CRITIQUE # 1 A Look at Inanimate Alice

I have little experience with this genre of story telling so it was interesting to gather some knowledge from the numerous websites available from the link given in class. Among the different sites I chose to look at one in particular in depth and provide my own critique. I chose to analyze the site created by Kate Pullinger entitled "Inanimate Alice". The site used flash animations for the most part to tell their story.
First in foremost I think it is important to consider why I chose this site to review. Simply enough it was because the image provided amongst the many icons stood out, with a captivating drawn image of a cartoon face. The image in the end had little relevance to the story however creating the urge to look there rather than the infinite options available on the web is of the utmost importance and therefore demonstrates its value. The main page was essential for two purposes. Primarily to instruct the viewer how the story works as well as provide a little context for the protagonist of the story. The theme I have taken is that this was a story regarding a girl that shows how over whelming technology can be and how a little girl can be so emeshed within it. Although I think the title page works well, visually it is weak in comparison to the rest of the site, its color scheme isn't consistent with the main pages and I think there is room for improvement.
Upon beginning the actual story line I saw a lot of qualities within the piece that highlighted the central idea behind the plot. There are a lot of chaotic sounds, voices, and images provided beneath the cover of static flow, in and out, while pushing the narrative forward. The interactive segments with the phone taking photos while on the road is unique and effective, especially when considering this character is taking pictures of flowers while she is looking for her lost father. The list of things I would like to be doing is also comically effective in that it drives the central idea by listing physical activities passively, the irony is obvious and I found myself asking why she isn't out actually doing the things she is listing. The attribute that ties all the sounds and images together are the words themselves.
The words pushing the narrative forward I felt were weak in comparison to the other qualities of the piece. Certain word choices felt like something was lost in translation, the impression I got was that the author might not have had english as their primary language. However the story holds together relatively well, and when considering the piece focuses on the technology, it is utilizing the words are not meant to not be simple and too much emphasis on the written words would have undoubtedly taken away from the overall appeal of work in the end.