deal: in most stories where Alice is facing some sort of evil force threatening to destroy Wonderland, the Caterpillar is usually depicted as an oracular figure divulging wisdom and knowledge, a leading member of the Resistance, or both. (Again, see the Tim Burton Films, SyFy, or “Looking-Glass Wars.”) In the second game, we find that Caterpillar has retreated to the Oriental Grove, where his oracular capabilities have made him a deity-esque figure for the Origami Ants. The Caterpillar goes through his metamorphosis in this game, changing into a Butterfly, a sign of the changes that Wonderland itself is going through. Other than this, his role is basically the same: a fountain of advice that Alice needs in order to figure out how to save herself and this fantasy world.

2. The Mad Hatter.
In the first game, the Hatter is one of the main villains, and is arguably the most interesting of them all. It’s established that, once upon a time, the Hatter was one of Alice’s best friends. In fact, he’s the one who seems to save her from the Fire that killed the rest of her family. In flashbacks, it’s the Hatter who wakes Alice up. Tragically, when Wonderland became corrupted, the Mad Hatter “turned to the dark side,” as it were. He patched up his quarrel with Time, but this only led to him becoming obsessed with Time itself (himself?), and the Hatter began to experiment with clockworks, transforming himself and others into steampunk cyborgs. He turns against all his boon companions. Not just Alice, but also the March Hare and the Dormouse, whom he tortures daily. While he only shares one brief conversation with Alice, he’s arguably the most influential villain in the story, as a lot of what goes wrong for Alice in the earlier parts of the game is the direct result of the Mad Hatter’s machinations and schemes. After he is defeated, his impact is still felt; as I’ve said before, I always love villains who have a legacy of sorts. In the second game, the Hatter has apparently reformed: he’s still obsessed with time and clocks, but he’s trying to use them for good…or at least, he was. Despite apparently becoming friends again in the intervening time, the Hare and the Dormouse - under the influence of the Dollmaker - turn against the Mad Hatter, seeking revenge for past wrongs, and take over his Domain, using his machines to create the Infernal Train. The Hatter joins forces with Alice to reclaim his home and try to stop the pair…but despite his vengeful rage, once the Hare and Dormy are killed, he suddenly loses his mind completely (not that he had much left to lose) and tries to bring them back. The Hatter is one of the most entertaining and yet also one of the most tragic characters in both games, especially the sequel. Of all the things I’m saddest we won’t get to see thanks to the cancellation of “Asylum,” more of him is highest on the list.

1. Cheshire Cat.
This is by far my favorite version of the Cheshire Cat. In both games, the Cat’s role is basically the same: he is the secondary protagonist of the story, acting as Alice’s guide and helper, giving her advice in a poetic and sometimes enigmatic sort of way. In some ways, he is both one of the scariest characters in the game, and probably the funniest: he looks horrifying, with his emaciated framework and truly terrifying grin. His voice, provided once more by Roger L. Jackson, can also be quite chilling in its delivery; in my opinion, this is Jackson’s best performance, and possibly one of the greatest vocal performances of any character in video game history. At the same time, the Cat’s snarky wit and ability to turn something terrible into some ironic joke makes him truly humorous. There are hints that the Cat is more than he appears, as he seems to know more about Alice and Wonderland than almost anyone else, except for Caterpillar. He has his own little pocket dimension, it seems, to call home, and his voice is the one that closes out the second game with an omniscient narration. He’s not evil, but it’s not always clear if he does what he does for his own sake or for others, or even a bit of both. All we know is that, no matter what Alice says or does to him, he continues to assist her…which, in my opinion, makes him one of the true heroes of the story. And how bizarre is it that this “true hero” is one of the most creepy and frightful parts of the whole franchise? In a way, the Cat is the representative of the McGee games and what makes them so good: that wonderful blend of strangeness, darkness, and danger, but with something else always lurking under the surface, all with their own sense of morbid humor. There’s no doubt that he is My Favorite American McGee’s Alice Character.

Honorable Mentions Include…
The March Hare and the Dormouse.
The Gnome Elder.
The Mock Turtle.
The Walrus.

Description

The impact that “American McGee’s Alice” and its sequel, “Alice: Madness Returns,” have had on the public perception of Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice” stories can hardly be exaggerated. While there were some “dark Wonderland” concepts before the original 2000 video game, it was the American McGee creations that really popularized the idea for the mainstream, and provided a series of tropes and character ideas that later takes on Wonderland would expand upon and toy with in their own ways. For gamers, the titles are cult classics; for Carrollians, they are some of the most important pieces of Alice’s long history in media.

Recently, fans of the franchise were struck a devastating blow: after several years of pre-creation development, a planned third game for the series - “Alice: Asylum,” a prequel to the first game that would expand on the origins of this universe and its characters - was bluntly and abruptly canceled. The cancelation itself was not the only tragedy: American McGee - the mastermind behind the entire project - announced that, partially due to the failure of this endeavor, he would be retiring from video game creation henceforth. So, even if a time comes where a new game DOES come about, the chances of the original creator - or many of those involved in the first two games or the planning for “Asylum” - ever returning to the characters and world are slim to none.

I was especially disappointed by this, because I’ve been following development closely, and I was extremely excited to see what would happen with “Asylum” when it came out…but alas and alack, I suppose some things are not meant to be. While I’ve always had some sort of iffy feelings about elements of both games, I do still have a soft spot for them in my twisted black heart. So, in memoriam of the deranged, depraved, and yet delightful journey these titles took me and others on, I figure it’s time to look at the denizens of Wonderland that McGee and his team conjured up, and showcase my personal favorites.

One quick note: one important character you WON’T see on this list is Alice herself. Why? Well, to be perfectly honest, while I do have a fondness for these games, I’ve never particular liked Alice in them. In the first game she’s alright, but in the second game, in my opinion, she becomes EXTREMELY unlikeable as a protagonist. So my apologies to her personal fans; opinions will always differ. Also, BEWARE OF SPOILERS AHEAD! With that said…here are My Top 10 Favorite Characters from American McGee’s Alice!

10. The White Rabbit.
In the first game, the Rabbit has a small but important role, as the first act of the game’s story is basically all about Alice chasing the Rabbit through Wonderland as he tries to lead her to the oracular Caterpillar. He seems definitive to his character: a good ally, albeit slightly neurotic and a bit snippy, as well as forever fearing for punctuality and its virtues. Tragically, the Rabbit is killed by the Mad Hatter before he can succeed in his mission. Like most of the other characters in Wonderland, the Rabbit was restored at the end of the first game’s story, so you’d think he’d have some sort of role in the sequel…but aside from popping up in a few cameo spots, the character is largely absent from “Madness Returns.” As iconic as he is, it’s the smallness of the Rabbit’s role that lands him in the bottom spot. There’s nothing wrong with this take on the character, I like the design and his voice in each game (he’s played by Andrew Chaikin in the first, and Roger L. Jackson in the second), but he just doesn’t have a whole lot to do.

9. The Gryphon.
The Gryphon is a major player in the first game, and, notably, one of the few American characters in the game. (Most of the cast, for obvious reasons, have English dialects, but the Gryphon has a decidedly American voice in the first game.) Sometime prior to the events of the story, the Gryphon was captured by the Hatter, presumably to be used in some diabolical experiment. He helps Alice in preparing for her final confrontation with the mad milliner, and after she rescues him following the Hatter’s demise, joins her on her quest to combat the Queen. He is tragically killed in a mortal duel with the Jabberwock; in fact, the second and final boss battle against the monster is done around the creature as he is struggling for life, dramatically enough. While not in the game for too long, and having no real appearance in the second, the Gryphon’s role is impactful, and he is certainly one of the closest allies Alice makes on her adventure through the dystopian Wonderland of this universe.

8. The Carpenter.
Just as the Gryphon was only present in the first game, the Carpenter is only present in the second. In “Madness Returns,” Alice enters an underwater city, which is seemingly governed by the Walrus and the Carpenter. The Carpenter has taken the role of a theatrical impresario, whose theater is the highlight of this underwater world. However, it’s ultimately revealed the show is all a lure and a facade: secretly, the Carpenter uses his theater as a means of luring fish and oysters, for the Walrus to devour. It’s indicated that the Carpenter is doing this in an attempt to protect his part of Wonderland, in a twisted way: playing out his and the Walrus’ role in the original stories to try and keep their world from being further ruined. The character’s ambiguous morality makes him interesting, and his over-the-top, zany personality makes him a ton of fun to watch. Apparently, the Carpenter is one of American McGee’s favorite characters from the games; it’s not hard to see why.

7. The Duchess.
In the first game, the Duchess is the first boss Alice encounters on her travels. While searching for the White Rabbit, she finds the Mock Turtle, robbed of his shell. Convinced to help him, she goes to find the Duchess, who took the shell to use in her cooking. It’s revealed that, in the newer, more mad than ever Wonderland, the Duchess has become nastier than she ever was before: she’s been transformed into a cannibalistic hag, who uses a machine-gun-esque pepper grinder to deal with threats and season her prey. She threatens to devour Alice, only for her own poisonous pepper to be her undoing, as she ends up quite literally sneezing her own head off. In the second game, the Duchess reappears: she’s been restored with the rest of Wonderland, but has apparently toned down her cannibalistic ways. Indeed, she claims she’s on a “strictly porcine diet,” eating nothing but bacon. She gives Alice the very grinder she used as a weapon in the first game for her travels, and asks Alice to send Pig Snouts to her for use in her cooking. When Alice collects enough Snouts, the Duchess - throughout the game - will send her gift baskets with extra goodies to help her along, including health and currency. It’s always interesting to see an enemy become an ally.

6. Tweedledee & Tweedledum.

In the games, it’s left ambiguous just how real or how totally imagined Wonderland truly is. While it’s plainly indicated that her own mental state has an effect on this universe, and that things in the real world affect Wonderland in general, there’s also a great deal of overlap that makes it hard to distinguish the fantasy and the reality from each other. A key example of this comes in the form of the brutish twins, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. The once happy-go-lucky and playful pair have been transformed into sadistic and thuggish cannibals. It’s indicated that the pair are “inspired” by two nasty orderlies who work at Rutledge Asylum, where Alice is incarcerated following her psychotic breakdown before the events of the first game. In “American McGee’s Alice,” the Tweedles are the henchmen of the Mad Hatter, keeping a watchful eye on the villain’s clockwork creations. It’s indicated they are no longer totally human themselves, as they have effectively been turned into human nesting dolls, able to spawn smaller versions of themselves to help them in battle. In the second game, much like the White Rabbit, their role is greatly reduced, as they appear in an elongated hallucination sequence where Alice imagines herself back at Rutledge, the orderlies swapping out with the Tweedles repeatedly as they speak random bits of nonsense mixed with cruel taunts. They’re two of the most ghastly gruesomes in the cast, but for some reason I enjoy this interpretation in its own despicable way.

5. Queen of Hearts.
The Queen of Hearts is one of the most important characters in these games. She’s the main antagonist of the first game; the cause of all the misery in Wonderland. With the growing malignancy in Wonderland, the Queen has become more tyrannical and more monstrous than ever. She is the representation of Alice’s dark side: all of her trauma, her insanity, her pain, and her inner cruelty given physical life. While she is only onscreen for a short time, the impact she has on the story is insurmountable: every single thing wrong with Wonderland in that game is either the direct or indirect result of the Queen’s rising power and increased horribility. The idea of “Alice vs. the Queen,” with a story focused on Alice trying to save Wonderland from the Queen’s tyranny, wasn’t really something that had been done before, surprisingly. Nowadays, that trope is so common, you’d think it was part of the original book, but it really wasn’t: in the original “Alice,” the Queen was simply an obstacle in Alice’s path. She was simply the most dangerous one. All later reimaginings that used this concept or some variation on the idea - such as the Tim Burton movies, the SyFy miniseries, or “The Looking-Glass Wars” novels - really have the first McGee game to thank. In the second game, the Queen returns, but in a greatly weakened state: her influence only stretches through her own territory of Queensland, which has been reduced to a desiccated husk of its former hideousness. Here, she has taken an appearance based on Alice’s long-dead sister, Lizzie, and holds secrets Alice must learn in order to save Wonderland from a threat even worse than the Queen used to be. Horrors do abound…

4. Jabberwock.
Another character who only appeared in one of the two games. Once again, however, this does little to ruin the impact. In the first game, the Jabberwock is a deplorable dragon-like beast who has been resurrected by the Mad Hatter, becoming a steam-powered cyborganic monstrosity. The Jabberwock is one of the Queen’s lieutenants, along with the Hatter himself, and leads her forces in the final battle against the rebellion. He kills the Gryphon after the lion-bird tears out one of his eyes; gaining the Jabberwock’s eye is an important part of the story, as part of Alice’s journey requires her to create the Jabberwock’s Eyestaff, so she can part the veil of lost souls that surround the Queen’s castle. This horrible gargoyle is a representation of Alice’s guilt and regret; while he’s incredibly strong and powerful physically, perhaps what makes the Jabberwock most horrid is his cruel and mocking nature, as he knows exactly the right words to use to hurt Alice without needing to lay a claw upon her. He plays with her guilt in a most vile manner, reducing her to tears and wails long before ever directly harming her. Even his lair is inside a warped version of her family home. It was a shame this beast never returned in the sequel, although he is referenced a few times: what appears to be his skeleton is found in the Vale of Tears, and Alice hallucinates people with Jabberwock heads a couple of times in the real world, as well as seeing his face in the fire surrounding her home in a dream. Even without his direct influence, one can easily presume these incidents were signs of just how deep Alice’s guilt went, and how hard it truly was and always would be to shake away.

3. Caterpillar.
Much like the Queen of Hearts, the Caterpillar was what you might call a “trope starter” for multiple versions of Wonderland that would follow in the first game’s footsteps. In the original “American McGee’s Alice,” the Caterpillar is the leader of the Resistance against the Queen, and stays in hiding for his own safety. He is an oracular figure, who seems to know everything about Wonderland and its denizens, as well as Alice herself; indeed, aside from possibly the Cheshire Cat, no one is wiser in all of Wonderland. While he can be curt and cryptic, he is always helpful in his own way, and always has genuine nuggets of logic and wisdom to offer; something necessary in a world of total lunacy. Many later Wonderlands would borrow from this idea a great deal: in most stories where Alice is facing some sort of evil force threatening to destroy Wonderland, the Caterpillar is usually depicted as an oracular figure divulging wisdom and knowledge, a leading member of the Resistance, or both. (Again, see the Tim Burton Films, SyFy, or “Looking-Glass Wars.”) In the second game, we find that Caterpillar has retreated to the Oriental Grove, where his oracular capabilities have made him a deity-esque figure for the Origami Ants. The Caterpillar goes through his metamorphosis in this game, changing into a Butterfly, a sign of the changes that Wonderland itself is going through. Other than this, his role is basically the same: a fountain of advice that Alice needs in order to figure out how to save herself and this fantasy world.

2. The Mad Hatter.
In the first game, the Hatter is one of the main villains, and is arguably the most interesting of them all. It’s established that, once upon a time, the Hatter was one of Alice’s best friends. In fact, he’s the one who seems to save her from the Fire that killed the rest of her family. In flashbacks, it’s the Hatter who wakes Alice up. Tragically, when Wonderland became corrupted, the Mad Hatter “turned to the dark side,” as it were. He patched up his quarrel with Time, but this only led to him becoming obsessed with Time itself (himself?), and the Hatter began to experiment with clockworks, transforming himself and others into steampunk cyborgs. He turns against all his boon companions. Not just Alice, but also the March Hare and the Dormouse, whom he tortures daily. While he only shares one brief conversation with Alice, he’s arguably the most influential villain in the story, as a lot of what goes wrong for Alice in the earlier parts of the game is the direct result of the Mad Hatter’s machinations and schemes. After he is defeated, his impact is still felt; as I’ve said before, I always love villains who have a legacy of sorts. In the second game, the Hatter has apparently reformed: he’s still obsessed with time and clocks, but he’s trying to use them for good…or at least, he was. Despite apparently becoming friends again in the intervening time, the Hare and the Dormouse - under the influence of the Dollmaker - turn against the Mad Hatter, seeking revenge for past wrongs, and take over his Domain, using his machines to create the Infernal Train. The Hatter joins forces with Alice to reclaim his home and try to stop the pair…but despite his vengeful rage, once the Hare and Dormy are killed, he suddenly loses his mind completely (not that he had much left to lose) and tries to bring them back. The Hatter is one of the most entertaining and yet also one of the most tragic characters in both games, especially the sequel. Of all the things I’m saddest we won’t get to see thanks to the cancellation of “Asylum,” more of him is highest on the list.

1. Cheshire Cat.
This is by far my favorite version of the Cheshire Cat. In both games, the Cat’s role is basically the same: he is the secondary protagonist of the story, acting as Alice’s guide and helper, giving her advice in a poetic and sometimes enigmatic sort of way. In some ways, he is both one of the scariest characters in the game, and probably the funniest: he looks horrifying, with his emaciated framework and truly terrifying grin. His voice, provided once more by Roger L. Jackson, can also be quite chilling in its delivery; in my opinion, this is Jackson’s best performance, and possibly one of the greatest vocal performances of any character in video game history. At the same time, the Cat’s snarky wit and ability to turn something terrible into some ironic joke makes him truly humorous. There are hints that the Cat is more than he appears, as he seems to know more about Alice and Wonderland than almost anyone else, except for Caterpillar. He has his own little pocket dimension, it seems, to call home, and his voice is the one that closes out the second game with an omniscient narration. He’s not evil, but it’s not always clear if he does what he does for his own sake or for others, or even a bit of both. All we know is that, no matter what Alice says or does to him, he continues to assist her…which, in my opinion, makes him one of the true heroes of the story. And how bizarre is it that this “true hero” is one of the most creepy and frightful parts of the whole franchise? In a way, the Cat is the representative of the McGee games and what makes them so good: that wonderful blend of strangeness, darkness, and danger, but with something else always lurking under the surface, all with their own sense of morbid humor. There’s no doubt that he is My Favorite American McGee’s Alice Character.

Honorable Mentions Include…
The March Hare and the Dormouse.
The Gnome Elder.
The Mock Turtle.
The Walrus.