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News Hatbox Ghost coming to Walt Disney World's Haunted Mansion

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
This lights on video shows me that there is clearly a similar amount of room here as Disneyland… so why could he not go there?

IMG_6263.jpeg


 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
This lights on video shows me that there is clearly a similar amount of room here as Disneyland… so why could he not go there?


Prior to his installation, the physical areas were identical at both DL and WDW. They had to expand the balcony to make the space larger at DL. This expansion I think included them doing work on the "roof" behind the balcony. I don't know what supposedly prevented them from doing this at WDW since again these spaces appeared to be the same before his installation. No one who claims to know what prevented this has ever elaborated. Perhaps the space inside of where this roof was located contains something that caused issues, something that wasn't a problem at DL.

If there was an actual issue with putting him in that location (and for the record i'm not sure I trust this to be the case regardless but maybe we'll learn specifics someday), then they really should have just put him in the attic proper. It would require a bit of rearrangement/removal of some of the props, which I think has been done in the past before anyway (they used to have mechanical pop-up ghosts instead of the portraits scattered around and the bride herself has also moved). That's where they had him originally anyway.
 
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𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇

Long-Forgotten
Premium Member
The attic is too intimate and busy already imo. I like that he’s a moment just outside the attic.
Busy with "litter theming" that only serves to spoon-feed backstory so Constance Hathaway works. Strip that all back to its more eerie original version and Hatbox would have a proper place again.
 

HMF

Well-Known Member
At least they're aware of the controversy. The hope now is that with enough complaints and the prospects of a new bride for Orlando all is not lost for their Attic reunion. Unlikely, but it's not zero.
I will take the new bride if it means moving HBG into a better place but I am not really a fan of the new DL Attic and it's story (or lack thereof.)
 

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Same. He’s pretty cool. Inasmuch as he’s distracting, your glance is drawn away from a floating candelabra. That gag is already featured at the start of the ride.

It's the endless hallway as a whole, though, not just a floating candelabra. It would have made more sense to replace the hallway entirely with him than have them right next to each other, although that would have been a huge mistake to me.

I think that area of the ride was better without his presence.

To be fair, I'm also not the biggest fan of the figure overall. It's way too bright and doesn't fit well with the rest of the attraction.
 
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Marc Davis Fan

Well-Known Member
I find the HBG to clash aesthetically and emotionally with that part of the ride. As has been discussed previously, there was a carefully-crafted emotional buildup, without the ghosts fully visible until after Leota, which coincides with the tone becoming lighter (comedy being more heavily sprinkled in). And then the ghosts become even more visible - and the tone even lighter - in the graveyard.

At Disneyland, HBG is a transition to the graveyard. Its placement by the Endless Hallway at WDW breaks (for me and many others) the emotional journey of the Haunted Mansion experience.

A key point of Disney design philosophy is that seemingly small things can matter a lot. This idea should be particularly attended to when it comes to WDW's Haunted Mansion - one of Imagineering's crown jewels and often considered the definitive version of that attraction.
 

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