When the track listing for Almost Alice, a musical companion to Tim Burton's upcoming big screen Digital 3D version of Alice in Wonderland, was released in early January, it was assumed by many that it was made up of songs from the movie.
In fact, only one track (Avril Lavigne's "Alice (Underground)") will appear during any part of the movie, over the end credits. The actual motion picture soundtrack is scored by Danny Elfman. Almost Alice is something not often seen: a non-soundtrack musical tie-in, made more unusual due to the fact that its release coincides with the release of the Official Motion Picture Soundtrack a couple of weeks before the movie opens.
Utilizing Online Fandoms
With an eye-popping trailer preceding Avatar in theaters worldwide, Alice in Wonderland couldn't ask for better early exposure. Exclusive television previews are popping up on several television networks, marketing the potential blockbuster in the conventional way. Almost Alice goes further: it taps into the power of various music fandoms.
With little more than a press release and some highly-anticipated, strategically released song previews, the CD - and, by extension, the movie, are being promoted virally by countless of fans in over a dozen fan communities. And with artists like Pete Wentz, Robert Smith, Owl City, Kerli, and Tokio Hotel, these are active online fan communities.
Utilizing music fans to help market movies isn't new; Twilight and its sequel, New Moon, scored lots of attention (and record sales) with an alt-rock soundtrack that appealed even to some music fans who had no interest in the films. Almost Alice is different - it garners all of the attention, while being a completely separate, connected, entity.
With titles like "Tea Party," "White Rabbit," and "Very Good Advice" (Smith's version of a song from Disney's 1951 animated version of Alice in Wonderland and the only remake on the CD), there's no mistaking the subject matter, or that the CD fits with the film. Some of the tracks will, no doubt, make great videos, complete with imagery from the movie. The movie, meanwhile, will stick to the Elfman score and not fill it with rock and pop songs that could easily distract from the atmosphere of fantasy.
A Concept to Watch
It's likely that Almost Alice was inspired by the Deluxe Edition of Burton's own Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack, which includes non-movie versions of the film's songs done by artists like Marilyn Manson, Panic! at the Disco, and Fall Out Boy, as well as the official Disney-released tribute to the same film, Nightmare Revisited.
Whether Almost Alice, with its original "inspired-by" tracks, will do as well remains to be seen. If it's a hit, the concept of non-soundtrack movie companion CDs featuring popular or cult artists could catch on in a big way.
Holly Quinn - Holly Quinn is a Delaware-based freelance writer with professional experience as a Music and Entertainment writer who has covered local, ...
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