The Haunted Mansion (attraction)
The Haunted Mansion [ də hɔːntəd mænʃən ] ( The Haunted Mansion ) is a dark ride in various Disney theme parks . The structure of the attraction is similar to a ghost train , with the difference that the passengers here are not frightened, but rather entertained in the harmless style typical of Disney and amazed by a multitude of ingenious illusions. The introduction of the attraction is as a running business crossed on foot, the main attraction itself is in the operational design of Disney endless conveyor system called Omnimover passed through. The attraction-specific designation for the gondolas is Doom Buggies ( English : " Doom Buggies ").
Story and concept
In the mid-1950s, the artist Harper Goff was commissioned to design a haunted house attraction, which was originally conceived by Walt Disney as a run-of-the-run business, with the wish on his part to recreate the mood and atmosphere of the horror comedies The Cat and the Canary ( The Cat and the Canary , 1939) and The Ghost Breakers ( e.g. Die Geister-Dresseure , 1940). The first plan was to build a rural American style house to house the attraction. Guests should be led away from the Main Street, USA shopping and dining area via a winding path . Finally, it was decided to build an antebellum house in the style of Victorian architecture in the New Orleans Square themed area and make it a ghostly theme .
As early as 1961, flyers began to be distributed at the main entrance to the park, announcing the opening of the attraction in 1963. A year later, construction work began on the house and its thematic surroundings. These were actually completed in 1963, but the attraction itself wasn't supposed to open until 1969. The delay was due, on the one hand, to Disney's participation in the New York World's Fair in 1964 and, on the other hand, to Walt Disney's change of plan to add a theme restaurant to the attraction . This should be designed like a cabinet of curiosities and get the name The Museum of the Weird ("The Museum of the Strange"). As with Pirates of the Caribbean and the attached Blue Bayou restaurant , he wanted to combine attraction and gastronomy.
Another imagineer and Disney legend , Rolly Crump, was brought in to collaborate on The Haunted Mansion project after completing sets for The Enchanted Tiki Room . Some employees complained that the house and the surrounding green spaces looked way too new and well-kept, even though it was supposed to be an abandoned haunted house. They suggested making the house look more dilapidated, but Disney disregarded it and replied, "The ghosts take over the inside, but we take care of the outside."
After Walt Disney's death in 1966, development of the attraction advanced significantly. The idea of the restaurant was dropped and the concept of a walk-in shop was replaced with the more effective Doom Buggies , which was a promising solution to managing visitor capacity. On August 9, 1969, the first version of the attraction at the Disneyland Resort in California was finally completed and remained unchanged for years.
In other parks
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In the meantime, every Disney park has its own version of The Haunted Mansion , which, although similar in terms of the driving sequence, show all differences compared to the Californian “prototype”. The Walt Disney World version (1971) is located in the Liberty Square themed area of the Magic Kingdom . In 2007 a new audio system was installed here, which enables the Ghost Host to “float around” the heads of the visitors. New colors and sound effects have also been added to the Stretching Room . For example, the gargoyles whisper and giggle when they leave the room. An Escher- inspired staircase has been added to the access area. In addition to other technical changes, the new "black widow" Constance was also introduced here.
The Tokyo Disney Resort version (1983) is located in the Fantasyland area . The facades of these two versions are designed in the neo-Gothic style. At Disneyland Paris , the attraction opened in 1992 in the Frontierland themed area and is called Phantom Manor . Here the house was designed in the style of the Second Empire of Victorian architecture, a style that is known, for example, from the films Psycho or The Addams Family . The storyline also differs little from the other attractions. A version for Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2013 under the name Mystic Manor .
Description of the attraction
Beginning
After the waiting area has been overcome, park employees in the disguise of a maid or a butler lead you in groups through the foyer into an octagonal room, the Stretching Room . Here the narrator Paul Frees greets the visitors in the role of the ghost host and directs their gaze to four seemingly harmless portraits (painted by Marc Davis ), which are pulled up, ie the "stretching" of the outer wall, as disaster images. For example, they show a man standing on a barrel filled with dynamite with a burning fuse, or a young girl balancing on a wire rope over a hungry crocodile with her mouth open. After a short, effective horror show with lightning and thunder, the visitors leave the stretching room again. This is actually an elevator that takes guests to the underground level. After the 2007/2008 winter season, the room was furnished with a new fabric.
Here the visitors pass the Portrait Gallery , in which portraits hang, which reveal their true motif through opposite windows with every flash of an (artificial) thunderstorm. For example, when lightning flashes, the face of a pretty lady turns into a ghastly ghostly face. Furthermore, the view of the visitors in the library falls on grim-looking busts "of the greatest ghost writers the literary world has ever known ..." (in the original: "... of the greatest ghost writers the literary world has ever known ..."; a play on words with the term ghostwriter ), which the guests seem to follow with their eyes as they walk past. This optical illusion ( reversal of depth ) is caused by the fact that the faces of the busts are actually curved inwards, so you can see them concave , but due to the special incidence of light they appear convex . (Here the brain is being played a trick, it cannot process this information and perceives the faces - as usual - bulging outwards.)
Now the visitors get to the loading zone, from which they get into the Doom Buggies . The Walt Disney World version contains a total of 160 gondolas, while the version in Disneyland, California, only contains 131, as the route is a little shorter. The gondolas have canopy-like backrests with built-in stereo speakers, from which the sound of the attraction continues. In addition, the gondolas are rotated during the course of the journey via contacts on the rails, so that the passengers' gaze is automatically directed to the scene being played. Since 2008, this area in Disneyland has been designed like an endless carpet.
In the Hallways of the Mansion section , the Doom Buggies drive past the Endless Hallway , in the middle of which a candelabra floats in the air. Accompanied by sound effects such as howling ghosts and loud screams, passengers see other haunted phenomena, for example books moving on the shelf, a piano that plays by itself, doors that are knocked on and that arch, and a winter garden with a skeleton in the coffin pleading for release.
Madame Leota and the ballroom
We continue to the Séance Circle , a round room in which musical instruments float in the air and in the middle of which there is a large, round table. On it is a crystal ball, in which the head of the medium Madame Leota appears, who in turn conjures up other spirits and demons with magical formulas, while the instruments emit sounds. Since the renovation in 2007, the ball with Madame Leota's head has been floating in Walt Disney World, and improved projection technology is also being used there.
In the subsequent ballroom , which the gondolas reach via a spiral in the form of a spiral staircase, the spirits just called by Madame Leota begin to “materialize”, they celebrate and dance to disharmonious music. This is where the so-called Pepper's ghost effect comes into play, an illusion technique in which animatronics in the form of ghosts interact in an area that is not visible to the audience , which are projected onto a transparent pane of glass using various lighting techniques via oblique mirrors, so that the impression is created , the “ghosts” would be transparent and would move through furniture and objects. The organ in the Disneyland version of the Haunted Mansion is from the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea . The ballroom also hides a so-called "Hidden Mickey", a hidden appearance by Mickey Mouse : a plate and two saucers on the left side of the table form the silhouette of the famous Disney character.
The Attic
After the ballroom sequence, the drive leads to the attic ( The Attic ), where there are between old household bridal gifts, souvenirs and engagement portraits of the bride with different marriage candidates. Constance the Bride had been waiting here in vain for her bridegroom for years. In the midst of the jumble, the heads of the supposed future husbands, who were now also ghosts, appeared here and there and disappeared again just as quickly, but not without shouting the wedding promise "I do!" ("Yes, I do!") To the bride. The scene was musically accompanied by the wedding march in minor, played on a detuned piano. The bride herself was standing at the end of the attic in a dusty wedding dress, her glowing red heart pulsing underneath, and in her hand she was holding a withered bridal bouquet. In a new version of the sequence, every “I do!” Sounded an ax blow while the bride holds a hatchet in her hand.
In 2006 this area was redesigned. The attic sequence now deals with the story of the "dark widow" Constance Hatchaway ( hatch : trap door, Luke), played by Julia Lee (voice: Kathryn Cressida), and her bloody past. She killed and beheaded her ex-husbands in order to get their property. The “I-do!” Ghosts have been removed and replaced with new effects. At the beginning of the attic sequence, various treasures, porcelain and paintings by the aforementioned grooms can be seen in the glow of a yellow glass lamp. An ax sound emanates from the paintings, after which the head of the respective groom disappears.
The out of tune piano is still there, but the music plays louder than before, accompanied by Constance's sinister voice (“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 "). A projection effect similar to that in Madame Leota's seance room is now used to represent her mind. From time to time she will raise her hand and her hatchet will appear.
Cemetery and graduation
Through the window and over the balcony of the attic it goes now to the cemetery. Here the recurring main theme of the attraction announces itself again , the song Grim Grinning Ghosts ("Grim grinning ghosts"). It was composed by Buddy Baker, the text was written by Francis Xavier Atencio. Initially accompanied only by instruments, the journey leads past rising spirits and the animatronics of the disturbed cemetery attendant and his skinny dog (the only "living" in the entire attraction). After the gondolas have passed the cemetery gate, the passengers' gaze falls on other horror-shaped animatronics, including a royal couple, a mummy, an opera diva and a headless horseman singing the song one after the other, and five marble busts on which the faces of singers appear (Thurl Ravenscroft, Verne Rowe, Bob Ebright, Jay Schroeder Meyer and Chuck) are projected in the manner of a barber shop - quintet in the song with the mood.
Just before the end of the journey is reached, three more ghosts that appear Hitchhiking Ghosts ( " hitchhiking ghost") Phineas, Ezra and Gus , who are at the edge of the track and wait for a ride. After the visitors are welcomed back by the Ghost Host , they leave the Doom Buggies and go to the exit, where the voice of Madame Leota appears again, hoping to see them again soon and reminding the guests to bring their death certificates next time.
Others
- In a small cemetery in the waiting area there are 13 tombstones with humorous rhymes as epitaphs , dedicated to the imagineers and artists who played a key role in the development of The Haunted Mansion .
- In order to save space, the journey takes place outside the park (unnoticed by the visitors) in a hall, which is so cleverly hidden behind trees that you cannot see them from any side, only the facade of the front house can be seen.
- Since 2001, the California and Japanese attractions have been redesigned for Christmas under the name Haunted Mansion Holiday in the style of the film Nightmare Before Christmas and the plot of the attraction and the film are merged.
- The attraction also provided the basic idea for the Disney movie The Haunted Mansion ( The Haunted Mansion , 2003) with Eddie Murphy in the lead role.
- In the credits of Disney's fantastic Halloween Festival ( Disney's Halloween Treat ) from 1982 excerpts from the California attraction are shown.
- At an eBay auction in 2004, doctor Cary Sharp bought the right to the 1,000th resting place in the Haunted Mansion for US $ 37,400. So far, 999 ghosts have rested there, but according to the ghost host there is still a space available. Since the auction won, a tombstone with the doctor's nickname ("Jay") can be seen at the end of the attraction, which is said to have stood there for at least ten years.
Soundtrack
- Buddy Baker, Xavier Atencio, et al .: The Haunted Mansion. Walt Disney Records Original Attraction Soundtrack . Walt Disney Records, Burbank 2006, sound carrier no. 61468-7