Just mad!
Friday’s Los Angeles Times featured a photo of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter across the entire width of its front page, the regular Los Angeles Times traditiional flag, and two real stories that were published in the paper last month. (The REAL front page was hidden inside.) Depp’s color image from “Alice in Wonderland” dominated the faked front page. Several CNN journalists in the Los Angeles office were momentarily fooled by the realistic ad, which is estimated to have cost more than $100,000.
According to the CNN article:
Los Angeles Times spokesman John Conroy said the “cover-wrap” was an “unusual opportunity to stretch the usual boundaries and design an innovative ad designed to create buzz.”
Tough economic times and lower ad revenues have had their effect on newspapers. 
The LA Times online noted that “Alice in Wonderland” earned a record-setting $210.3 million around the world in its opening weekend! Disney spent approximately $200 million to MAKE the film, including the cost of conversion to 3D after production, so the movie is doing well so far! 😉 See the LA Times article for some other records broken!
Audiences gave the movie an average grade of A-, according to the LA Times. There have been mixed reviews, but the audience grade should assure good “word-of-mouth” advertising.
I saw the movie Saturday afternoon at Pixar‘s theater in Emeryville, during a “Friends and Family” screening. Although I very much enjoyed the movie, I felt, on leaving, that there was something “missing.” On the way home, I reached for a word (UNUSUAL for me! ), and came up with “suspense.” The movie seemed to me to lack a measure of suspense, or maybe needed a stronger storyline, for me. The film does NOT retell the original story, so there was plenty of room for creativity in the storyline.
Now for the “coincidence….” According to the Wikipedia article about the film:
Fascinating! I always felt an emotional connection to the Alice books, which I read as “The Annotated Alice” (and now own). Of course, I saw and enjoyed the animated 1951 Disney movie long before and own it on DVD now. I also enjoyed American McGee’s Alice game, set years after the Alice books, in which a tormented Alice travels to a Wonderland suffering under the rule of the mad and merciless Queen of Hearts (sound familiar? ). The game presented MANY interesting and creative puzzles, and I NEVER knew what would happen next! To me, the Burton movie seemed less like a story and more like a series of events, without a lot of suspense. I did not find myself wondering “what will happen next?”
But all of us are DIFFERENT…! For example, I LIKE cats (dogs, too) and have nothing but love for the Cheshire Cat!
Nevertheless, YMMV (“Your Mileage May Vary”), and I really DID enjoy the movie! (I would watch it again and will likely purchase the 2D DVD when it is offered.) I hope that you enjoy it, too!
The animated Cheshire Cat in the film was just about purrrrrrfect, although it did take me awhile to get used to the gray and blue (rather than pink and purple) coloration!)
-Bill at
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