I watched Inanimate Alice and I couldn’t get into it. Maybe I was too inpatient or just not giving it a chance. Watched the first episode. I kept clicking and more clicking to speed it up. It didn’t speed it up in fact it took me back and I had to start over again. Oops checked, was watching and viewing it in Chrome. Recalled that I had to watch via Firefox. Watched it again. Yay, it now works. I am freaked out about how dark and scary the story was!! Probably because of the use of only dark images, scary music and short text. In the first episode, Alice is 8 years old. She’s worried about her missing Dad and so is her Mom. They go out and try to find him. She hears a “voice” in her heard that tells her where to go and find him. Voices in the head is kinda creepy.
Onto the next Episode, Italy. The first thing she says, she lost both parents implying to the viewer that they are dead. Oops, not dead at all but lost. Then more scary music comes on, and the window looks out to a dark and scary night. She wants them to come back but they haven’t. It’s a kid’s worse nightmare! It ended ok but it was almost like being in a video game where CPS was never called. I have young kids and I can tell you that mine would have nightmares. Maybe it’s geared for older kids that can handle lost parents, learn about different countries, solve silly puzzles and listen to creepy music. It would be absolutely great if older kids can develop and customize a story for Alice with a happier ending where Mom and Dad works from home. For some kids, these episodes could be educational but parents should definitely review it beforehand.
Pavy's blog & etc. 
It could be interesting for you to click through the site and see more about how teachers are using the site — without nightmares!
A big question in this class is what it means to be moving to different forms of literacy. There are quite a few children’s books where children also experience obstacles and scary things (Red Riding Hood faced real, not imagined danger from the wolf, Cinderella was essentially enslaved, there is real death in Charlotte’s Web). Literature is one way to help children imagine themselves overcoming obstacles.
Is it different when there is music and the images move? Or is it something about these stories in particular that go beyond themes in traditional children’s literature?
What do you think?
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I agree! Some think it’s only sex, violence, or profanity which makes content unsuitable for children. But really it’s any emotionally intense situation.
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I agree with Jane here, stories are a safe way for children and adolescents to explore the world. Adults can’t control the world, and kids are exposed to scary things regardless (even if it’s just something happening in the news!). What seems to be great about InAnimate Alice is it helped highlight the intensity of what was happening through the visuals (I know I related to that feeling of nervousness when a parent didn’t come home on time) and allowed kids to better understand how someone else might deal with a scary situation. More than that, I think it easily shows that this new type of multi-media experience can bring out lots of feelings for the view/reader, and that seems to be inspiring students to use resources and tools online to get creative! At the end, even if I didn’t like InAnimate Alice or found it a little cumbersome, I was left with more of an impression than something inspired by Frozen!
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