Haunted Mansion: Stationary Madame Leota

[Rob562]

I'm glad they removed the screaming pop ups in the attic, i think the effect on the portraits they use now is far more subtle and effective. Though i'm sad they changed the bride. I'm not against new tech at all, but the effect on her in particular looks fake and flat, and she has none of the creepy subtlety the old one had (the puns irritate me too). Not sure why the effect looks so off, the marble busts and Leota look great (as well as the Little Leota at the end). One of the few minor gripes i have with the otherwise great 2007 refurb. The original was so subtly creepy and didn't need a fancy effect to be disturbing. Shrouding her face was such an effective way to creep one out, fear of the unknown i suppose.

The issue I have with the new bride (and why I think the effect doesn't quite work as well as it could/should) is the shape and size of the head. It's just too big and too wide. It doesn't look feminine at all. Madame Leota looks good because the face is more a female form.

-Rob

 

[Mansionfan]

There's definitely some confusion here about the graveyard pop-ups. Actually, they haven't had *any* accompanying audio since the early 70's. When the attraction first opened (both the Disneyland and WDW versions) there was indeed a series of screams, cackles, etc. heard from them (like you could hear on the LP record "The Story and Song of The Haunted Mansion), but they wound up being removed from both HMs very early on. (For that matter the bicycle-riding wraiths used to emit these occasional high-pitched shrieks until that was removed as well.) I can personally attest that during my first trip in April of 1973 to WDW that I heard them then and even managed to make an audio recording with my portable tape recorder (unfortunately now long lost) - however on my next trip in 1976 said audio was now gone. I've since visited WDW from the 80's through 2008 and never once heard anything emanating from them since...

 

[OrangeTree]

Well, that's odd. Phil Holmes loves his Haunted Mansion, I'm sure it'll be fixed soon.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

There's definitely some confusion here about the graveyard pop-ups. Actually, they haven't had *any* accompanying audio since the early 70's. When the attraction first opened (both the Disneyland and WDW versions) there was indeed a series of screams, cackles, etc. heard from them (like you could hear on the LP record "The Story and Song of The Haunted Mansion), but they wound up being removed from both HMs very early on. (For that matter the bicycle-riding wraiths used to emit these occasional high-pitched shrieks until that was removed as well.) I can personally attest that during my first trip in April of 1973 to WDW that I heard them then and even managed to make an audio recording with my portable tape recorder (unfortunately now long lost) - however on my next trip in 1976 said audio was now gone. I've since visited WDW from the 80's through 2008 and never once heard anything emanating from them since...

You may be right. I looked up old ride videos and none of the graveyard popups screamed. I did recall some popups screaming from my youth, has to be the attic ones (i remember that noise lol). I'm wondering if the graveyard screams were removed because it caused too many different sounds bleeding into each other and making it difficult to hear anything.

Do the Disneyland HM popups scream in the graveyard? I know the attic ones apparently used to say "I do" when they popped up from what i gather.

 

[mickey2008.1]

We have been stuck in the cemetary room a few times, as you enter, the ghosts on the left scream, near the end of the room, some just pop up with no screaming. Makes me wonder now.

 

[andre85]

one of the 3 drive motors is having an issue that mechanical needs time to fix.. It has been down since mid last week, and will return after easter (Mansion will likely have a late opening some time this week to accomodate the repair)..

It's been down for longer than that. I rode it almost two weeks ago and it was down.

 

[TheBeatles]

Forget all of those issues...

Fix the bicycle riding ghosts in the graveyard!

 

[marni1971]

Forget all of those issues...

Fix the bicycle riding ghosts in the graveyard!

And get the lighting right again so you can see more than the odd wheel.

 

[celluloid]

This is sadly The Haunted Mansion falling back into the same trap it did prior to the 2007 refurb.

Yes that was an awesome refurb overall but after running the attraction daily and often more than that with Extra Magic Hours, 24 hours a day promotion and ....going on five years years since this 40 year old attraction has closed for a proper refurb this is going to happen.

Same old trap Magic Kingdom.

 

[Mansionfan]

I've only ever seen two owls since way back when... but now that you say that, I have this hazy recollection that at one time there actually was a 3rd owl situated farther away from the other two nearer the branch end. Don't know though if it was from a Marc Davis preliminary artwork.

 

[Mansionfan]

DL's graveyard ghosts gave it up as well around the same time I believe. (Don't know if it's still there, but someone posted on YouTube an audio recording they made with a portable tape recorder of a complete ride-thru of the DL version circa 1976 and you can hear them there.) I personally visited DL in 1979 and there was nada coming from them by then. The attic ones originally had the same audio as the WDW version for many years and then switched to the "I do's" sometime in the '90's I believe.
Incidentally, those graveyard pop-up audios were intentionally only heard right after the lyric "Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize" was sung by the other ghosts.
I'm also beginning to wonder if it's these singing ghosts people are thinking are supplying pop-up audio - as they all let out with laughter right at the end of the song...

 

[mgf]

Leota is still stationary as of today.

Also, the third owl in the graveyard band scene is missing, as it has been for a few weeks now. (very much like the pirate parrot in the burning town scene of POTC, just randomly missing..)

Is the branch at least fixed? It was broken and very poorly repaired when we went through in early march. You could see the metal strapping and wire nuts clearly.

 

[BrightImagine]

There is one thing that bothers me with floating Leota. It's the way there appear to be little twinkle lights in her neck if one is still looking at her while rounding the bend to the next scene. I guess it is a twinkle coming from the projection... it looks like Leota's electrical insides. I am not usually one to dwell on imperfections but I notice this every single trip. I just want the base of her neck to be covered. I figured I'd post here because it nags and I can't be the only one.

 

[raven]

Forget all of those issues...

Fix the bicycle riding ghosts in the graveyard!

This is one effect I haven't seen in years and miss it very much. Only 998 ghosts now. :animwink:

As for Leota, I don't see it as horrible because this is the backup Leota effect and I'd rather see it there than nothing at all.

The other items missing are no big deal to me and The Haunted Mansion is still my favorite by far. I tend to enjoy myself on an attraction rather than picking out all of the imperfections or missing or broken effects.

 

[GLaDOS]

I tend to enjoy myself on an attraction rather than picking out all of the imperfections or missing or broken effects.

I tend to do both, instead of putting the blinders on.

 

[marni1971]

This is one effect I haven't seen in years and miss it very much. Only 998 ghosts now. :animwink:

Last time I recall seeing it was 2009, and even then the lighting was so poor you could only see the bike wheels reflecting what ambient show lighting there was elsewhere.

Ops seemed more concerned apparently about making the opera singers scrim look so over illuminated it looked just like a scrim...

 

[raven]

Last time I recall seeing it was 2009, and even then the lighting was so poor you could only see the bike wheels reflecting what ambient show lighting there was elsewhere.

Ops seemed more concerned apparently about making the opera singers scrim look so over illuminated it looked just like a scrim...

Agreed on that one. The scrims need to be tightened up and lighting adjusted in some areas.

Anyone else remember the fingers that used to be coming over the top of one of the doors in the Hall of Doors? Poor ghost finaly got them cut off! :lol:

 

[WDW1974]

I tend to enjoy myself on an attraction rather than picking out all of the imperfections or missing or broken effects.

I tend to do both, instead of putting the blinders on.

Oh, but those MAGICal blinders help one deal with the fact that WDW ain't what she used to be ... and who wants to face that when they're spending $7,000 on a MAGICal WDW vacation?

I can't wait to see DLP for the first time since 2009 soon ... but I will be taking note of the good, bad and ugly (and writing about it when I return).

Blinders are for children and arrested development adults who can't cope with reality.

 

[Captain Neo]

I can tolerate a broken effect once in a great while as long as it is repaired in a timely manner. After all accidents do happen. HOWEVER, what Disney tries to get away with at Walt Disney World is absurd.

Visit Tokyo Disneyland or even Disneyland out in California for exceptionally maintained attractions that have all special effects working flawlessly 99.99% of the time. Or even look up youtube videos of how attractions used to operate in the 70s-90s. All animatronics and effects working. It will make current wdw look like chuck-e-cheese.

 

[MichWolv]

I can tolerate a broken effect once in a great while as long as it is repaired in a timely manner. After all accidents do happen. HOWEVER, what Disney tries to get away with at Walt Disney World is absurd.

Visit Tokyo Disneyland or even Disneyland out in California for exceptionally maintained attractions that have all special effects working flawlessly 99.99% of the time. Or even look up youtube videos of how attractions used to operate in the 70s-90s. All animatronics and effects working. It will make current wdw look like chuck-e-cheese.

Current Chuck-e-cheese or the Chuck-e-cheese from its heyday in the 80's, when they cared about the pizza and all the animatronics worked? :lookaroun