Walrus & Carpenter Productions LLC proudly announces the availability of its AlicewinksLite series of 12 apps for Android devices. Available on the Amazon app store for Android, Alicewinks apps are audio/video/text products providing a multimedia treatment of Lewis Carroll 's original story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Alicewinks uses artwork from the "golden age of children's illustrated books" in the early 20th century along with 21st century digital technology to create stunning digital animations of this 19th century fantasy. TheAlicewinks soundtrack includes the voices of 19 different actors and actresses in character, as well as the narrator. The soundtrack is further enhanced with sound effects and music. The text is from the original version of the story and is included as an optional "text track" so that you can read along or read out loud.
"Hopefully this will give mothers a little quiet time," says Katie Pohlman, a partner in Walrus & Carpenter, and the voice of Alice. "I've worked for years in the non-profit field, helping families and children and even though I'm not huge on giving kids increased access to screen time, when they are getting that screen time, it might as well be something good. "
Because the original artwork was usually "portrait" oriented, this material is uniquely suited for tablet computers that can be rotated into that orientation. The illustrations, being originally displayed in books, were designed for viewing at arm's length like on a tablet, as compared to movies or TV shows that are intended to be seen from a greater distance. The audio has been optimized for small speakers or headphones.
"The production and development of Alicewinks has been something like a trip to Wonderland in itself," says David Neal, President of Walrus & Carpenter and producer/director of the video. "We knew when we started that the portrait orientation was unusual, but we didn't realize how difficult this would make the distribution." The video was originally developed in 720P HD video. "We tried using that with tablet movie viewers, but you had to lock the tablet before rotating it, and it was confusing." In the end the video was rotated 90 degrees internally, making a 720Hx1280V video file. This format has caused some difficulty, and will not play on all versions of Windows Media Player, for example. "It also has encouraged us to go the app route, rather than just distributing Alicewinks as straight video."
