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Hong Kong’s Disneyland Opens 1st Frozen-Themed Attraction 

Visitors line up to enter the World of Frozen themed area during its opening ceremony at Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. (AP)
Visitors line up to enter the World of Frozen themed area during its opening ceremony at Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. (AP)
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Hong Kong’s Disneyland Opens 1st Frozen-Themed Attraction 

Visitors line up to enter the World of Frozen themed area during its opening ceremony at Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. (AP)
Visitors line up to enter the World of Frozen themed area during its opening ceremony at Disneyland Resort in Hong Kong, Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. (AP)

Hong Kong Disneyland opened its first Frozen-themed attraction on Monday, with thousands of eager visitors turning up to experience the new rides, some lining up for hours to get an early start.

Based on Disney’s wildly popular Frozen animation film, the new section of the park features landscapes and characters from the movie and two new rides, a roller coaster and a boat ride that takes visitors through different scenes featured in the film.

“Over the past decade, the film has grown into one of the most successful franchises in Disney history,” said Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences. “World of Frozen represents Hong Kong Disneyland’s largest and boldest expansion since the park opened in 2005.”

The opening comes after Disney announced in September a $60 billion expansion of its parks and cruises over about a decade. Now that Chinese tourists are venturing abroad again after the pandemic, the new attraction is meant to be a game changer for a theme park that has run losses for years.

Some of the hundreds of Disney fans who lined up hours ahead of time were dressed like characters from Frozen.

Disney enthusiast Bryan Darmanic, who had travelled from California with his wife and daughter, were among the first visitors to the Frozen-themed roller coaster and received limited edition souvenirs to commemorate the experience.

“The World of Frozen is really well-designed and beautiful,” said Darmanic, whose family was making its first visit to the Hong Kong theme park.

Winnie Ip, a tourist from Macao, said she arrived at 9 a.m. in the morning ahead of the opening of the Frozen section.

The Frozen attractions were “magnificent,” Ip said.

Hong Kong has been beefing up the park to try and draw more visitors. In June 2022, it debuted its Momentous multimedia and fireworks show, which is staged at its castle on most nights.

Elsewhere, Disney plans to launch a Zootopia-themed area at its Shanghai Disneyland in December, a Fantasy Springs port at Tokyo DisneySea next spring and a Frozen-themed Kingdom of Arendelle at Disneyland Paris, slated to open in either 2024 or 2025.

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Entertainment

'Wicked' Tops SAG Awards Nominations Where Many Big-Names Are Shut out

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film "Wicked." (Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film "Wicked." (Universal Pictures via AP)
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'Wicked' Tops SAG Awards Nominations Where Many Big-Names Are Shut out

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film "Wicked." (Universal Pictures via AP)
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Cynthia Erivo, left, and Ariana Grande in a scene from the film "Wicked." (Universal Pictures via AP)

"Wicked" topped nominations to the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards on Wednesday, landing a leading five nominations including best ensemble, and individual nods for Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande and Jonathan Bailey.

Out-of-control wildfires that swept across Los Angeles and Southern California on Tuesday night forced the Screen Actors Guild to cancel its plans to announce the nominations live Wednesday morning. The nominations were instead issued by press release by SAG, which last year began a multiyear deal with Netflix to stream the awards.

The smash hit musical "Wicked" saw its Oscar chances rise in the SAG nominations, which came the morning after the film was celebrated by the National Board of Review Awards in New York. "Wicked" even scored a nod for best stunt ensemble.

The other nominees for best ensemble are: "Anora,Conclave,Emilia Pérez" and "A Complete Unknown."

It was an especially strong showing for the Bob Dylan drama "A Complete Unknown." It came away with four nominations, including Timothée Chalamet for best male actor, and supporting nods for both Edward Norton and Monica Barbaro.

The best male lead nominees were largely as expected: Adrien Brody ("The Brutalist"), Daniel Craig ("Queer"), Colman Domingo ("Sing Sing"), Ralph Fiennes ("Conclave") and Chalamet.

Coming off her rousing victory at the Golden Globes, Demi Moore was among the nominees for best female actor in a leading role for "The Substance." She was joined by Erivo, "Emilia Perez" breakout Karla Sofía Gascón, Mikey Madison of "Anora" and Pamela Anderson for "The Last Showgirl."

That surprisingly left out some big names. Angelina Jolie ("Maria") missed out, as did Nicole Kidman ("Babygirl"). A few of the most acclaimed actresses of the year, Marianne Jean-Baptiste ("Hard Truths") and Globe-winner Fernanda Torres ("I’m Still Here"), also were overlooked.

"The Last Showgirl" had more to celebrate, too, with an unexpected nomination for Jamie Lee Curtis in supporting female actor. Her fellow nominees are: Barbaro, Grande, Danielle Deadwyler ("The Piano Lesson") and Zoe Saldana ("Emilia Perez").

Jeremy Strong was nominated for his supporting performance as Roy Cohn in the Donald Trump film "The Apprentice," but his co-star, Sebastian Stan, went unnominated for both "The Apprentice" and "A Different Man." The other nominees for best supporting male actor were: Bailey, Norton, Yura Borisov ("Anora") and the category frontrunner, Kieran Culkin ("A Real Pain").

A few widely forecast supporting performance were snubbed there, too, including Denzel Washington ("Gladiator II") and Guy Pearce ("The Brutalist").

The SAG Awards are among the most closely watched Oscar bellwethers. Their picks don’t always align exactly with those of the film academy, but they often do.

The last three best ensemble winners — "Oppenheimer,Everything Everywhere All at Once,CODA" — all went on to win best picture at the Academy Awards. All but one of the SAG acting winners of the last three years has also won at the Oscars. The sole exception was Lily Gladstone, who won SAG’s award for female actor last year for "Killers of the Flower Moon," but the Oscar trophy went to Emma Stone ("Poor Things") at the Oscars.

While some overlooked performances might still land an Oscar nomination, any eventual Academy Award winner, including the best picture recipient, is almost surely coming from those nominated Wednesday. That's bad news for "The Brutalist," which triumphed at the Globes but missed out on a SAG ensemble nomination.

The Screen Actors Guild Awards will be held Feb. 23 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The ceremony, to be hosted by Kristen Bell. will be streamed live on Netflix. In addition to the competitive awards, Jane Fonda will be presented with the guild’s Life Achievement Award.