Haunted Mansion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article relates to the theme-park attraction. For the film of the same name, see The Haunted Mansion (film)
| The Haunted Mansion | |
 |
|
| Locations and Opening Dates | |
| Disneyland | August 9, 1969 |
| Magic Kingdom | October 1, 1971 |
| Tokyo Disneyland | April 15, 1983 |
| Disneyland Paris | April 12, 1992 |
The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park in Paris (as Phantom Manor). This attraction combines a walk-through portion with Omnimover vehicles called Doom Buggies, featuring special effects and spectral Audio-Animatronics. The attraction's slogan indicates that "There are nine hundred and ninety-nine happy haunts here, but there's room for a thousand."
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Original concept
Artist and Disney legend Harper Goff was commissioned in the mid-1950s to design the attraction, which was originally conceived by Walt Disney as a walk-through ghost house. Walt had hoped to capture the look and feel of two Paramount Pictures movies, The Cat and the Canary and The Ghost Breakers.[1] The house originally had a rural American design and was intended to be at the end of a crooked path that led away from Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A.
Eventually the decision was made to place it in the New Orleans Square section of the park, and thus the attraction was themed as a haunted antebellum mansion. In 1961, handbills announcing a 1963 opening of the Haunted Mansion were given out at Disneyland's main entrance.[2] Construction began a year later, and the exterior was completed in 1963, but the attraction itself would not open until 1969. The attraction was previewed in a 1965 episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.[2]
It would be six years before it would open to the public, delayed by Disney's involvement in the New York World's Fair in 1964 and 1965. At one point Disney's concept was to be entirely walk-through and empty out at a restaurant with a theme of The Museum of the Weird;[1] this would be similar to other attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean, which is paired with the Blue Bayou Restaurant.
Another Disney legend, Rolly Crump, was assigned the task of designing the attraction, having just completed the sculptures of the God statues that appear in the Enchanted Tiki Room.[1]
In what might be considered an odd twist for a supposedly abandoned structure, the exterior appears new and the surrounding grounds meticulously maintained. Designers wanted to make the exterior of The Haunted Mansion look like the stereotypical haunted house, but Disney himself overrode the idea, claiming, "We'll let the ghosts take care of the inside. We'll take care of the outside." [citation needed]
[edit] Revised concept
After Walt's Death in December of 1966, the project was changed significantly. The Museum of the Weird restaurant idea was abandoned, and the walk through idea was replaced with Doom Buggies after imagineers tried for a number of years to solve the problem of capacity, even going as far as suggesting building two identical attractions to get double the number of guests through.[1]
One rumor for the change, was that the original attraction had frightened a guest so badly that he died of a heart attack. Since the attraction was never implemented as a walk-through experience, this rumor is clearly false. No guests have ever died of fright riding the Haunted Mansion.[2]
On August 9, 1969, the Disneyland version of the attraction was completed and had remained essentially unchanged for years. In the early 1970s, the Imagineers gave some semi-serious thought to resurrecting many of the creatures and effects that Rolly Crump had originally created for the Haunted Mansion's pre-show as part of Professor Marvel's Gallery, which was " ... a tent show of mysteries and delights, a carousel of magic and wonder".[1] This to be built as part of Disneyland's Discovery Bay expansion area.
In 1999, a retrospective of the art of the Haunted Mansion was featured at The Disney Gallery above the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. When the 2003 film The Haunted Mansion was released, a retrospective of its art was featured in the gallery as well.
In October 2005, Slave Labor Graphics began publishing a bimonthly Haunted Mansion comic book anthology giving the Disneyland Mansion a backstory, with the main recurring story of Master Gracey recalling the old sea captain storyline.
[edit] Other theme parks
The attraction opened at the Magic Kingdom in 1971, Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, Disneyland Paris as Phantom Manor in 1992. For each of these parks, the Haunted Mansion is an original attraction.
The other incarnations of the ride are very similar, but are not without their differences. The Haunted Mansion is the only attraction to appear in a different location of the park in each of the Disney theme parks. The Disneyland version is located in New Orleans Square and is modeled after a southern plantation home. The Magic Kingdom's version of the ride is located in Liberty Square and has a Gothic Revival facade. Tokyo Disneyland (which does not have a Liberty Square or a New Orleans area) placed the Mansion in Fantasyland. Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris is in Frontierland, and is designed in a Second Empire architectural style. It also features a full orchestral score, an Old West theme, and a more cohesive storyline than the other three Mansions.
When the Haunted Mansion was transplanted to other Disney parks, space management was much less of a problem. For example, in Orlando's Magic Kingdom, the entire show building is located within the park boundaries. Luckily, the placement of the show building has no bearing on the quality of the experience. Most guests give little thought to whether they are actually inside the mansion they saw while in line.
[edit] Haunted Mansion Holiday
Every holiday season the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is transformed into Haunted Mansion Holiday. This crossover, based on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, began in 2001. The Haunted Mansion is closed every September for a few weeks as they revamp the attraction, replacing many of the props and Audio-Animatronics with characters and themes from the movie. The attraction is closed again in January when it is returned to the regular Haunted Mansion.
The same overlay has been adapted for Tokyo Disneyland as Holiday Nightmare. None of the other parks has this unique alteration.
[edit] Recent changes
Following the 2004 Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay, some new effects were introduced to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion in January 2005. The Stretching Room now has better lighting, so the gallery does not get darker as it moves up and away. Along the Changing Portrait Hall, as you exit the stretching gallery, new portraits have been installed. Instead of a simple "fading" effect, the portraits now change in sync with the lightning from across the hall, just as they originally had when the attraction opened. Also, the Cat Lady portrait has been altered (instead of white dressed lady to black panther, it is now black dressed lady to white tiger), and the April-December painting has been replaced by the Master Gracey portrait from Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion. Near the Endless Hallway, the suit of armor that used to be there was replaced, and it now twitches and moves when the Doombuggies pass. Probably the most major effect was in the seance room. Instead of having Madame Leota's crystal ball simply sit on a table, it now freely floats around and above the table. Below her are new candles that look much more realistic and eerie. The bride in the attic was also changed to look much more sinister and scary.
As of May 3, 2006, new changes went into effect at the Disneyland Haunted Mansion. The new show scene introduced in the attic portion of the ride follows a ghostly bride named Constance, now described as a "black widow bride," and slowly uncovers her bloody past, which includes the murders and decapitations of all her previous husbands (named Ambrose, Frank, Reginald, Marquis, and George) in an attempt to gain their vast fortunes. The new effects start when visitors first enter the mansion's attic.
When the visitor enters the attic, the pop-up ghosts that used to shout "I do!" are gone. This is to make room for the current effects. As the visitor enters the attic, the first new things seen are an amber-glowing glass lamp, various treasures and china, and a portrait of a bride and groom. An axe-like sound echoes from the pictures throughout the room, and the groom's head disappears.
As the visitor moves through the attic, with the various groom's portraits and their personal belongings, all their heads keep disappearing as the visitor passes by. The phantom piano player is still there, but the music is louder than before. Near the end of the attic, an ethereal glow is seen and a sweet but sinister voice is heard. It is Constance in her wedding gown. She repeats her vows in a menacing tone..."I do, I do...I did", "You may now kiss the bride", "And we lived happily ever after", "As long as we both shall live", "For better or for worse", "Here comes the bride", "'Till death do us part", "Through sickness and in...wealth". This new, menacing revision of the attic bride, who was once a sad little ingenue pining for her lost love, no longer begs comparisons to the Corpse Bride (although the original bride was never based on the Corpse Bride in the first place).
The bride is basically a white mannequin in a white wedding gown. When the lights go off, a projection illuminates the entire body, showing her as a wispy but realistic spirit. Her face and her entire body is projected, very similar to the Leota effect in the Seance Room as well as the Little Leota effect at the end of the ride. Constance also floats mysteriously above the floor (made possible by a pole and a fan). Also, in the center of the room, is a weak supported floor holding the table that is covering a 30 foot deep hole.
[edit] The one thousandth ghost
On October 21, 2004, a bidder on a Disney-sponsored auction on eBay won the right to be the first non-Disneyland employee to have his name added to an attraction. Cary Sharp, a doctor and health-care attorney from Baton Rouge, Louisiana placed a winning bid of US$37,400 to become Disneyland's one thousandth ghost with the addition of his nickname, a joke epitaph and the signatures of Disney Imagineers on a tombstone to be displayed in the attraction. Its placement is guaranteed for ten years and will remain as a permanent exhibit.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the opening bid of $750 was placed by horror novelist Clive Barker. Sharp, who had only visited Disneyland once before, placed the bid in good faith as a way to entertain his friends and never expected to win. The tombstone is located near the end of the graveyard scene and can be seen just as the vehicle enters the graveyard gates. The name on the tombstone is "Jay."
The money has been donated to the Boys and Girls Club. Half went to the local Anaheim chapter of the main charity while the other half went to the Baton Rouge chapter.
[edit] Future development
New props and effects are rumored to be added to the ride, to accommodate the newly established scene in the attic. These effects include an improved version of the green spirit effect in the Seance Room. Also, the Hitchhiking Ghosts at the end of the ride will use more advanced animatronics, with more fluid and realistic movements.
[edit] The attraction
[edit] The queue
The queue of the Haunted Mansion is outside the building, winding, first past a pet cemetery, and then to a Mausoleum built into the hillside as well as a cemetery above. Eventually guests end up on the porch of the mansion and enter through the front doors. Each headstones has a humorous epitaph and visitors have been known to slow down the flow of guests through the queue because of their interest in reading them. This caused Imagineers to arrange the headstones at Walt Disney World in an order that encouraged forward movement, and forced the removal of some headstones from Disneyland. Some headstones were re-introduced near the handicapped queue area, and the pet cemetery was revamped in 1993 with even more headstones, arranged in a similarly forward moving order. Walt Disney World soon got a pet cemetery as well.[3]
In the 1995, a white horse drawn Hearse was added to the Disneyland queue[4], drawn by an invisible ghost horse. The Hearse has been falsely rumored to have carried the body of Mormon prophet Brigham Young.[4] Walt Disney World later received a similar black version of the vehicle.[3].
In 2002, Walt Disney World added a headstone for Madame Leota[3], one of the prominent ghosts in the attraction, with a unique frightful effect: wandering eyes.
[edit] Foyer and stretching gallery
Guests stand in line outside the mansion, and are led into a spooky parlor by Cast Members dressed as maids and butlers. From there, the guests are brought into an octagonal room, where the door they entered through becomes a wall, and the chilling voice of Paul Frees introduces them as their "ghost host" and taunts them:
- Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmm? And consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows, and no doors... which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! Of course, there's always my way...
As the voice speaks, the audience's eye is drawn up to four portraits on every other wall of the octagonal shaped room. The walls quietly stretch upwards, elongating the Marc Davis-designed paintings on them to reveal the comedic fates of previous guests:
- The Marquis is seen in the dress of minor nobility... and red and white striped boxer shorts... while standing on a keg of dynamite with a lit fuse.
- A young demure woman holding a parasol... and calmly balancing on an unraveling tightrope... above the hungry jaws of a waiting crocodile.
- Constance, an old lady sits... atop a tall gravestone.
- Ambrose, a man with sideburns sitting... on Reginald, a fat, mustachoid man, who was sitting... atop Frank, a lean, pale-looking gentleman... who was chest-deep in quicksand.
Three of the four portraits foreshadow the Attic Scene.
The lights go out, lightning and thunder effects fill the gallery and, in a rare instance of Disneyland "dark humor," a glimpse of the earthly remains of the "Ghost Host" is shown dangling by a noose from the ceiling rafters above.
At the attraction in Disneyland, the room is, in fact, an elevator with no ceiling that is being lowered slowly to give the illusion that the room itself is stretching; this brings the guests down to where the ride begins, below ground level. The ceiling above is a piece of fabric called a scrim, which conceals the hanging body until it is lit from above. This elevator effect was necessary to lower the guests below the level of the park-circling railroad at Disneyland. The actual ride building of this attraction is located outside of the berm surrounding the park, and the Disney Imagineers developed this mechanism to lower the guests to the gallery leading to the actual ride building.
This stretching room effect is duplicated at the three Mansions at other Disney theme parks, but only one of these requires guests being moved beyond the railroad tracks. The Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland attractions have stretching rooms with ascending ceilings, rather than descending floors. Only Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris uses the same descending floor as Disneyland, to transport guests toward the structure containing the major portion of the ride.
[edit] Portrait gallery
When the walls finally do open, guests are ushered into an art gallery with paintings that depict seemingly innocent scenes. Windows on the left give guests a peek at the thunderstorm raging outside. With every flash of lightning, the paintings flicker with ghastly images (including, a demure young woman sprouting snakes from her scalp (a la Medusa), a magnificent sailing ship at sea becoming a tattered and ghostly version thereof in a storm, and a portrait of the Ghost Host himself, Master Gracey turning from his human self to a rotting corpse as he appears in the Stretching room). The grim busts of a man and woman placed at the end of the hall seem to turn their heads, glaring at the guests as they walk past. The effect, patented by Disney, was achieved by creating inverted busts: they actually recede into the wall. A combination of dim lighting, optical illusion, and wishful thinking make the busts appear to stare at the passing guests. The effect is unnerving and extremely convincing. (A similar effect is used in the Hollywood Backlot section of Disney's California Adventure.)
[edit] Hallways of the mansion
The main stretch of the attraction consists of a continuous track of "Doom Buggies" in which the guests sit as they are brought through the mansion. The "Doom Buggies" are actually Disney's Omnimover system which "pan" the riders to focus their attention on specific scenes, much as a cinematographer would pan a motion picture camera. The special effects throughout the ride were groundbreaking when the mansion first opened. After ascending a dark staircase, guests embark on an eerie journey through the mansion and witness some amazing sights, all created with special effects. In the ride at Walt Disney World, guests see the library scene that involves a group of staring busts and a piano playing on its own accord. Afterwards, the two rides are identical. Doombuggies point guests down The Endless Hallway, a corridor which appears endless with a floating candelabra in its center; a conservatory that contains a coffin with a ghost trapped within, his skeletal hand trying to pry the lid open as he keeps crying to be let out; a long haunting corridor full of knocking doors from the inside (not to mention one that looks like it is breathing); and a ghostly grandfather clock with a demonic physique and 13 hours on it, a dark shadow of a claw passing over it as it chimes midnight (this clock is, in fact, moving backwards).
[edit] The seance room
Guests enter a dark séance room full of floating musical instruments. Madame Leota, a gypsy trapped within a crystal ball, summons the mansion's spirits as she floats gracefully around the table. A wispy green spirit flies around in the corner of the room.
[edit] The ballroom
Next, visitors are whisked up a dark spiral staircase. As guests pass into the magnificent grand ballroom, the happy haunts begin to materialize. Translucent couples waltz to the musical rantings of macabre organist, while a ghostly birthday party appears to be taking place at the dining table. Some spirits sit on the chandeliers, engorging themselves with wine. All the ghosts in this scene are created using the Pepper's Ghost effect. An important part of Disney history is located in the ballroom scene of the original Anaheim attraction: the pipe organ on the far left of the scene is the original prop from the studio's 1954 release, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Prior to the construction of the Haunted Mansion, the organ had been on display in a shop in the "Main Street, U.S.A." area of the park.
At the Disneyland Haunted Mansion, one of the floor-to-ceiling panes of glass that is used to create the Pepper's Ghost effect has damage at the guests' level that is a circular puncture, which is rumored to be a bullet hole. The damaged area has been disguised by a spider and its web. Because of the size of these panes of glass, they cannot be replaced without removing the roof of the show building.[citation needed]
[edit] The attic
The attic features a collection of wedding gifts, personal items, mementos, and wedding portraits. In each portrait, a common bride (Constance) is featured with a different groom, (Ambrose, Frank, Reginald, The Marquis and George.) whose heads disappear to the accompaniment of a hatchet sound. Just before the Doom Buggies leave the attic, the same ghostly bride from the pictures is seen floating in the air, intoning wedding-related phrases. As she raises her arms, a hatchet appears in her hands. Before all the updates, the bride was a more mysterious figure which had no real existance to the storyline. However, she did have a room mate, but not for long. The Hatbox Ghost was a gag designed by Imagineer Marc Davis. He was a ghostly figure holding a cane in on hand and a hatbox in the other. On each beat of the bride's heart, his head would disappear and reappear into the hatbox. The figure however was only present for the first few weeks of the ride's operation. It was a simple lighting effect, but the effect didn't work: the ride vehicles were too close for the head to fully disappear. Recent searches for the figure have not availed. But with the new head chopping bride in place, then the Hatbox Ghost may soon return to help the storyline along with new modern technology.
[edit] The graveyard
The Doom Buggies exit the attic onto a balcony in the windy night. Stars twinkle overhead in the cold black sky. Ahead, guests can see ghosts rise up from the ground, and a mysterious fog covering the Graveyard below. The Doombuggies turn around and plunge backwards down the side of the mansion, surrounded by ghostly trees with knotted expressions. On an overhead branch, the Raven caws mockingly at the guests. The Doombuggies reach the ground, and turn towards the Graveyard's gate, where a Grave Keeper stands, his knees shaking in fright an expression of horror on his face. Beside him is his dog, whining and whimpering in fear. Around the corner, a ghostly band plays a jazzy rendition of "Grim Grinning Ghosts". A king and queen balance on a teeter-totter, while a young princess swings back and forth from a tree branch, all of them singing with the band members. The Doombuggies travel down a hill and turn to see "The Phantom Five," five singing busts continuing the song of "Grim Grinning Ghosts". Next, guests encounter a tea party of sorts, where ghosts are having a "swinging wake" and singing along too. Next, guests see a mummy and an old man. The old man tries to listen to what the mummy is saying through an ear phone, but the mummy is just too hard to understand underneath its bandages. The Doombuggies turn to face two opera singers, blasting their voices up into the night. Beside them are three other ghosts, a headless knight, a prisoner, and an executioner, who also join in the song.
[edit] The hitchhiking ghosts
At last, guests pass into a crypt where they encounter the attraction's unofficial mascots, the three hitchhiking ghosts. Passing by three large mirrors, they realize that one ghost has hitched a ride in each Doom Buggy. Guests disembark and are bid farewell by a tiny woman, nicknamed "Little Leota" by fans and Disney Imagineers (as this is the second appearance of Leota Toombs, who also provided the face of Madame Leota), before returning to the outside world.
[edit] Behind the scenes
The original Haunted Mansion is an impressive feat of space management. Disneyland, the home of the original Mansion, has always contended with a lack of space. When the New Orleans Square area was added in the early 1960s, there was no more room in that quarter of the park for large attractions. The Imagineers therefore placed the bulk of the two major attractions — Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion — outside the park's earthen berm. The infamous "stretching room" was implemented simply so guests could be moved underground and outside of the park without them knowing. Most guests do not realize that the portrait hall is actually an underground passage leading under the Disneyland Railroad's tracks. At this point, guests are actually entering a vast (approximately 37,000 square feet) warehouse-like building located outside the park boundaries. Guests may catch a glimpse of the dull green building while riding the tram from the Mickey and Friends parking structure, or by boarding the Disneyland Railroad at the New Orleans Square station and facing backwards in the train.
Inside the show building, the scenes are set up much like sets in a movie. Areas unseen by guests consist mostly of wooden supports and cramped control rooms. The layout of the track leads to some interesting spatial relationships; the organ in the ballroom is located right behind a crypt in the graveyard, and the ballroom runs parallel to the "endless corridor." In fact, if one were to break through the "end" of the "endless corridor," that person would be looking at the backs of the hitchhiking ghosts.
It is worth noting that at Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain show buildings are very close to each other. When the Doom Buggies face the back of the graveyard, adjacent to the ghostly band, guests are looking at the building's northwest corner. Just a few yards beyond the back wall is a similar but smaller building housing Splash Mountain. Guests evacuated from Splash Mountain during a breakdown will verify that the Haunted Mansion show building is virtually indistinguishable from the Splash Mountain building, and that the two have only a few yards of pavement between them. [5]
The attraction also has a hidden pet cemetery. The original was only viewed by handicapped people waiting for the ride. But when the new ramp was constructed, no need was found for the old handicapped waiting area anymore, so it was converted into a pet cemetery for the regular line.
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] Narration
The foyer, stretching room, and ride's narration was performed by Paul Frees as the Ghost Host. Between the Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom versions of the ride, different recording sessions were used in some places. The Magic Kingdom version of the ride includes the library scene, in which a unique piece of narration is used. At Tokyo Disneyland, whose mansion is a carbon copy of the one in Florida, both inside and out, the narration is provided by Teichiro Hori, a movie producer from Toho Studios (Hori also provides the voice of the talking skull in Tokyo's version of Pirates of the Caribbean). In 2002, an imitation of Paul Frees could be heard in the Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom versions instead of the original safety spiel, giving a more detailed warning in the load area, followed by a Spanish spiel.
[edit] Phantom Manor
An opening narration by Vincent Price was recorded, and initially was used. However, due to a deal with French officials that attraction audio had to stay primarily in French, the narration was replaced with a different track by Gerard Chevalier, who, interestingly enough, had been a French dub voice for Price in some of his movies. Price's narration is available on the CD The Haunted Mansion - 30th Anniversary (1999 CD). It also features a full orchestrated score by John Debney.
[edit] Theme Song
Grim Grinning Ghosts was composed by Buddy Baker and the lyrics were written by F. Xavier Atencio. It can be heard in nearly every area of the ride, with various instrumentations and tempos. Contrary to popular belief, "Grim Grinning Ghosts" is not performed by the Mellomen, but rather by a pickup group. The only member of the Mellomen heard is that of the deep bass voice of Thurl Ravenscroft (best known for voicing Tony the Tiger in television commercials), who sings as part of a quintet of singing busts in the graveyard scene. Ravenscroft's face is used as well, as it is projected onto one of the busts, specifically one with a detached head.
[edit] Releases
- The Official Album of Disneyland and Walt Disney World (1991 CD) "Grim Grinning Ghosts"
- A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion (1998 Cassette) "Grim Grinning Ghosts"
- The Haunted Mansion - 30th Anniversary (1999 CD) 22 minute ride through & many elements of the ride
- Walt Disney World Resort: The Official Album (1999 CD) Foyer, Ballroom, Graveyard, & Exit
- Walt Disney World Resort: Official Album (2000 CD) Foyer, Ballroom, Graveyard, & Exit
- Official Album: Walt Disney World Resort Celebrating 100 Years of Magic (2001 CD) Foyer, Ballroom, Graveyard, & Exit
- A Musical History of Disneyland (2005) 13 minute ride through
- A popular fan animated version of the song was created by Hiya Animation Studios.
"Grim Grinning Ghosts" has also been used in various other shows in Disney theme parks such as:
- Fantasy in the Sky
- Remember... Dreams Come True
- HalloWishes
[edit] A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion
Disneyland Records released The Haunted Mansion as a record album in 1969. It featured the story of two teenagers, Mike (Ron Howard) and Karen (Robie Lester), who get trapped inside the Haunted Mansion, with Thurl Ravenscroft as the Narrator, Pete Renoudet as the Ghost Host, and Eleanor Audley as Madam Leota. It was reissued in 1998 as a cassette tape titled A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion.
Previously, as the Haunted Mansion attraction was in its planning stages and still known as "The Haunted House," Disneyland Records released the album Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House (1964), a collection of sound effects and brief "stories in sound" introduced by a narrator. Many of the sound effects were later used in the Haunted Mansion ride. The same title was used by Disneyland Records in 1979 for a new album of sound effects and story situations.
[edit] Attraction facts
[edit] Disneyland
- Grand opening: August 9, 1969
- Designer: WED Enterprises
- Show length: 10:00
- Omnimover - 6:50
- Required ticket: "E"
- Ride system: Omnimover
- Number of Vehicles (a.k.a.: "Doombuggies"): 131, the first five made especially to accommodate wheelchair/service animal guests that need the attraction to stop in order to transfer onto the buggies.
[edit] Magic Kingdom
- Grand opening: October 1, 1971 (Opened with the Magic Kingdom)
- Number of Vehicles (a.k.a.: "Doombuggies"): 160
[edit] Tokyo Disneyland
- Grand opening: April 15, 1983 (Opened with Tokyo Disneyland)
[edit] Disneyland Paris
- Grand opening: April 12, 1992 (Opened with Disneyland Paris)
Phantom Manor (version of Haunted Mansion in Frontierland)
[edit] See also
- List of current Disneyland attractions
- List of current Magic Kingdom attractions
- The Haunted Mansion (movie)
- Grim Grinning Ghosts
- Haunted Mansion Holiday
- Haunted Mansion (comic)
- List of Haunted Mansion characters
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Phantom Manor
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Jim Hill. A special what-might-have-been version of Why For.
- ^ a b c Urban Legends Pages: Haunted Mansion.
- ^ a b c Jeff Lang. When it comes to the Haunted Mansion, theming is a matter of grave importance.
- ^ a b Hearseay.
- ^ Microsoft Live Site.
- Disneyland's Ghost House. (2004). The "E" Ticket, (41)
This is the Fall 2004 issue of the magazine The "E" Ticket that was dedicated to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. - Eastman, Tish. (1997). "Haunting Melodies: The Story Behind Buddy Baker's Score for the Haunted Mansion". Persistence of Vision (9) 39
Persistence of Vision is an irregularly published magazine "celebrating the creative legacy of Walt Disney." Back issues can be found at The Book Palace and its home page can be found here. - Smith, Paul. (1997). "Tales from the Crypt: Life in the Haunted Mansion." Persistence of Vision (9) 89
- Surrell, J. (2003). The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movie. New York: Disney Editions. ISBN 0-7868-5419-7
A book published by Disney giving a comprehensive history of the Haunted Mansion from early inception, in which it was a walk-through attraction, to its current form. It includes information on The Haunted Mansion movie.
[edit] External links
- Disneyland - Haunted Mansion
- Walt Disney World Resort - The Haunted Mansion
- Disneyland Resort Paris - Phantom Manor
- DoomBuggies.com – Fan site with very detailed information on the history, special effects, layout, etc.
- HauntedDimensions.raykeim.com – Fan site with paper models of the mansions.
- Epinions
Review - Haunted Mansion Blueprints – Fan site with over 80 Haunted Mansion blueprints from Disneyland, Walt Disney World and the movie.
