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Alice Movie Off The Ground
After a long period of preproduction, the movie adaptation of American McGee's Alice is moving forward. Eurogamer has the news that 'Buffy' star Sarah Michelle Gellar will play the title role. From the article: "The movie will follow the plot of the game, which adds a twisted spin to Lewis Carroll's classic tales. Some years after her adventures in Wonderland, Alice's parents are killed in a house fire and, devastated by the loss, she winds up in a mental asylum."
Disney may not have believed it, but the marketing droids do. And much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news, they have the focus group studies to prove it. Keep in mind that Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins were made in the 60's, before the marketing droids took over. Lion King and Mulan are essentially Americans in Africa and China.
You also wouldn't believe the number of movies made with English, Australian, or New Zealand accents that are 'dubbed' into American. I've often found myself watching a movie and realizing that the whole cast is British or from down under, and wondering what the hell happened to their accents. It is believed that the British accents are too hard for Americans to understand. Likewise, sad endings can often destroy a movie at the box office--which is why many movies have multiple endings shot, and the happiest ending is almost always used after showing it to a test audience. The final product that ships to the theatres often sickens almost everyone involved in it. In some cases, the original tragic ending was the whole point of the movie. Some potentially great movies have had their guts slashed out and left on the cutting room floor (David Lynch's Dune is one that comes to mind--even Frank Herbert loved the original, but the studio hated it.)
So yeah, you're getting crap dished to you. As P.T. Barnum put it, nobody ever went broke by underestimating the taste of the American public. That statement has become the motto of the marketer. Lucky us.