Alice In Wonderland

A nightly dance party created as a last-minute diversion to entertain idle hordes waiting for a wildly popular attraction at Disney California Adventure has turned into an ever-evolving mainstay that might just become an accidental institution. PHOTOS: Mad T Party at Disney California Adventure The new Mad T Party scheduled to debut this summer at the Anaheim theme park replaces ElecTRONica, which replaced Glow Fest, which was designed to give visitors something to do back in the summer of 2010 while waiting hours upon hours to watch the instant hit "World of Color" water show.

Blockbuster-starved studios rarely reach Hollywood's Emerald City, but Walt Disney Studios appears headed there this weekend. The studio's $200-million-plus 3-D production is set to open this weekend with a massive gross of about $90 million, according to those who have seen prerelease audience surveys. (Disney is predicting a softer opening of roughly $75 million.) Not only would that make for the biggest debut of 2013 by far -- "Identity Thief" currently holds the record with its $34.6-million February launch -- but the strong opening could help jump-start what has been a slow year for film-going.

CAST: Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska and Helena Bonham Carter. Directed by Tim Burton. BACK STORY: There's no mistaking the singular surrealism of Lewis Carroll, but despite the familiar faces on the movie posters it would be a mistake to call Burton's vision a pure adaptation of the author's 19th century writings or even a live-action remake of Walt Disney's 1951 animated film. "It's a completely different and new story, but it has a lot of the same characters in it," said Wasikowska, the 20-year-old Aussie who portrays Burton's older Alice.

The search for a warm-weather “Nutcracker” continues with “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,” Christopher Wheeldon's three-act dance fantasy, which the National Ballet of Canada brought to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Friday in its U.S. premiere, beginning a five-performance run. Like the Russian Christmas classic, the new work (co-commissioned by Britain's Royal Ballet) begins at a party for adults, involves its child-heroine in dreamlike changes of scale and battles with bizarre adversaries but also contains such formal divertissements as a Waltz of the Flowers and an Arabian Dance.

Executives throughout Hollywood are undoubtedly breathing a sigh of relief that they have no more dramas dealing with the Iraq war in the works, as "Green Zone" this weekend became the latest film on the topic to flop at the box office. It was blown away by "Alice in Wonderland," which dropped a relatively modest 47% in the U.S. and Canada from its huge opening last week. Even more impressive was the performance of director Tim Burton's 3-D movie overseas, where it is now significantly outpacing its domestic receipts.

Alice in Wonderland Walt Disney, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99/$44.99 Give Tim Burton credit: When asked by Disney to make a live-action, 3-D version of "Alice in Wonderland," he didn't take the safe route. With the help of screenwriter Linda Woolverton and skilled computer-animators, Burton reinvents Lewis Carroll's creation as the story of a young woman (played by Mia Wasikowska) who returns to the surreal land she dreamed of as a girl and gets involved in an epic battle between queens.

One of Disneyland's oldest attractions, the Alice in Wonderland ride, has been closed since last week while workers install safety barriers recommended by California work-safety inspectors. Park officials said they hope to reopen the ride in the next few weeks. Disney officials said the Anaheim park voluntarily closed the ride July 15 after California Department of Occupational Safety and Health inspectors pointed out that it lacked handrails needed for maintenance crews who work on an elevated segment of the ride.

Alice is likely to find a huge pot of box-office gold at the bottom of the rabbit hole this weekend. Walt Disney Studios' 3-D version of "Alice in Wonderland," directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, is headed for one of the biggest winter debuts ever, people who have seen prerelease surveys of potential moviegoers say. The record holder is director Mel Gibson's 2004 release, "The Passion of the Christ," which opened to $83.8 million....

Disney ended up picking just the right moment to jump down the 3-D rabbit hole. As "Avatar" comes to the end of a historic three-month run, Walt Disney Studios' "Alice in Wonderland" took most of the 3-D screens and opened to an eye-popping $210.3 million worldwide. Much like director James Cameron's mega-hit, Tim Burton's adaptation of the classic tale, starring Johnny Depp, generated about 70% of its opening weekend business from theaters with 3-D screens. It easily beat the premiere of "Avatar" and set a record for the biggest winter opening, even accounting for ticket price inflation, selling a studio-estimated $116.

Walt Disney Pictures' decision to accelerate the release of its upcoming 3-D film "Alice in Wonderland" on DVD has sparked a revolt among movie theater owners in Europe. Major chains in the U.K. and the Netherlands have threatened to boycott the movie when it hits theaters March 5, a move that could cut into box-office revenue. The film adaptation based on classic characters of Lewis Carroll has become the latest battleground between studios and exhibitors over how soon movies should be released on DVD after they've opened in theaters.

The Mad Hatter executes demonic time steps, his tap dancing signifying his mindless chatter. An enormous dismembered Cheshire Cat floats through space like a Japanese bunraku puppet. The Queen of Hearts glides threateningly around the stage in a bulbous, hard-framed, heart-shaped gown. Playing cards projected onto a scrim shuffle in concert with a full corps de ballet. And then there's Alice, who hardly ceases dancing through the entire ballet, gets pulled by the White Rabbit into a jelly mold that morphs into a computer-generated spiraling sinkhole, swirling with Victorian font letters.

The clean, crisp modern lines of "Tron" have been replaced by the chaotic, rose-colored acid trip of "Alice in Wonderland," but outside of an extensive cosmetic makeover, little has changed now that Disney California Adventure has rethemed its nightly dance party from ElecTRONica   to the Mad T Party. PHOTOS: Mad T Party at Disney California Adventure The shiny new look seems tailor-made for the short attention spans of the wall-to-wall under-25 crowd of mostly high school and college kids who have made the alcohol-infused and music-centric outdoor rave a wildly popular success at the Anaheim theme park.

The financial and economic landscape has come to look like something from Alice's Wonderland. American consumers now have less confidence in the economy than at any time since at least 1980, according to the latest monthly survey from Thomson Reuters and the University of Michigan. You heard that right: People are more depressed than they were even at the depths of the 2008-2009 recession. But just as in Wonderland, things aren't necessarily what they seem. Confidence has been plummeting for three straight months, but that didn't stop many consumers from spending in July.

There were hints of what was to come when Sandra Bullock's good-hearted Memphis mom in "The Blind Side" blindsided everyone in 2009 and even Quentin Tarantino staunched the blood flow a bit as his "Inglourious Basterds" stacked up Nazi scalps. But in 2010, across the vast cinematic landscape, a softer side began to emerge in nearly all genres, affecting, and reflecting, filmmakers and actors alike. Quite simply, movies, and moviemakers, became nicer. Case in point: Set the Coen brothers' "True Grit" alongside "No Country for Old Men" or even their bloodless "A Serious Man" and it's as if the boys themselves underwent a charming conversion with their very winning and winsome western.

Ask Ken Ralston, the visual effects supervisor for "Alice in Wonderland," what was the biggest logistical problem posed by the fantasy film and, like the Cheshire cat, the corners of his mouth pull back in a slow grin. "What part of it wasn't a challenge? All the characters in the film, all the weird combination of effects and the always-lovely fact of too little time to finish everything ? all of it was a challenge. To think of one thing that was bigger or more difficult than the rest, I can't do it. It was one giant challenge.

One of Disneyland's oldest attractions, the Alice in Wonderland ride, has been closed since last week while workers install safety barriers recommended by California work-safety inspectors. Park officials said they hope to reopen the ride in the next few weeks. Disney officials said the Anaheim park voluntarily closed the ride July 15 after California Department of Occupational Safety and Health inspectors pointed out that it lacked handrails needed for maintenance crews who work on an elevated segment of the ride.

Alice in Wonderland Walt Disney, $29.99; Blu-ray, $39.99/$44.99 Give Tim Burton credit: When asked by Disney to make a live-action, 3-D version of "Alice in Wonderland," he didn't take the safe route. With the help of screenwriter Linda Woolverton and skilled computer-animators, Burton reinvents Lewis Carroll's creation as the story of a young woman (played by Mia Wasikowska) who returns to the surreal land she dreamed of as a girl and gets involved in an epic battle between queens.