Haunted Mansion to Return with New Enhancements and Magic :(

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
I guess I just can't figure out how any type of hair was "taboo" in either the old DIsney Look rules of the early 21st century, or these new rules for the 2020's.

There were rules about how long hair could be for men, and what color hair could be dyed, or a few rules on how it could be cut and styled (no shaving designs into a scalp, no mohawks, no towering beehives, etc.). But that was about it.

There were no rules specifically for different types of hair in the Disney Look of the recent past, or currently.

Here are the entire Disney Look rules for ladies hairstyles circa 2016, as linked below. And this aligns with what I've seen displayed in the park among CM's of all ethnicities for at least a few decades....

FEMALE HAIRSTYLING
Here are the Disney Look guidelines for hairstyles:
• Hair should be neatly combed and arranged in a classic, easy-to-maintain style. Extreme styles are not permitted.
• Hair below shoulder length should be confined if it falls forward over the face or covers the nametag while working.
• Conservative braided hairstyles without beads or ornamentation are permitted.
• Hair products may be used to create a soft, natural hairstyle within these guidelines.
• Shaving of the head or any portion of the head or eyebrows is not permitted.
• Artificial hair is permitted if it looks natural and meets all of the above requirements





That's not exclusive to Black CM's though. Disneyland is not Colonial Williamsburg, and was never supposed to be. It has always been a theme park that put emphasis on the "show" and a "theme", but never tried to recreate the past exactly. Thus, you had Asian CM's working on Main Street USA in the 1960's even though the census data from Missouri circa 1900 shows that Missouri had exactly 458 Asian people living in the state, and they couldn't even muster 0.1% of the population. You had women wearing modern eyeglasses that never would have been seen in 1905. CM's wore watches that didn't exist in 1905. Etc, etc.

Walt himself also put a robot of President Lincoln on Main Street, even though Lincoln had been shot and killed 40 years before Main Street USA ostensibly takes place.

It doesn't make much sense if you think about it for more than 4 or 5 seconds. All of Disneyland's lands are that way. It's just a theme park. Sunglasses have been allowed since the 1950's. Black employees sporting naturals have been allowed since naturals became a thing for Black ladies in the early 70's. A Hawaiian CM can work at The Emporium. It's all fine.

The only real hangup for the gig historically was that you had to look your best. Shave. Do your hair. Don't have green fingernails. Don't dye your hair purple. Men had to take off their Def Leppard earrings. Women couldn't shave their head like Sinead O'Conner. You had to smile, look cute and fresh and presentable. Smile! It's Disneyland!

The taboo comment was general and not in reference specifically to Disney.

Thank you for proving my point, which is some of the CMs don’t 100% make sense in terms of their appearance and where they work and it’s okay. I worked in Fantasyland and none of my hairstyles matched the theme. I’ll even include personal photos of myself to show my various hairstyles (even the fancier photo of myself presents a hairstyle I would still wear even as a casual CM on a regular day).

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Again, I was not an obvious person from whatever century of Bavaria Fantasyland represents, nor a member of a 1940s traveling circus with my hairstyles.

Basically, a visible tattoo on a CM doesn’t distract me from my overall Disneyland experience.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
The taboo comment was general and not in reference specifically to Disney.

Thank you for proving my point, which is some of the CMs don’t 100% make sense in terms of their appearance and where they work and it’s okay. I worked in Fantasyland and none of my hairstyles matched the theme. I’ll even include personal photos of myself to show my various hairstyles (even the fancier photo of myself presents a hairstyle I would still wear even as a casual CM on a regular day).

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I don't think any of those hairdo's are inappropriate for CM's.

But more importantly, they do not appear to violate any of the hairdo rules that Disney set forth in their various Disney Look rulebooks from the 2010's. (I linked one from 2016, but many more from other years are available online via a Google search)

That said, that last photo is my favorite! That hairstyle is not only becoming to you personally, but it actually would work well if Disney ever tried to make CM's wear period appropriate hairstyles for their land/location. Disneyland has never done that, again because they were never trying to be a museum, but if we are voting for hairdo's I vote for the last one! :D

Here's a montage of hairstyles on American women circa 1905. I think we can all agree that we've never seen CM's attempt this on Main Street USA, aside from Entertainment Department CM's who are actresses or pro performers in a stage show. But even when they try and dress up a lady performer for a Main Street USA show, like that Halloween pageant thing they did a few years ago, they were never this accurate. Some of these hairstyles just seem so... accurate. They just don't work for Disneyland performers.

Not to mention a few of these do's are just plain ugly. 🤣

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Again, I was not an obvious person from whatever century of Bavaria Fantasyland represents, nor a member of a 1940s traveling circus with my hairstyles.

Well, no. I don't think Disneyland has ever tried to make its Operations CM's wear hairstyles or grooming standards that were specific to the land or attraction they worked in. Aside from a few one-offs in the 1950's or 60's, like when they tried to get only blonde Alice look-alikes to work the Alice In Wonderland ride when it opened in 1958, or had real Indians working the Indian War Canoes when it opened in 1956. But many books from 20th century Disneyland leaders have explained that those ideas only lasted a short time even when Walt was in charge, before they just got thrown overboard due to the necessities of keeping the park operating.

To get everyone their lunch break, you're just going to have to let a brunette operate Alice In Wonderland. o_O

Was there some expectation in Fantasyland in the 2010's that hostesses tried to theme their hairstyles to Bavaria or a 1940's circus?

I don't remember that ever being discussed online, and it seems as though it would be impossible to manage since there's a half dozen different themes and countries represented by the literature based attractions all within 50 yards of each other in Fantasyland; Germany, Italy, rural Britain and urban London, American Circus, Swiss Alps, etc.
 
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KIGhostGuy

Active Member
I love the new lighting, especially in the graveyard. April-December looks great! Kudos to the Imagineers for that. That being said, the cat statue is totally pointless and dumb. Why even install it when you’re not going to put the original intended effect in? It’s just a reference that serves no point other than being a reference.
 

Magicart87

No Refunds!
Premium Member
I love the new lighting, especially in the graveyard. April-December looks great! Kudos to the Imagineers for that. That being said, the cat statue is totally pointless and dumb. Why even install it when you’re not going to put the original intended effect in? It’s just a reference that serves no point other than being a reference.

Are we certain the cat statue (and effect) is complete? I was under the impression that there would be more to come. Cut for time? Budget? There's got to be more to that cat than that! One-eyed Black Cat was on the original HM blueprints, if memory serves. I'm glad to see it return in some capacity but I had expected more.
 

EPCOTCenterLover

Well-Known Member
The taboo comment was general and not in reference specifically to Disney.

Thank you for proving my point, which is some of the CMs don’t 100% make sense in terms of their appearance and where they work and it’s okay. I worked in Fantasyland and none of my hairstyles matched the theme. I’ll even include personal photos of myself to show my various hairstyles (even the fancier photo of myself presents a hairstyle I would still wear even as a casual CM on a regular day).

View attachment 552593

View attachment 552594

View attachment 552595

Again, I was not an obvious person from whatever century of Bavaria Fantasyland represents, nor a member of a 1940s traveling circus with my hairstyles.

Basically, a visible tattoo on a CM doesn’t distract me from my overall Disneyland experience.
Nice to "SEE" you, raven24! :)
 

CaptinEO

Well-Known Member
No offense to anyone that gets a tatoo, I know many that have some, but it does make finding work more difficult.

I'm not disgusted if someone has a tatoo, it doesn't bother me, but unless I'm on Pirates it doesn't fit in. Not a huge deal, won't ruin my day, just another minor quality control thing gone.

Seeing a man in a dress is something that I also won't enjoy seeing but have to get used to. (No I don't have hate for anyone and their choices at all, just a sight I'm not used to).

I have to agree with Al Lutz ( @TP2000 ) that this is done as a way to get more applicants.

Many businesses in my town are struggling to find minimum wage workers, Disney is likely having the same issue. Easy fix is to raise wages, but doing little things like this may somewhat increase your hiring pool.
 

DavidDL

Well-Known Member
I just wanted to point something out in that comparing Japanese culture and their desire to hide their CM's tattoos currently (-and claiming them to be superior because of it) isn't a fair comparison to us in the states. Their culture is different and tattoos are more taboo over there because of their historic ties to the Yakuza.


That's not so much the case over here. So drawing a comparison between the two isn't fair, especially if one isn't able to move on with just about everyone else in North America.
 

DavidDL

Well-Known Member
At this point it'd be fun to have a thread for folks to show off their Disney sides. We're already way off course in terms of Mansion, hah.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I just wanted to point something out in that comparing Japanese culture and their desire to hide their CM's tattoos currently (-and claiming them to be superior because of it) isn't a fair comparison to us in the states. Their culture is different and tattoos are more taboo over there because of their historic ties to the Yakuza.


That's not so much the case over here. So drawing a comparison between the two isn't fair, especially if one isn't able to move on with just about everyone else in North America.

That's a valid point.

That tatted up Epcot turnstile CM wouldn't even be allowed to swim in the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel pool with her tats showing, much less get a job as a CM in Tokyo. Japan is a far more conservative culture, and public displays of tattoos are not allowed in many places like hotel pools, water parks, etc.
 

TP2000

Well-Known Member
At this point it'd be fun to have a thread for folks to show off their Disney sides. We're already way off course in terms of Mansion, hah.

Good idea. I'm afraid this thread got derailed because... well, there's nothing new at Haunted Mansion except for an enlarged wheelchair loading area and they moved one of the portraits in the hallway about 15 feet.

The rest of the ride looks the same. Whatever the "new enhancements and magic" were that this thread title teased us with were either eliminated, or vastly over-hyped.
 

Castle Cake Apologist

Well-Known Member
Good idea. I'm afraid this thread got derailed because... well, there's nothing new at Haunted Mansion except for an enlarged wheelchair loading area and they moved one of the portraits in the hallway about 15 feet.

The rest of the ride looks the same. Whatever the "new enhancements and magic" were that this thread title teased us with were either eliminated, or vastly over-hyped.

They didn't move a portrait... They brought a fan favorite portrait back that had been missing for nearly twenty years after she was replaced in the portrait hall by Master Gracey. Honestly, the return of April/December is a pretty big deal to the Mansion fandom, so this is overall being considered a win. They also went and enhanced the portrait to feature its original six-slide design as envisioned in 1969, which had never been present in the attraction due to practicality issues with the tech at the time and the conceptual change from a walk-through attraction to a ride-through attraction instead.


Really, the restraint they showed with this project should be applauded. Last time WDW got "new enhancements," we wound up with Pepe le Queue and Ezra's CGI Hitchhikin' Prank Gang.
 
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