Psst! You! Yeah, you! If you’ve just landed on our page, we have to tell you that we can’t go through with our weekly #ThrowBrandThursday column without a bit of small talk. Don’t get too nervous, because it’s not that serious. OK, we won’t keep you waiting much longer. Here goes: “We Need to Talk About Alice.” Seriously! Rumor has it that she got high because of something she smoked. And that she had some company: the caterpillar. So, what’s going on?

We can finally reveal what’s really happening. Lewis Carroll’s world-known character Alice becomes yet again a famous protagonist of a psychotic show, this time set by New-Zealand-based agency String Theory. The agency commissioned Jelly London’s award-winning art and motion studio Plenty to reinvent the dreamy girl’s character and use her image to advertise Good Books, a not-for-profit organization which supports another charity, Oxfam, that has been fighting for ending poverty and injustice since 1995. Furthermore, the cute animated girl helped the NGO celebrate the 150th anniversary of the book.

The hallucinating story comes as part of the “Great Writer Series,” a collection of short movies that promote Good Book’s concept – that of ending hunger and poverty. To create the two-and-a-half-minute-long video, the Buenos-Aires-based studio took its inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. This time, the spotlight falls on the tea scene where Alice has a psychedelic encounter with the Mad Hatter and his guests. The visual adventure is indeed nonsensical, with a Hare that eats animals, a Mad Hatter that eats books, a fatty Rose that’s allergic to herself, and a Rabbit who happens to ride a monocycle.

The project was a real challenge for the artists, who said in an interview with Motionographer that it took them more than 20 months to complete. Speaking of the most challenging aspects of the initiative, the creative said that they struggled with the pipeline and workflow, the movie’s duration, some interpersonal issues, and lastly, the characters’ acting (but succeeded to get things in order). Some of these issues happened because the team didn’t want to get something that’s monotone in terms of aesthetics. So, they added some inserts, like Alice’s hallucinations.

“We tried to create a break in the graphic language, representing first the inside of the Hare and later the Mad Hatter’s psychotic break, which was situated under the table, a dark place that allowed us to change the visual language. The CGI render was also flat, kind of illustrated, so merging 2D and 3D was easier. Our transitions softened the barrier between both aesthetics, too,” claimed Plenty’s creative team.

“We Need to Talk About Alice” is the third video in the Great Writers Series. The first video, “Metamorphosis” was released back in 2012 and was created with the help of Buck Studio. The movie pays homage to the author Hunter S. Thompson. Shortly after, the “Havana Heat” by world-famous duo McBess and Simon of The Mill was released. The timing was perfect for Plenty to enter the scene and seduce us with a sensual, new Alice, with tattoos and a cool hairstyle.

You can now dive deep into these wonderful scenarios, where literacy merges with motion graphics to deliver a result that does so much good for the ones in need.

Credits:

Directed & Produced: Plenty

Creative Director: Mariano Farías
Executive Producer: Inés Palmas
Creative Development: Mariano Farías & Pablo Alfieri
Animation Director: Mariano Farías
Art Director: Elda Broglio
Producer: César Morán Mazo

Concept by: String Theory
E.C.D.: Jeremy Taine
Writers: Devon Wood & Jeremy Taine

Music & Sound Design: Liquid Studios
Music Composer: Peter van der Fluit & Liquid Studios

Storyboard & Animatic: Claudio Iriarte & Mariano Farías
Character Design: Elda Broglio, Claudio Iriarte & German Merlo
Production Design: Elda Broglio, Carolina Carballo & Eugenia Mello
Background Design: Eugenia Mello & Elda Broglio
Books Covers Design: Pablo Alfieri
3D Modelling: Juan Martín Miyagi, Matías Fernandez, Juan Pablo Fernandez , Benjamín Jagusieczko & Natalia Urrutia
Scripting: Agustín Schilling & Ago Carrera
CG Supervisor, 3D Technical Direction and FX: Agustín Schilling
Character Rigging: Germán Merlo, Agustín Schilling, Benjamín Jagusieczko, Ramiro Tell & Guillermo Comoli
Skin Fixing: Agustín Schilling, German Merlo & Nicolás Mandelman

3D Character Animation: Mauro Serei, Pablo Lorenzo, Laura Lempert & German Merlo
3D Animation: German Merlo, Mariano Farías & Hernán Estevez
2D Animation & Transitions: Germán Merlo, Mau Lencinas , Sergio Slepczuk, Hernán Estevez & Mariano Farías
Animation Consulting: Federico Radero
Painting & Texturing: Carolina Carballo, Elda Broglio, Benjamín Jagusieczko & Eugenia Mello
Shading: Ago Carrera
Lead Lighter: Ago Carrera
Lighting: Ago Carrera, Benjamín Jagusieczko, Juan Casale, Natalia Urrutia & Matias Mastrogiano
3D Rendering: Ago Carrera, Benjamín Jagusiecsko & Agustín Schilling
Lead VFX & 2D Technical Direction: Matías Mastrogiano
Compositors: Matías Mastrogiano & Nicolás Holodovsky, Benjamín Jagusiecsko, Milena Girini & Edgardo Osornio
Edition & Montage: Mariano Farías
Live Action Actors Coach: Valeria Grossi
Live Action Casting Camera: Sandra Grossi

Casting
Alice: Catalina Alexander
Mad Hatter: Julián Puchetta
White Rabbit & Rose: Karina Hernandez
VO Presenter: Michael Hurst
Voice Over Artists
Alice: Brie Ana Hill
Mad Hatter: Syd Jackson
Lady Rose: Tania Anderson
White Rabbit: Ian Hughes
Cheshire Cat: Michael Hurst