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Review: Mad T Party keeps rocking at Disney California Adventure

Mad T Party at Disney California Adventure.
(Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles Times staff writer

The clean, crisp modern lines of “Tron” have been replaced by the chaotic, rose-colored acid trip of “Alice in Wonderland,” but outside of an extensive cosmetic makeover, little has changed now that Disney California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.

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If it ain’t broke, reboot it.

Disney has a longstanding reputation of doing cool and hip very badly in its never-ending desire to stay current with pop culture. Witness Disney Dance Crew with its epic fail of Mixmaster Mickey Mouse hip-hop dancing to mash-ups of urban street sounds.

Just like ElecTRONica and GlowFest before that, the Mad T Party transforms the moribund Hollywoodland studio backlot into a pulsating neon nightclub of crowd-surfing, conga-lining and fist-pumping good times.

Hewing closely to the successful formula, Mad T Party is little more than a redo of ElecTRONica, with reskinned buildings, renamed cocktails, relocated stages and a restocked video arcade.

The lone Drink Me cocktail bar proved a popular destination for the thirsty revelers, with a Space Mountain-like line snaking from the cash register for the $11.50 Croquet Tinis and Mad Hat-itos.

The new live band is a nice twist, with the musicians taking on the personas of Wonderland characters that tread just outside the squeaky-clean Disney mold - with Alice’s revealing costume a bit too risque and the Mad Hatter’s hip thrusts a tad too suggestive. With the White Rabbit DJ filling in during band breaks, the music hews closely to the KIIS-FM playlist of Katy Perry, Pink, Flo Rida, Pitbull, Chris Brown and Fun.

The highlight of the night: a stilt-walking puppeteer who navigated through the densely packed crowd in the guise of a colorfully plumed ostrich with an articulated neck to the delight of the cellphone camera-wielding throngs.

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Outside of a new look and a new name, the Mad T Party is more of the same old, good old stuff -- and that seems just fine with the party rocking people on the dance floor.

The night was best summed up by the slogan on the black T-shirts worn by dozens of disheartened ElecTRONica fans: I (heart) Tron but this will do for now.

The Mad T Party began a soft opening preview over Memorial Day weekend at Disney California Adventure in advance of the official June 15 grand opening.

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