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

[ᗩLᘿᑕ ✨ ᗩζᗩᗰ]

I love the bride as more of a tragic figure than a predatory evil bride...My first trip to Disneyland Paris back in the 90s cemented that... I love the sad romantic heroine that in the end rescues the riders from the ghost realm.
There was also a lot of fan fiction about the bride over the years, one was the bride locking her suitors in trunks in the attic...hence the pop-up ghosts like at Disneyland that used to say "I do" when hey popped up....
The Constance storyline to me is too literal... She is bad, the entire attic tells only her story...that she was a predatory murderous woman that killed her husbands after marrying them...And aside from the Stretching portraits and the hanging Host, there isn't really any other mention of physical violent death in the attraction...I prefer vague suggestions...Spooky not violent...

This is the way. Fandom and later Imagineers ran with the character and made up a narrative using the entire mansion to support it. I much prefer the interpretation of the character as another one-off standalone entity. An emaciated morose spirit seemingly died from a broken heart. I feel like a compromise could be had with current Imagineers if they just scaled it back. Making her spiel-less would be a massive improvement. She doesn't have to be a black widow bride or vengeful. Or, if they have to go for a narrative, flip the script so she's wielding an hatchet not for murder but to cut down her beloved to be reunited with him in the afterlife. Tokyo got it mostly right with the presentation of their bride and the Attic scene in general. (until they retconned her as Constance)

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I kind of miss the days when the bride was often interpreted as a tragic character. (The backstory the cast members created for the old bride--which ended up in the Ghost Gallery book/webpage that is now part of the Haunted Mansion wiki) was inspired by an old legend of a bride playing hide-and-seek on her wedding day and suffocating in a trunk that got locked. It was the basis of a poem called "Ginevra" by Samuel Rogers and a ballad called "The Mistletoe Bough" by Thomas Haynes Bayly.) So I'd like to see them go back to that idea. Maybe, as a connection to one of Marc Davis' unused changing portrait concepts, the bride could age and decay into a skeleton as the doombuggies passed?

Agreed that the dark and mysterious Bride was best. Part of the genius of rides like Mansion and Pirates is that there's so much space for your imagination to mingle - the actions of the characters are well defined but their identities and motivations are often ambiguous enough for your mind to fill in the blanks as it sees fit.

At the very least, Disneyland's Bride will be an improved illusion when the classic show returns next year. Still Constance, I believe, but more impressive than the effect we've been stuck with for nearly 20 years.

 

[HMF]

The Bride was originally intended to have be-headed the Hatbox Ghost in the scenes original formulation which was lost only a few weeks after the ride opened. The Constance scene is the spiritual successor to the way the scene was originally intended. You can read my history of the attic scene here.

The History of the "Heart" of Disney's Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion's Attic Scene's evolution through the years.

vocal.media

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Constance has got to go someday, right?

 

[Kittlesona]

Slightly off topic, but am I the only person who seeing the headless portraits in reverse? By that I mean, EVERY one of them I see the man headless first and then he “regains” his head as I continue to view it. Surely it’s meant to be seen the other way right? So that we know they all lost their heads? My fixation on that each time I ride takes me out of the malevolence of the attic each time.

 

[HMF]

Constance has got to go someday, right?

Most likely, No.

 

[VicariousCorpse]

Slightly off topic, but am I the only person who seeing the headless portraits in reverse? By that I mean, EVERY one of them I see the man headless first and then he “regains” his head as I continue to view it. Surely it’s meant to be seen the other way right? So that we know they all lost their heads? My fixation on that each time I ride takes me out of the malevolence of the attic each time.

The timing is independent of the doombuggies. They just switch back and forth between the two with equal amount of time. It's just coincidence and timing of your riding.

 

[MisterPenguin]

The timing is independent of the doombuggies. They just switch back and forth between the two with equal amount of time. It's just coincidence and timing of your riding.

The effect is positional. If you stayed still, there would be no transformations.

Lenticular printing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

The effect is positional. If you stayed still, there would be no transformations.

Lenticular printing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

View attachment 787916

The portraits aren't lenticular - if your Doombuggy gets stopped in the Attic the portraits will still continue changing.

They're a modified version of the Changing Portrait Hall portraits.

 

[VicariousCorpse]

The effect is positional. If you stayed still, there would be no transformations.

Lenticular printing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's actually a two layer scrim with lighting in front and behind.

At 8:35 you can see the doom buggy stopped and the transformations continue looping. While Disney loves their lenticulars for promos and merchandise, they're even on the construction walls for the mansion at Disneyland, I don't think they've ever been used inside any mansion.

 

[Mireille]

Kind of odd that with all that’s been going on in Florida we got to spend the last few months in the Magic Kingdom seeing what happens behind the candelabra.

Is this a Liberace joke?

 

[RainbowFigmentum]

In each of the photos with the husband, she gains a pearl to her necklace, as his head disappears.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Well, then, I stand corrected!

In each of the photos with the husband, she gains a pearl to her necklace, as his head disappears.

Maybe it's the pearls....

 

[TeriofTerror]

Is this a Liberace joke?

I'll leave those to the Country Bears.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

It's actually a two layer scrim with lighting in front and behind.

At 8:35 you can see the doom buggy stopped and the transformations continue looping. While Disney loves their lenticulars for promos and merchandise, they're even on the construction walls for the mansion at Disneyland, I don't think they've ever been used inside any mansion.

The only lenticular I can think of that featured inside one of the Mansions was this one from the wall that hid Disneyland's Hatbox Ghost install. Bats like the ones from the stanchions appeared to fly around inside the window as you rode by. Never quite understood what they were going for there, but it was a lenticular:

 

[Kittlesona]

The only lenticular I can think of that featured inside one of the Mansions was this one from the wall that hid Disneyland's Hatbox Ghost install. Bats like the ones from the stanchions appeared to fly around inside the window as you rode by. Never quite understood what they were going for there, but it was a lenticular:

View attachment 788066

I very much assumed this was how the heads work. Now I’m wondering why the effect isn’t more timed with the positioning of the doom buggies.

The different practical effects of the mansion are fascinating!

 

[Touchdown]

I very much assumed this was how the heads work. Now I’m wondering why the effect isn’t more timed with the positioning of the doom buggies.

The different practical effects of the mansion are fascinating!

Do you want to know how it works? Because I’ve seen it not work properly at DL

The head screen is very quickly lowered into the body and back up. I also believe the screen may constrict a little as well but I’m not sure on that. It’s hidden by the puff of smoke animation. The animation was not working properly one time I rode. Doesn’t really spoil the effect for me, just makes me appreciate it more