 t's a madness that has proven irresistible to filmmakers over the years. The first screen version of the book - a British one-reeler made in 1903 - was produced not long after the advent of moving pictures. At least a dozen other adaptations have followed.
What makes the silly story so attractive? For one thing, the myriad zany characters make for fun guest appearances, says Stephanie Lovett Stoffel, president of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, an association of Carroll scholars. "It's just a natural for all-star cameos because everybody but Alice is a cameo."
But the big-name cast takes a back seat to even bigger special effects. This is the first Alice adaptation to exploit the hocus-pocus available in the post-digital-revolution era. The production is crammed with 875 special effects - several in every scene.
BEFORE
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Short's head, for instance, has been magically enlarged to three times its normal size to resemble Sir John Tenniel's Mad Hatter illustration in Carroll's book.
 AFTER
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Martin Short's tea party partner, the March Hare, is played by actor Adrian Gettley inside an elaborate head created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which also designed the Cheshire Cat, the guinea-pig jurors and the half-lion, half-eagle Gryphon. The tea party was shot inside a soundstage; the backdrop of sun-dappled woods was added later. Even the details have been gilded with FX dust - a pie sprouts crab legs, a cup spins on its own.
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"We have the advantage of money," says Willing, referring to executive producer Robert Halmi Sr.'s generous budget. "It's like being a kid in a candy store. We are able to make Wonderland truly extraordinary. That makes a big difference because every scene has to top the one before."
"We have to do it this big, otherwise it doesn't work. People have to be blown away."
 He hired Nick Willing, a veteran of music videos and TV commercials, because the director is an expert in cutting-edge visual technology.
The imaginative sets include a courtroom made of giant playing cards, a hedge maze and a room-size child's pop-up book.
"It's almost a hallucinogenic experience," says Willing of the movie's look,  created by designer Roger Hall. (who also worked on the 1985 British film "Dreamchild," about the memories of the real Alice Liddell.) "You feel as if you're actually there," says Willing. "It's like you've actually gone into another world."
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