Mirror Disneyland - Version 2.0 - An Alternate History

[MANEATINGWREATH]

@DisneyManOne, I will happily provide input or ideas for your Adventureland HM! In the instance you'd be interested in my help haha. I've always thought it'd be interesting to have a Phantom Manor-type storyline in Adventureland, albeit jungle-themed. Imagine the possibilities with the changing portraits and other scenes? Having a graveyard in a swamp or jungle? Or better yet - a voodoo theme.

But I wholeheartedly agree with you on the HM being my favorite attraction to work on in a Dream Resort.

Thus far on our tour, here is what's different in the Mirror Disneyland Haunted Mansion as compared to the real-world Haunted Mansion. These scenes/details are not in the Disneyland version of the attraction as we know it today:

1. Two stone lions on the front gate, similar to the griffins in the Tokyo Disneyland version of the attraction.
2. No hearse with invisible horse in the queue - this gag is found in Frontierland at Mirror Disneyland.
3. A huge graveyard in the queue as compared to the small one on the hill IRL. Not an interactive queue, but plenty entertaining. There's a lot more room in Mirror Disneyland, and the HM queue and show building are no exception.
4. The Phantom Manor music box plays in the queue in addition to the ambient sounds of nocturnal creatures in the graveyard.
5. A telescope and a barometer on the balcony. This debuted in 1997 IRL, but did not survive the holiday overlay in 2001. These still exist here.
6. Expanded Foyer scene with the changing portrait and fireplace.
7. The three-dimensional sound system in the Stretching Room. This is the case in the real-life Florida attraction, but still has not been implemented in the California version. Odd.
8. The changing portrait of the farmland ravaged by a sandstorm. This is a real concept that was designed by show-writer and "Grim Grinning Ghosts" lyricist, X. Atencio.
9. The stuffed bear, wolf and mountain lion trophies at the end of the Portrait Corridor - these would be where the moving busts are IRL.
10. The Grand Staircase in the Load Area. The scene is virtually identical to the Phantom Manor version (pre-2019), minus the marble bust.
11. The floating bed and furniture right after the Grand Staircase.
12. The Hall of Infamy with the (revised) Sinister 11 portraits.
13. Obviously, this version is a lot longer than the real version, so there would be more Doom Buggies.

IRL = in real life

Now, here's a video of the REAL Disneyland HM in case you aren't familiar with it:



And here's the Tokyo Disneyland version of the attraction which closely resembles the Florida version in 1971.



The Mirror Disneyland version is almost a combination of the two with multiple unique details and changes, most in which are taken directly from unused concepts for the actual attraction. I.e. the portraits of Guy Fawkes, Henry VII, Ivan the Terrible, etc.

Look for Part Two tomorrow!!

 

[DisneyManOne]

And here's the Tokyo Disneyland version of the attraction which closely resembles the Florida version in 1971.

I have never seen the Tokyo Mansion before, so here are my initial thoughts on that. First off, man, do I prefer the Escher staircase to those rubber spiders. Second, as much as I love the concept of Constance Hatchaway, I kind of like the "forlorn" bride aspect a little bit more, so I'm glad she's still a part of the Haunted Mansion experience. And third, I noticed that the caretaker in the Tokyo version looked a little different. Maybe it was the way the camera was set up, but to me, he just looked like he had a different style than his American counterparts.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

I have never seen the Tokyo Mansion before, so here are my initial thoughts on that. First off, man, do I prefer the Escher staircase to those rubber spiders. Second, as much as I love the concept of Constance Hatchaway, I kind of like the "forlorn" bride aspect a little bit more, so I'm glad she's still a part of the Haunted Mansion experience. And third, I noticed that the caretaker in the Tokyo version looked a little different. Maybe it was the way the camera was set up, but to me, he just looked like he had a different style than his American counterparts.

Interesting! As much as I like the Escher staircase, I do believe it belongs as an exclusive feature of the WDW Mansion, even in the Mirror Disneyland universe. I have included Phantom Manor's Grand Staircase, so there's that. I also prefer the Sinister 11 portraits to the changing portraits, hence why both are included in my version. Portrait overkill? Yes. But for my personal taste? No.

I'm a huge supporter of the original forlorn bride. Constance could work so much better, but her execution is just not Mansion enough. The projection is sorely weak compared to other projection effects in the ride, and her dialogue is unneeded. And the pop-up ghosts in the attic were some of the most frightening aspects of the original ride on both coasts, so it's a shame we lost them. The caretaker looks different in almost every version of HM! The DL original is my preference.

I highly suggest checking out The Haunted Mansion - Imagineering a Disney Classic, and DoomBuggies.com sometime!

***

The Library & Music Room

“Our library is well stocked with priceless first editions - only ghost stories, of course - and marble busts of the greatest ghost writers the literary world has ever known. They have all retired here to the Haunted Mansion.”

​

The Hall of Infamy opens into the Library, which is filled from floor to ceiling by shelves lined with hundreds of books. Invisible hands pull books from the shelves, and a ladder slides to and fro as an unseen force climbs for some late night reading. One book “crawls” along the floor unassisted, while another open book at a table flips pages on its own. And among the shelves, ubiquitous marble busts turn to glare at us and follow our every move…

If you were to check out some of the real books used as props (the shelves are actually a realistic mural) from the Disneyland Haunted Mansion's Library, you would find copies of actual ghost stories: Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson), and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde). Among the titles of the books that line the dusty shelves are The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allen Poe), The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux), and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving).

​

A Rachmaninoff-style arrangement of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” fills the air.

A dusty square piano sits in the center of the vacant Music Room. The piano plays itself - or so it seems… The shadow of the pianist is cast onto the floor through the pale moonlight of a picture window, a desolate forest in the eerie landscape beyond. Other instruments in the room gather dust, perhaps a hint at the musical forces that will later band together in a “swinging wake.” Our Doom Buggy begins an upward ascension into the looming shadow. A ghastly gargoyle crouched on the banister of a rickety staircase leers down at our Doom Buggy as we begin to ascend.

The Spider Nest​

We climb the creaking staircase in near-complete darkness, a short, gloomy ascension in which the glowing eyes of unnatural creatures peer out from the overwhelming shadow that surrounds us. The melancholy cords of the phantom pianist echo through the empty chamber. Huge cobwebs have overtaken our surroundings, the nest of huge, rather venomous-looking spiders. A horrifying scream breaks the silence of the wind - a decayed skeleton, still dressed in tattered clothing, is discovered trapped in a massive web.

​

The blinking, glowing eyes of the Spider’s Nest have grown clustered in a swarm. The eyes study our Doom Buggy as we pass, slowly revealing themselves to be coming from behind the demonic faces of the Mansion’s iconic, purple-and-black, demon-patterned wallpaper.

The Endless Hallway​

“We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat. Every room has wall-to-wall creeps, and hot-and-cold running chills… Shh! Listen…”​

Now arriving on the Mansion’s second-floor, our Doom Buggy rotates slightly to point us down what appears to be an endless hallway of large wooden doors that seems to stretch off to infinity. Halfway down the corridor, a candelabra floats gracefully in midair, its three flickering candles lighting a path for an unseen resident. A lavish armchair and a suit of armor both keep their eyes on us. Is this haunted suit of armor actually moving, or is it your imagination?

The funeral dirge of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” returns to our ears once more. We feel a blast of appalling cold, which flutters the armor's feathery helmet and explains a billowing curtain across the way. This, as you know, is the traditional manifestation of the supernatural... Two vents hidden on either side of the hallway entrance are responsible for this thrilling, chilling effect. On the other end of the hallway, we hear rattling chains and footsteps.

The Conservatory

“All our ghosts have been dying to meet you. This one can hardly contain himself.”

​

Moving onward, we glide into the Conservatory, where a somewhat premature funeral is taking place among the rare specimens of dead flowers and plants.

A large coffin sits at the side, surrounded by decayed floral arrangements. Two gnarled hands protrude from within the coffin, desperately trying to pry open the lid and escape with a muffled “Let me outta here!”

A cawing raven, who will become a sort of mascot for the ride, makes its perch near the coffin, seemingly warning us to not disturb the living corpse inside. The ornately carved coffin contains many creatures and animal-like details, as if it too were a living thing. The greenhouse-like windows of the conservatory look to a moonlit, fog-enshrouded forest, an appropriately sinister backdrop for such a macabre scene.

The Corridor of Doors​

“Unfortunately, they all seem to have trouble getting through…”

​

An unsettling red light is cast from the chandeliers above, as if to almost blur the lines between reality and imagination… The funeral dirge has since silenced, replaced now by the omnipresent ambiance of a supernatural rumbling - a low “whoosh” sound, if you will. The spirits have grown restless and make their presence known as we turn down into the long Corridor of Doors.

Doorknobs and handles twist and turn every which way, and knockers in the shape of spiked maces bang against their doors - by themselves. Eerie sounds of moaning creatures pounding, knocking, and begging for escape fill the air as we continue onward, and green light pours from behind a door that seems to bend and shake violently at its edges. One door appears to breathe, bulging from the middle as a powerful force acts upon it from within. A painted portrait of a sad gentleman suddenly comes to life - the face of a tortured soul presses against the canvas from behind, horrifically bulging the face outward. Some of the entities aren’t confined to their rooms: countless eyes glare at us from the corridor’s iconic sinister wallpaper.

Disturbing, post-mortem “family photos” line the walls in fancy wooden frames, grotesque foreshadowing of the creatures that might lie ahead. The daguerreotype-images are almost exclusively black-and-white photographs of costumed prop heads that were created from the same molds as the “pop-up ghosts” found later in the attraction. A knitted sampler reads “TOMB SWEET TOMB.” But most frightening of all, we glimpse the sight of a sorrowful female spirit, frantically pounding from behind the glass of an ornate mirror, begging for escape.

The Corridor of Doors is one of the darker and more sinister regions of the Haunted Mansion, and clearly shows the influence of Claude Coats. The corridor was heavily influenced by a film that came out during the attraction’s long development, Robert Wise’s 1963 classic thriller The Haunting. The eyes and faces in the wallpaper and door frames also reflect The Haunting’s influence, reinforcing the sense that the Mansion itself is alive and watching the guests.

Having escaped one final door that seems to be snarling like a rabid animal, we creep past an ornate grandfather clock that is perpetually struck on thirteen. The hour and minute hands spin madly around the face as the shadow of a vampiric claw scrapes over the clock. If one peers closely into the darkness, one might discover the top half of the cabinet to be the head of a demon; the clock’s face sitting inside its gaping maw, and the swinging pendulum the demon’s forked tongue…

“Perhaps Madame Leota can establish contact. She has a remarkable head for materializing the disembodied.”

The Séance Circle

​

With the thirteen chimes of the grandfather clock still ringing in the air, we enter the dark Séance Circle, an eerie sanctum in which an age-old ritual is taking place.

A mist-filled crystal ball floats high above a table littered with candles and tarot cards. The red-eyed raven sits perched atop a chair directly behind the table. An ancient tome, Necronomicon: Book of the Dead, rests on a nearby bookstand, opened to pages 1312 and 1313, and a spell that summons those unfortunate spirits trapped in limbo. A phosphorescent orb floats mysteriously along the wall, located directly behind the Doom Buggies as they first enter the room. The orb illuminates a number of horrific faces - actually a large replica of the above piece of Claude Coats concept art - almost, but never quite completely, into view.

As we continue our slow circle around the table, we finally meet our medium, the disembodied head and spirit of Madame Leota, trapped in the levitating crystal ball. She summons the Mansion’s restless spirits and encourages their arrival by reciting an ancient incantation:

​

“Serpents and spiders.
Tail of a rat.
Call in the spirits.
Wherever they’re at.

Rap on a table.
It’s time to respond.
Send us a message
From somewhere beyond.

Goblins and ghoulies
From last Halloween
Awaken the spirits
With your tambourine.

Creepies and crawlies,
Toads in a pond.
Let there be music
From regions beyond.

Wizards and witches
Wherever you dwell.
Give us a hint
By ringing a bell.”​

Musical instruments and other objects spin lazily through the air, as the aforementioned spirits begin to materialize in the far corner of the room.

Madame Leota is one of the most effective and convincing illusions in the Haunted Mansion, and yet is as simple as it is ingenious. The illusion dates back to an early 1959 experiment by Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey. They took footage of actor Hans Conreid as the face in the Magic Mirror and projected it onto a bust of Beethoven. As Rolly recalls, “It wasn’t really synced up right, but it did look like Beethoven was talking to you. We brought Walt down and showed it to him and he loved it.” Madame Leota is portrayed by the voice of Eleanor Audley (Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent) and the face of WED model builder Leota Toombs. Footage of Leota’s face and Eleanor’s voice are combined to create the mysterious medium in all her beheaded glory.

​

The otherworldly soundscape of the séance is, of course, a chilling arrangement of “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” The open Necronomicon contains a number of hidden details for vulture-eyed passers-by. The scythe-wielding Death figure is actually a cloaked version of Ezra, the skeletal hitchhiking ghost (or the Hatbox Ghost); the spell itself is the same one actor Dean Jones recites when he inadvertently calls forth Peter Ustinov as the titular Blackbeard’s Ghost in the 1967 Disney film. That spell is followed by Madame Leota’s incantations in their entirety.

The Grand Hall

“The happy haunts have received your sympathetic vibrations and are beginning to materialize for a swinging wake. (Chuckle) They’ll be expecting me. I’ll see you all a little later…”

(SKIP TO 0:57 IN THE ABOVE VIDEO)​

We leave the Séance Circle and travel onto an elegant balcony overlooking a spectacular, panoramic view of the aptly named Grand Hall. A green fire ignites itself in a lavish fireplace and a not-so-empty rocking chair beside it begins to rock. A group of otherworldly revelers have gathered at a long banquet table to celebrate a mysterious birthday party. The guests slowly fade in and out of sight, seemingly in time with the ghost of honor’s repeated attempts to extinguish the candles on her “death-day” cake. Other swinging specters enjoy spirits of a different kind while sitting atop an ornate chandelier high above the room. Hooded wraiths fly in and out of the room through the upper windows as lightning flashes behind them. And a steady stream of merry specters pours in from a hearse crashed just outside the ballroom, eager to join in the jamboree.

At the opposite end of the hall, ghostly couples waltz the night away as an evil organist plays a madcap, frantic arrangement of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” on an enormous pipe organ. With each note, transparent skulls, not musical notes, fly out of the pipes and vanish like wisps of smoke. A charming “ghostess” stands halfway up the staircase with a candle, greeting guests disembarking from the hearse crashed outside - with her decapitated head.

​

On a wall above the dance floor hang the large portraits of two duelists wielding pistols. Their spirits emerge from the canvas, turning and shooting at each other in an eternal attempt to settle their score long after death. It is truly a party to die for.

The scene is a direct descendant of the wedding reception once planned in an early Ken Anderson story treatment. The “Great Caesar’s Ghost” character puts in an appearance, as do Antony and Cleopatra, an English King, and the elusive “Pickwick.” A look under the table reveals the legs of another party goer who is resting in peace, and from the mantel above the fireplace, a ghost with his arm around the bust of a stern schoolmarm. The eerie grandmother in the rocking chair made her first “mortal” appearance in Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.

​

Contrary to popular belief and urban legend, it is not holograms, sophisticated laser effects, or even real ghosts that populate the Grand Hall. The scene is a true showcase for the art of Audio-Animatronics and illusions, namely “Pepper’s Ghost,” that Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey had been perfecting since 1959.

The organ in the Grand Hall scene at Disneyland is one and the same with Captain Nemo’s pipe organ (minus the pipes) from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The instrument was repainted and refitted with a bat-shaped music stand and other ghostly details. The organs in the subsequent Haunted Mansions are exact reproductions of the Disneyland original.

​

Having traversed the length of the lavish Grand Hall, looking down onto the ballroom from the upper-floor, our Doom Buggy creeps past a small end table and coat rack against the wall, as well as one final sinister portrait in the shadow; no transformations, no moving eyes, just horror - a young aristocratic couple locked in an embrace - the woman has stabbed her beloved in the heart with a kitchen knife, her lips curved into a smile, his eyes widened in shock. Turning the corner, our Doom Buggy enters the heart of any good haunted house: the Attic.

***​

 

[DisneyManOne]

Interesting! As much as I like the Escher staircase, I do believe it belongs as an exclusive feature of the WDW Mansion, even in the Mirror Disneyland universe. I have included Phantom Manor's Grand Staircase, so there's that. I also prefer the Sinister 11 portraits to the changing portraits, hence why both are included in my version. Portrait overkill? Yes. But for my personal taste? No.

I'm a huge supporter of the original forlorn bride. Constance could work so much better, but her execution is just not Mansion enough. The projection is sorely weak compared to other projection effects in the ride, and her dialogue is unneeded. And the pop-up ghosts in the attic were some of the most frightening aspects of the original ride on both coasts, so it's a shame we lost them. The caretaker looks different in almost every version of HM! The DL original is my preference.

I highly suggest checking out The Haunted Mansion - Imagineering a Disney Classic, and DoomBuggies.com sometime!

***

The Library & Music Room

“Our library is well stocked with priceless first editions - only ghost stories, of course - and marble busts of the greatest ghost writers the literary world has ever known. They have all retired here to the Haunted Mansion.”

​

The Hall of Infamy opens into the Library, which is filled from floor to ceiling by shelves lined with hundreds of books. Invisible hands pull books from the shelves, and a ladder slides to and fro as an unseen force climbs for some late night reading. One book “crawls” along the floor unassisted, while another open book at a table flips pages on its own. And among the shelves, ubiquitous marble busts turn to glare at us and follow our every move…

If you were to check out some of the real books used as props (the shelves are actually a realistic mural) from the Disneyland Haunted Mansion's Library, you would find copies of actual ghost stories: Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson), and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde). Among the titles of the books that line the dusty shelves are The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allen Poe), The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux), and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving).

​

A Rachmaninoff-style arrangement of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” fills the air.

A dusty square piano sits in the center of the vacant Music Room. The piano plays itself - or so it seems… The shadow of the pianist is cast onto the floor through the pale moonlight of a picture window, a desolate forest in the eerie landscape beyond. Other instruments in the room gather dust, perhaps a hint at the musical forces that will later band together in a “swinging wake.” Our Doom Buggy begins an upward ascension into the looming shadow. A ghastly gargoyle crouched on the banister of a rickety staircase leers down at our Doom Buggy as we begin to ascend.

The Spider Nest​

We climb the creaking staircase in near-complete darkness, a short, gloomy ascension in which the glowing eyes of unnatural creatures peer out from the overwhelming shadow that surrounds us. The melancholy cords of the phantom pianist echo through the empty chamber. Huge cobwebs have overtaken our surroundings, the nest of huge, rather venomous-looking spiders. A horrifying scream breaks the silence of the wind - a decayed skeleton, still dressed in tattered clothing, is discovered trapped in a massive web.

​

The blinking, glowing eyes of the Spider’s Nest have grown clustered in a swarm. The eyes study our Doom Buggy as we pass, slowly revealing themselves to be coming from behind the demonic faces of the Mansion’s iconic, purple-and-black, demon-patterned wallpaper.

The Endless Hallway

“We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat. Every room has wall-to-wall creeps, and hot-and-cold running chills… Shh! Listen…”​

Now arriving on the Mansion’s second-floor, our Doom Buggy rotates slightly to point us down what appears to be an endless hallway of large wooden doors that seems to stretch off to infinity. Halfway down the corridor, a candelabra floats gracefully in midair, its three flickering candles lighting a path for an unseen resident. A lavish armchair and a suit of armor both keep their eyes on us. Is this haunted suit of armor actually moving, or is it your imagination?

The funeral dirge of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” returns to our ears once more. We feel a blast of appalling cold, which flutters the armor's feathery helmet and explains a billowing curtain across the way. This, as you know, is the traditional manifestation of the supernatural... Two vents hidden on either side of the hallway entrance are responsible for this thrilling, chilling effect. On the other end of the hallway, we hear rattling chains and footsteps.

The Conservatory

“All our ghosts have been dying to meet you. This one can hardly contain himself.”

​

Moving onward, we glide into the Conservatory, where a somewhat premature funeral is taking place among the rare specimens of dead flowers and plants.

A large coffin sits at the side, surrounded by decayed floral arrangements. Two gnarled hands protrude from within the coffin, desperately trying to pry open the lid and escape with a muffled “Let me outta here!”

A cawing raven, who will become a sort of mascot for the ride, makes its perch near the coffin, seemingly warning us to not disturb the living corpse inside. The ornately carved coffin contains many creatures and animal-like details, as if it too were a living thing. The greenhouse-like windows of the conservatory look to a moonlit, fog-enshrouded forest, an appropriately sinister backdrop for such a macabre scene.

The Corridor of Doors

“Unfortunately, they all seem to have trouble getting through…”

​

An unsettling red light is cast from the chandeliers above, as if to almost blur the lines between reality and imagination… The funeral dirge has since silenced, replaced now by the omnipresent ambiance of a supernatural rumbling - a low “whoosh” sound, if you will. The spirits have grown restless and make their presence known as we turn down into the long Corridor of Doors.

Doorknobs and handles twist and turn every which way, and knockers in the shape of spiked maces bang against their doors - by themselves. Eerie sounds of moaning creatures pounding, knocking, and begging for escape fill the air as we continue onward, and green light pours from behind a door that seems to bend and shake violently at its edges. One door appears to breathe, bulging from the middle as a powerful force acts upon it from within. A painted portrait of a sad gentleman suddenly comes to life - the face of a tortured soul presses against the canvas from behind, horrifically bulging the face outward. Some of the entities aren’t confined to their rooms: countless eyes glare at us from the corridor’s iconic sinister wallpaper.

Disturbing, post-mortem “family photos” line the walls in fancy wooden frames, grotesque foreshadowing of the creatures that might lie ahead. The daguerreotype-images are almost exclusively black-and-white photographs of costumed prop heads that were created from the same molds as the “pop-up ghosts” found later in the attraction. A knitted sampler reads “TOMB SWEET TOMB.” But most frightening of all, we glimpse the sight of a sorrowful female spirit, frantically pounding from behind the glass of an ornate mirror, begging for escape.

The Corridor of Doors is one of the darker and more sinister regions of the Haunted Mansion, and clearly shows the influence of Claude Coats. The corridor was heavily influenced by a film that came out during the attraction’s long development, Robert Wise’s 1963 classic thriller The Haunting. The eyes and faces in the wallpaper and door frames also reflect The Haunting’s influence, reinforcing the sense that the Mansion itself is alive and watching the guests.

Having escaped one final door that seems to be snarling like a rabid animal, we creep past an ornate grandfather clock that is perpetually struck on thirteen. The hour and minute hands spin madly around the face as the shadow of a vampiric claw scrapes over the clock. If one peers closely into the darkness, one might discover the top half of the cabinet to be the head of a demon; the clock’s face sitting inside its gaping maw, and the swinging pendulum the demon’s forked tongue…

“Perhaps Madame Leota can establish contact. She has a remarkable head for materializing the disembodied.”

The Séance Circle

​

With the thirteen chimes of the grandfather clock still ringing in the air, we enter the dark Séance Circle, an eerie sanctum in which an age-old ritual is taking place.

A mist-filled crystal ball floats high above a table littered with candles and tarot cards. The red-eyed raven sits perched atop a chair directly behind the table. An ancient tome, Necronomicon: Book of the Dead, rests on a nearby bookstand, opened to pages 1312 and 1313, and a spell that summons those unfortunate spirits trapped in limbo. A phosphorescent orb floats mysteriously along the wall, located directly behind the Doom Buggies as they first enter the room. The orb illuminates a number of horrific faces - actually a large replica of the above piece of Claude Coats concept art - almost, but never quite completely, into view.

As we continue our slow circle around the table, we finally meet our medium, the disembodied head and spirit of Madame Leota, trapped in the levitating crystal ball. She summons the Mansion’s restless spirits and encourages their arrival by reciting an ancient incantation:

“Serpents and spiders.
Tail of a rat.
Call in the spirits.
Wherever they’re at.

Rap on a table.
It’s time to respond.
Send us a message
From somewhere beyond.

Goblins and ghoulies
From last Halloween
Awaken the spirits
With your tambourine.

Creepies and crawlies,
Toads in a pond.
Let there be music
From regions beyond.

Wizards and witches
Wherever you dwell.
Give us a hint
By ringing a bell.”​

Musical instruments and other objects spin lazily through the air, as the aforementioned spirits begin to materialize in the far corner of the room.

Madame Leota is one of the most effective and convincing illusions in the Haunted Mansion, and yet is as simple as it is ingenious. The illusion dates back to an early 1959 experiment by Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey. They took footage of actor Hans Conreid as the face in the Magic Mirror and projected it onto a bust of Beethoven. As Rolly recalls, “It wasn’t really synced up right, but it did look like Beethoven was talking to you. We brought Walt down and showed it to him and he loved it.” Madame Leota is portrayed by the voice of Eleanor Audley (Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent) and the face of WED model builder Leota Toombs. Footage of Leota’s face and Eleanor’s voice are combined to create the mysterious medium in all her beheaded glory.

​

The otherworldly soundscape of the séance is, of course, a chilling arrangement of “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” The open Necronomicon contains a number of hidden details for vulture-eyed passers-by. The scythe-wielding Death figure is actually a cloaked version of Ezra, the skeletal hitchhiking ghost (or the Hatbox Ghost); the spell itself is the same one actor Dean Jones recites when he inadvertently calls forth Peter Ustinov as the titular Blackbeard’s Ghost in the 1967 Disney film. That spell is followed by Madame Leota’s incantations in their entirety.

The Grand Hall

“The happy haunts have received your sympathetic vibrations and are beginning to materialize for a swinging wake. (Chuckle) They’ll be expecting me. I’ll see you all a little later…”

(SKIP TO 0:57 IN THE ABOVE VIDEO)​

We leave the Séance Circle and travel onto an elegant balcony overlooking a spectacular, panoramic view of the aptly named Grand Hall. A green fire ignites itself in a lavish fireplace and a not-so-empty rocking chair beside it begins to rock. A group of otherworldly revelers have gathered at a long banquet table to celebrate a mysterious birthday party. The guests slowly fade in and out of sight, seemingly in time with the ghost of honor’s repeated attempts to extinguish the candles on her “death-day” cake. Other swinging specters enjoy spirits of a different kind while sitting atop an ornate chandelier high above the room. Hooded wraiths fly in and out of the room through the upper windows as lightning flashes behind them. And a steady stream of merry specters pours in from a hearse crashed just outside the ballroom, eager to join in the jamboree.

At the opposite end of the hall, ghostly couples waltz the night away as an evil organist plays a madcap, frantic arrangement of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” on an enormous pipe organ. With each note, transparent skulls, not musical notes, fly out of the pipes and vanish like wisps of smoke. A charming “ghostess” stands halfway up the staircase with a candle, greeting guests disembarking from the hearse crashed outside - with her decapitated head.

​

On a wall above the dance floor hang the large portraits of two duelists wielding pistols. Their spirits emerge from the canvas, turning and shooting at each other in an eternal attempt to settle their score long after death. It is truly a party to die for.

The scene is a direct descendant of the wedding reception once planned in an early Ken Anderson story treatment. The “Great Caesar’s Ghost” character puts in an appearance, as do Antony and Cleopatra, an English King, and the elusive “Pickwick.” A look under the table reveals the legs of another party goer who is resting in peace, and from the mantel above the fireplace, a ghost with his arm around the bust of a stern schoolmarm. The eerie grandmother in the rocking chair made her first “mortal” appearance in Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.

​

Contrary to popular belief and urban legend, it is not holograms, sophisticated laser effects, or even real ghosts that populate the Grand Hall. The scene is a true showcase for the art of Audio-Animatronics and illusions, namely “Pepper’s Ghost,” that Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey had been perfecting since 1959.

The organ in the Grand Hall scene at Disneyland is one and the same with Captain Nemo’s pipe organ (minus the pipes) from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The instrument was repainted and refitted with a bat-shaped music stand and other ghostly details. The organs in the subsequent Haunted Mansions are exact reproductions of the Disneyland original.

​

Having traversed the length of the lavish Grand Hall, looking down onto the ballroom from the upper-floor, our Doom Buggy creeps past a small end table and coat rack against the wall, as well as one final sinister portrait in the shadow; no transformations, no moving eyes, just horror - a young aristocratic couple locked in an embrace - the woman has stabbed her beloved in the heart with a kitchen knife, her lips curved into a smile, his eyes widened in shock. Turning the corner, our Doom Buggy enters the heart of any good haunted house: the Attic.

***​

Excellent work! But I must know, given that the current ride--from where you board your Omnimover--begins in the Endless Hallway, where would that put the Music Room/Library/Spider Nest? Would the show building be expanded to include those scenes?

Oh, and I hate to toot my own horn, but remember how I said that I was already cooking up some ideas for a Mirror Walt Disney World? Well, let's just say I've got some wild ideas for Fantasyland. What would you say to a Fantasyland expansion 20 years in the making? The way I set things up, it would take 20 years for what would "currently" be in an expanded Fantasyland in the Mirror WDW to be open altogether. I know you've said that work on Mirror WDW would likely begin once Mirror Disneyland is finished, and I'm in no rush, but this idea was just so good, I just had to give a few hints beforehand.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Excellent work! But I must know, given that the current ride--from where you board your Omnimover--begins in the Endless Hallway, where would that put the Music Room/Library/Spider Nest? Would the show building be expanded to include those scenes?

Oh, and I hate to toot my own horn, but remember how I said that I was already cooking up some ideas for a Mirror Walt Disney World? Well, let's just say I've got some wild ideas for Fantasyland. What would you say to a Fantasyland expansion 20 years in the making? The way I set things up, it would take 20 years for what would "currently" be in an expanded Fantasyland in the Mirror WDW to be open altogether. I know you've said that work on Mirror WDW would likely begin once Mirror Disneyland is finished, and I'm in no rush, but this idea was just so good, I just had to give a few hints beforehand.

In Mirror Disneyland, the show building is vastly larger, so the Portrait Corridor still leads under the railroad tracks from the Stretching Room elevators, but the ride itself is formatted similar to WDW/Tokyo. Everything I've written is in order of appearance, so the Grand Staircase leads down through the Hall of Infamy with the Sinister 11 portraits, into the Library and Music Room, up the stairs in the Spider Nest, and to the Endless Hallway, followed by everything else. Those scenes take place before the Endless Hallway, just like WDW/Tokyo.

A 20 year makeover?! Wow, that'd be really cool actually haha.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

LAST UPDATE for the week. WestCOT is still on hold while I figure out some troubling life issues. Don't worry, I'm okay! Stay safe out there, my friends. And healthy.

***

The Attic

​

The music and murmur of the Grand Hall behind us, we enter the Mansion’s dusty attic, which is filled with cobwebbed bric-a-brac and long-stored furniture and artifacts from a former lifetime. Cool blue light and the sound of a beating heart permeate the space, and the ominous atmosphere is underscored by various shrieks and moans. The pulsating heartbeat grows louder as our Doom Buggy moves further into the dark collection of discarded furniture, gilded antiques, porcelain toys and dolls, kitchenware, trunks and curios, and, among other things, a deliciously disturbed ventriloquist dummy. Suddenly, from within an opened trunk, a freakish phantom pops upward with a shriek. Then, without warning, another from the other side of the attic! A fluttery motion catches our attention - bats flit about, flying ‘round and ‘round the dark shadows above.

​

One pop-up ghost after the next transitions into our mysterious encounter with the luminous, floating owner of the heartbeat - a forlorn bride, carrying a decayed bouquet in one hand and a flickering candle in the other. Her once beautiful face, a beacon in the dark, is punctuated with eyes that glow as embers - and with each heartbeat, her heart glows the color of blood. She shimmers in the light, levitating as her wispy bridal gown and veil flutter in the ethereal breeze.

Another ghostly manifestation appears just outside the Attic on a balcony overlooking the Mansion’s Graveyard.

He’s a cloaked figure with an evil, grinning face. He leans on a cane with his right hand and holds a hatbox aloft in his left. With a deep, dissolute chortle, the Hatbox Ghost’s deathly pate disappears from his body, reappears in the hatbox, and then returns to his body, leaving the hatbox empty - a head-scratching effect that takes place every few seconds.

The Hatbox Ghost stands on an overgrown porch with a mossy pergola, with wrought-iron railing and uncontrolled plants nearby. Double doors behind him hang partially open, revealing the fanged and red-eyed bats inside… There are hat boxes everywhere, some even stacked on a hand truck. It seems this Hatbox Ghost is more interested in showing us his collection of disembodied heads, starting with his own.

​

Having joined the grim grinning cast of ghosts and ghouls in the Mansion during the sixtieth-anniversary celebration of Disneyland in 2015, the Hatbox Ghost was in the original plans for the Mansion. He was to be in the Attic across from the bride. But then, around opening day in 1969, almost every trace of him disappeared - from the figure to the tooling to make him. All that was left was a harpsichord where he once stood.

But why? Was he too scary? Was it his chilling visage that caused a reporter to have a heart attack during a preview of the attraction, a popular, completely untrue rumor that had been circulating for years?

The real story isn’t that dramatic or scary. Simply, the illusion didn’t work in 1969. It would take more than forty-five years to make the effect work, and a new generation of Imagineers who have something their forerunners didn’t: 21st Century “Illusioneering.” Therefore, one of the newest additions to the Haunted Mansion is one of the oldest and most mysterious - after forty-five years of debate and mystery, the Hatbox Ghost has finally found his place (if not his head) in the Haunted Mansion.

The Graveyard​

After passing the lovelorn bride and her ill-fated, decapitated “suitor,” we “fall” out an attic window, “tumble” off the Hatbox Ghost’s balcony, and crash down through a grove of terrorizing trees with gaping maws and gnarled branches reaching out like claws, all under the watchful, glowing red eyes of the pesky raven perched among the branches. Wispy spirits can be seen rising from their graves - hundreds of spooks swirling around in the night sky.

​

“Grim Grinning Ghosts,” this time arranged as a jazzy jamboree, fills the air once again as we swivel past a terrified caretaker and his hound dog and drift into a graveyard at the side of the Mansion. We will soon encounter a macabre number of ghosts rising from their graves in a tour de force of Marc Davis character designs and sight gags, with spirits that cross all boundaries of time and space. All are singing and playing along with their hosts for the evening’s festivities, a group of warbling marble busts. Madame Leota’s incantations have worked like a charm, and all of the Mansion’s 999 happy haunts have “come out to socialize” at last.

The Audio-Animatronics figures in the Graveyard are built translucent and skeletal, without the layer of “skin” common to Disney’s mortal characters, further accented by fluorescent colored paint, props and clothing, all of which glow brightly under the scene’s impressive black light. In addition to these Audio-Animatronics apparitions, a number of frightening “pop-up ghosts” are strategically hidden behind scattered tombstones, effectively screaming at the end of each chorus. The Imagineers once again used forced perspective to make the scene appear much larger than it actually is - props and set pieces get smaller the farther away they are placed.

​

First, we encounter a band of medieval minstrels: a drummer beating a gravestone with bones, a flutist upright in his coffin, a kilt-toting bagpipe player, a hook-nosed harpist, and a brassy horn player standing comfortable in his long pajamas. A gathering of scrawny cats and owls join the revelry and add their own harmonies, while a translucent hellhound howls off in the distance. Nearby, an English King and Queen balance on a tombstone-teeter-totter. As designed, only the ghost in the top position of the teeter-totter is visible - the ghost in the bottom position disappears. It’s a visual pun of “see-saw”; as they play, we “see” one ghost right after we “saw” the other. A regal duchess sips tea from a chair swing in the background.

​

A trio of American colonial “witch hunters” queue for a mug of piping hot stew - two transparent witches (ghost witches, of course) are stirring a black cauldron filled with bubbling, glowing, green elixir. The witches cackle and hum in time with the music. In the background, fluorescent decaying corpses begin to reanimate and “dance” along to the music. Added in a 1996 refurbishment, the dancing corpses were inspired by the finale of Phantom Manor in Paris, and reference the 1929 Silly Symphony The Skeleton Dance. The jerky-motioned, half-decayed skeletons glow in an ethereal blue-color, and are the most “realistic bones” in the Mansion. The most prominent of the bunch is a jaw-unhinged instrumentalist beating a collection of hollowed skulls in lieu of a xylophone. Further back, four skeletons perform a “conga line” on a hidden turntable, while one body attempts to help some other body rise from the earth. Another corpse hangs upside-down from a tree, swaying his torso in time with the musical counts.

​

Of course, the minstrels would be most unimpressive without the frightful vocals of “The Phantom Five," a quintet of Singing Busts led by Uncle Theodore, played by Thurl Ravenscroft. The rest of the Phantom Five is composed of (left to right) Rollo Rumkin (Verne Rowe), Uncle Theodore, Cousin Algernon (Chuck Schroeder), Ned Nub (Jay Meyer), and Phineas P. Pock (Bob Ebright). The harmonic busts sing “Grim Grinning Ghosts” in a macabre barbershop arrangement.

Victorian aristocrats enjoy a chorus with a game of chess and a spot of tea alongside a hearse crashed in the mud - its deceased occupant now upright and “la-la-ing” along. In the distance, a number of cloaked wraiths ride bicycles around a gnarled tree. A self-levitating teapot trickles tea into the glass of a waiting arm protruding from a stone coffin. An Egyptian mummy sits upright in his golden sarcophagi, desperately trying to entertain a ghost-dog and a befuddled old man with an ear-horn.

​

A flapper of the Roaring ‘20s enjoys tea with a ghost laden in chains. A goblin-like man with hair covering his eyes, stirs tea at the foot of the flapper's tombstone. In the open coffin below, a bony arm pours tea into the flapper’s discarded shoe. A former pirate captain raises a pint of grog in toast of the swinging wake, joined by an incredibly short Viking perched atop an equally short tombstone. A headless knight and his executioner show there are no hard feelings as they sing “backup” for a pair of opera singers dressed as Vikings, the latter duo madly warbling a chilling refrain. It truly isn’t over 'til the fat lady sings… A short and bearded convict, who will soon attempt to hitch a ride with us, stands nearby, and nearby him - the occupant of a brick tomb attempts to seal himself within, too afraid of all the surrounding paranormal activity.

The Exit Crypt​

“Ahh, there you are! And just in time - there’s a little matter I forgot to mention - you must beware of hitchhiking haunts! These grim grinning ghosts are tagging along, determined to establish a permanent alliance with a favored mortal: You. You have been selected to fill our quota, and we will haunt you until you return. Now I will raise the safety bar, and a ghost will follow you home! (Laugh)” ​

The raven puts in one last appearance, glaring at us as we enter a giant, stone crypt. Inside, we encounter the Mansion’s most popular characters: the Hitchhiking Ghosts.

​

From left to right, Phineas is the large ghost in a top hat carrying a carpetbag; Ezra is the tall, bony ghost tipping his hat; and Gus is the short convict with a bushy beard and the ball and chain. Our Doom Buggy continues deeper into the Crypt, passing a series of large, ornate mirrors. We soon learn that one of the three ghosts has hitched a ride with us, and is seated right there! Of course, there is no Hitchhiking Ghost in the mirror - simply because we are not looking into a mirror. The illusion is similar to that of the ghosts in the Grand Hall - with the necessary twist, of course.

The influence of Imagineer Rolly Crump is seen one final time in the form of flickering torches held by faux human arms. “I was influenced by some avant-garde French films, like Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast,” Rolly recalls. “There were all these human body parts that were part of the architecture and came to life. I thought, Hey, that’s neat! So I started doing human body parts as part of the architecture.”

“Hurry ba-ack… Hurry ba-ack. Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decide to join us. Make final arrangements now. We’ve been dying to have you.”

​

An odd sign urges our return to the “World of the Living.” Having left our Doom Buggy and stepped out onto a moving walkway, we begin an on-foot ascent through an old catacomb. A sorrowful, almost chantlike version of “Grim Grinning Ghosts'' fills the air. One final spirit beckons for our return as we ride a separate moving walkway up and out of the netherworld. The tiny Ghostess, or “Little Leota,” stands on a narrow ledge with a bouquet of dead flowers, staring wistfully into the darkness. Both portrayed and voiced by Leota Toombs, Little Leota beckons for our eternal internment at the Haunted Mansion. An unseen phantom laughs in a deep, gravelly tone from beyond, a frightening farewell for our return to the relative safety of New Orleans Square.

​

The Exit Crypt transitions into an aged, outdoor mausoleum. The epitaphs on the walls are almost exclusively humorous. In “Spiritual Remorse,” the interred prove that no one retired to the Haunted Mansion seems to have taken death too seriously…

C.U. Later

Dustin T. Dust

Asher T. Ashes

M.T. Tomb

I.M. Ready

Rustin Peace

Pearl E. Gates

Levi Tation

Bea Witch

Izzy Dead

Hal Lusinashun

Hap A Rition

Manny Festation

Fester N. Rot

Clare Voince

Wee G. Bord

Rigg R. Mortiese

Paul Tergyst

1440
BLUEBEARD

Here Lyeth his Loving Wives

Penelope Died 1434
Abigail 1435
Anastasia 1436
Prudence 1437
Phoebe 1438
Eugenia 1439
Lucretia ????

Seven Winsome Wives
Some Fat, Some Thin.
Six of Them were Faithful
But the Seventh Did Him In. ​

Anxious to leave the dark mysteries and prankish spirits of the Haunted Mansion behind, we briskly depart for the “World of the Living” and rejoin the bustle and life of Disneyland - but not before noticing the silhouette of our Ghost Host, hatchet in hand, glaring at us one final time from an upper-floor window…

***
​

So, what's next?

I'll be honest, there is stuff going on at home amid the coronavirus outbreak that I need to take care of. I was at rock bottom last year around this time and, ironically, I'm getting to that point again. That's not to say I'm alone in hitting rock bottom - many Americans today are at the same point. I'm fortunate to be in a position where I am still making some money and living with a roof over my head, but right now, things are turning a bit more delicate. Every day could lead to a different outcome.

I'm sort of drawing a blank with the Wonders of Earth as it is something I've never tackled before. I want it to be good. From a mental health perspective, I'm just not vibing well with creative energy. That said, I am going to continue doing some Haunted Mansion stuff in the meantime and until this situation is sorted out. I've been writing backstories for the Mansion ghosts and have found comfort in that. I've stayed up til 1 to 2am almost every night this week writing and adapting short stories about the characters - stories that could be applied not just to the Mirror Disneyland HM, but also the real-life HM's.

With this in mind, I'll start posting these stories next week. I know it's not ideal, nor is it the main topic of this thread, but it's fun, and it will offer a spooky escape for everyone during this trying time. I also plan on tackling Haunted Mansion Holiday soon and having a ride-through written for that!

Thank you for your patience, everyone. You just liking this post and reading through it all the way means the world to me.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

I managed to draw a map of my Haunted Mansion’s show building. It’s very rough, but it gets the job done and helps give a better idea of where things are located.

1. Elevator 1
2. Elevator 2
3. Foyer & Master Portrait
4. Foyer Hallway
5. Elevator Maintenance
6. Break Area
7. Elevator Maintenance
8. Portrait Corridor & Trophy Animals
9. Grand Staircase & Load Area
10. Floating Furniture
11. Hall of Infamy (Sinister 11)
12. Library
13. Music Room
14. Spider Nest & Corridor of Eyes
15. Lockers & Main Break Area
16. Endless Hallway
17. Conservatory
18. Corridor of Doors
19. Seance Circle
20. Girl Behind Mirror
21. Projection Room
22. Projection Room & Emergency Exit
23. Main Maintenance Room & Grand Hall Ghosts
24. Grand Hall
25. Attic
26. Hatbox Ghost
27. Additional Maintenance & Break Area
28. Graveyard & Minstrels
29. King & Queen
30. Witches & Skeletons
31. Singing Busts
32. Tea Party & Cyclists
33. Mummy
34. Pirate & Viking
35. Opera Singers, Execution Trio & Flapper with Friends
36. Hitchhiking Ghosts
37. Animatronic Storage
38. Hitchhiking Ghost Conveyor Belt
39. Tower Room
40. Exit Crypt
41. Little Leota
42. Winter Terrorland/Disneyland Storage
43. Doom Buggy Storage

the dashed line is the Doom Buggy path.

 

[DisneyManOne]

A 20 year makeover?! Wow, that'd be really cool actually haha.

That's not even my favorite idea regarding an alternate MK Fantasyland. I've heard that originally they wanted a Ichabod Crane ride to fill in for Mr. Toad. But then, I thought "That wouldn't really fit with Fantasyland, especially considering that there's a whole area devoted to Colonial America just a few steps away!" So, then I came up with something really, really cool: An Alice in Wonderland dark ride...in the style of the Floridian Mr. Toad. Think about it--two separate tracks allowing for different places to go. My idea even uses the same track layout as Mr. Toad, so that gives us the chance to turn the elaborate Town Square scene into the Forest of Confusion (with all those signs pointing every which way)!

But that's all I'll say for now. Keep on keeping on, my friend. We will get through this. I think the curve is even starting to flatten in some states!

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Alice in Wonderland could also be a trackless dark ride.

 

[DisneyManOne]

Alice in Wonderland could also be a trackless dark ride.

This is for a Mirror Walt Disney World concept, Twilight. I proposed this idea a while back, and me and MEW may begin work on it later this year. I came up with the idea because in this Mirror WDW concept, they did go ahead with creating new dark rides to serve as analogues for the California dark rides (Snow White/Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan/Mary Poppins, Mr. Toad/Ichabod Crane), and again, since I thought Ichabod Crane would fit Liberty Square more, I decided to do a dueling Alice in Wonderland dark ride instead.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Just a suggestion.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

My promised backstories for the Haunted Mansion can be found in an entirely separate thread:

The Haunted Mansion: Ghost Gallery

In the late 1980s, Cast Members from the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion began to create stories for the characters that inhabit the Mansion. In the years following, the “butlers” and “maids” would compile these stories into a special collection in a binder kept backstage. The stories gained...

forums.wdwmagic.com

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

As promised, let's move on with Haunted Mansion Holiday before moving on with the rest of WestCOT.

​

Jason Surrell's wonderful The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic and Chef Mayhem's DoomBuggies.com have once again been a huge source of reference and inspiration for this particular portion of the project. I highly recommend visiting the website and buying the book if you haven't done so already. Both are extremely useful and are detailed works of art.

***​

Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland

​

In the late 1990s, inspired by the success of their seasonal enhancement “it’s a small world” Holiday, Disneyland officials began looking for other attractions to decorate for the holidays. Imagineers, initially, proposed a retelling of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol set inside the Haunted Mansion, but the park declined. Then the Creative Entertainment group suggested retelling ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Steve Davison, creative entertainment director, recalls Tony Baxter suggesting the use of characters from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas instead of introducing Santa Claus into such a macabre environment. “We were walking by Haunted Mansion one day, and we’re like, 'Oh! What if Santa landed on that house? What might it be?' And that’s really how it all was born.”

The concept was put into development with Steve at the helm. The result: Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland was Disneyland’s early Christmas gift to the world when it premiered in October 2001. The notion of overhauling the Mansion, at the time, was a "crazy idea. So crazy, in fact, that it took us over three years to get a go-ahead on the project," Steve recalls. "At first, the team thought that the concept sounded easy. But as we got into it, we realized it wasn't." Steve credits Tim Burton and Henry Selick's landmark film as a guide that would take the design team into uncharted waters for a Disney attraction. "The creative team set out to create a holiday attraction that was so over the top and ambitious, it would either succeed...or fail miserably!"

"You loved the movie, now live the nightmare during the Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland at Disneyland Park. Now through the holidays, the Haunted Mansion will be completely decked out from shrunken head to toe by Jack Skellington as Sandy Claws, and his crew of Yuletide ghouls. See what happens when holidays collide!"
- Disneyland Handbill, October 2001 ​

The overhaul was an immediate success. "For this whimsical blend of Halloween and Christmas, Imagineers created several new animatronic figures and displays, which compliment rather than replace many of the Mansion's existing ghosts," said Scott Waltz in his review of the first year of the overlay. "(It's a) welcome relief to fans of the classic attraction who might fear too much tampering with the well-loved ride. It's a good balance between a thorough re-theming of the ride in the spirit of Tim Burton's film without entirely obliterating the existing, popular Mansion show - a tough line to walk successfully, but I feel (Disney) pulled it off well."

The introduction of the seasonal Halloween Time event in 2005 called for a "reschedule" of Jack Skellington's Christmas misadventures. At the time, Disneyland had never been seen as a "Halloween destination.” Both Knott's Berry Farm and Universal Studios hosted "scare events" for decades prior, but Halloween Time would be Disneyland's first. Early promotion for the event entailed the use of the Hitchhiking Ghosts and the Bride from the original Haunted Mansion. In fact, the classic Mansion was advertised, along with the recently opened Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, as the main attractions for the event. Therefore, in 2005, Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland did not materialize...or so it seemed.

A retooled version of the overlay opened on November 18, 2005. The original attraction closed on November 1, following the conclusion of Halloween Time, and reopened a brisk eighteen days later in time for the Resort's Christmas and holiday offerings. The updated overlay would allow the classic Mansion to remain open for Halloween, while thereafter offering a seasonal, but limited look into Jack Skellington's twisted holiday. The timing just made sense. Winter Terrorland has since opened every year in mid-November since 2005, leaving the classic Mansion present and accounted for that glorious All Hallow's Eve on October 31st.

The Grounds​

​

The Mansion has never looked… Merrier? Truly, the devoted groundskeepers have transformed the desolate property into a spectacular winter wonderland. The exterior walls have been decked “skull-to-toe” in a vibrant display of Victorian holiday décor; evergreen garland, ivy and wreaths, warm candles, and handcrafted, miniature ornaments. If anything, this so-called “Haunted” Mansion is nearly like a picture print by Currier & Ives. Oh, what a nostalgic feeling…

Before us: twin columns kept under the watchful eye of two snarling, stone lions. The lions “don we now our gay apparel": festive eye-masks and fresh garland. Their fanged-mouths hold between them a vibrant and festive banner that reads, "Haunted Mansion Winter Wonderland." Oddly enough, the “Wonder” in “Wonderland” fades to reveal a subtle, but gruesome transformation: "Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland." On either column, the titular bronze shields have been enveloped in the mouths of festive holiday wreaths. The musical notes of a lavish orchestral beckon for us to cross the threshold and step into the festive world beyond.

​

The vibrant flowers, trees and "weeping" plant-life set our stage for a scattered, beautiful collection of ancient tombstones and monuments, almost each one capped with a blood-red Christmas ribbon or bow.

The normal music box has been swapped for an old phonograph placed on the second-floor balcony. It plays orchestral holiday music as a fitting underscore for a stroll through the beautifully appointed Gardens and Grounds. Of course, the holiday spirit has brought the necessary ambiance to our typically ethereal surroundings - candles and candelabras, strands of garland, shimmering trees and ornaments, all Victorian-inspired in their appointment and design. An elegant winter sleigh has been parked before the Grecian columns of the house, filled to overflowing with toys and packages of a bygone era - a beautiful ballerina in a music box, a harlequin jack-in-the-box, handsome tin soldiers, and a harmless teddy bear wearing a red bow-tie. Further elegance - two reindeer statues, carved from the finest of gold and silver, stand to the front of the sleigh.

Among the Mansion’s seasonal décor, it seems Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley, the spirited creations of Charles Dickens, have retired to the Mansion for the holiday season; their graves now join the others in the family plot. In the pet cemetery, it seems the vile, three-headed Mouse King of The Nutcracker has also retired to the Mansion; a three-headed monument stands among the usual animal headstones.

JACOB MARLEY
1785 - 1836
THINK NOT OF SILVER NOR OF GOLD
FOR THESE SHALL PASS AWAY
THE CHAINS WE FORGE WHILE
ON THIS EARTH
WE BEAR FOREVER AND A DAY.

EBENEZER SCROOGE
1786 - ????
I AM AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER
I AM AS HAPPY AS AN ANGEL
I AM AS MERRY AS A SCHOOL BOY
I AM GIDDY AS A DRUNKEN MAN
A MERRY TO EVERYBODY! ​

The stately plantation house is lit ablaze in hundreds of candles, wreaths, and evergreen garland laden with miniature ornaments and electric bulbs. It seems as if every last gable, railing and rooftop is consumed with the holiday spirit. Above the center porch is a large "Countdown Clock" with the months of the year in place of the hours and minutes, and below it, an eloquent sign counting down the days "Til' Christmas" in a cursive font.

The orchestral music of the phonograph has grown closer and more ominous, before fading entirely. Approaching the front door, we hear the melancholy notes of a familiar pipe organ underscored by an unholy children's choir in a minor rendition of “Up on the Housetop”. The ancient front door creaks open... "Please enter, and make room for everybody..."

The Foyer​

​

The garland, lights and ornaments continue from the exterior and into the musky Foyer, seemingly innocent and charming enough. Two stockings are hung by the chimney with care, already filled with vintage toys and knickknacks. Our attention is drawn to a nostalgic painting of Father Christmas standing before two little girls, an exact replica of the true-life Victorian Christmas card pictured above. The Ghost Host begins his ominous, almost poetic narration, underscored by the unsettling funeral dirge of “Up on the Housetop.” Voice actor Corey Burton provides the voice of the Ghost Host in lieu of Paul Frees, a remarkably sinister (and similar) performance.

A closer look at the stockings reveal the embroidered names of Wellington & Forsythia Dread, the unfortunate twin children interred in the Mansion’s family plot with the rest of the Dread Family.

“‘Twas a long time ago, longer now that it seems, in a place that perhaps you’ve seen in your dreams. For the story that you are about to be told began with the holiday worlds of old. I know you’re curious to see what’s inside… It’s what happens when two holidays collide.”​

As the Ghost Host delivers his narration, the painting gradually transforms into an autumn scene - the snow has melted into seldom piles, while the pine forest in the background has faded into a dead bramble beneath a harvest moon. Jack Skellington, dressed in his “Sandy Claws” suit, towers over the frightened children in place of Santa, presenting a pin-laden voodoo doll and dead Christmas Tree in lieu of an otherwise harmless baby doll and living Christmas Tree.

A panel in the wall slides open to reveal one of two identical Portrait Chambers.

The Portrait Chamber
(The Stretching Room)​

The usual paintings in the Portrait Chamber have been taken down for cleaning and replaced with warm, stained-glass holiday scenes of a 19th Century Christmas. The octagonal ceiling panel has even been swapped for a monstrous, stained-glass wreath. The sinister gargoyles and panels are draped in garland and baubles. The eerie organ music continues as our Ghost Host leads on…

“Welcome, my friends to our Christmas delight! Come witness a ghoulishly glorious sight. It’s time for our holiday tale to begin. There’s no turning back now… Please, come all the way in.

Our holiday tale is a tale that’s quite charming. But during this season, it’s sometimes alarming! So relax and reflect, feel free to take pause, while we tell you a tale about dear Sandy Claws…” ​

The stained-glass scenes have captions below them embroidered on strands of “ribbon.” They read and portray:

A view of the Mansion (“‘Twas the Nightmare before Christmas”); a tree with presents (“Not a creature was peaceful”); a fireplace with stockings (“The stockings all hung by the chimney with care”); a boy and a girl in bed with toys floating above them (“The children nestled all snug in their beds”).

A macabre servant of the Manor bids one final word of friendly warning… “To see how Jack has wrecked our halls, kindly drag your bodies away from the walls and into the dead center of the room…”

Suddenly, the panel slides shut, sealing us inside the chamber. Without warning, the entire room is cast into darkness, followed by the shattering of glass. A black light snaps on as the ceiling and walls begin to “stretch.” A dramatic musical underscore (complete with a macabre children’s choir) fills the air. The stained-glass pictures have broken across the middle to elongate and reveal the comically grotesque images of a Halloween-skewed Christmas.

​

“‘Twas the nightmare before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was peaceful not even a mouse. The stockings all hung by the chimney with care when opened that morning would cause such a scare! The children nestled all snug in their beds would have nightmares of monsters and skeleton heads! (Laughs)”​

The paintings reveal: Jack in his Sandy Claws suit with ghosts and nightmares rising behind him; evil toys, namely the soon-to-be recurring “Scary Teddy”; Oogie Boogie and his sack full of foul treats and Christmas “candies”; a coiled orange-and-black snake devouring gifts. Skulls rise toward the ceiling with a crescendo of the familiar “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” The stained-glass wreath on the ceiling shatters to reveal Jack Skellington and Zero in the cupola above. He waves to us below with a hearty “Happy holidays, everyone!” Jack wildly cackles for a moment, only to vanish in a blackout, followed by a shrill, descending scream and a crash, ending with a childish giggle from some other creature.

At the scene’s conclusion, a panel in the wall opens to reveal one long, dimly lit corridor. The shattered wreath above reveals the Ghost Host’s corpse dangling from a noose, gently swaying in the supernatural breeze. Somewhere unseen, a child sings a few demented “la-la’s” to the minor key and tune of “Deck the Hall.”

The Portrait Corridor & Grand Staircase​

“Now, hurry along, as they say, ‘Look alive!’ This is one holiday you will want to survive! (Laughs) And now a dark carriage will take you away. Sit back, rest in peace, in your black Christmas sleigh. Your sleigh will accommodate one or two more. We hope you’re prepared for what Jack has in store… ”

​

The Portrait Chamber exits into a long, decorated hallway filled with portraits of holiday horror. The left side of the corridor is lined with windows that overlook a moonlit landscape in a rainstorm, intermittently illuminated by violent flashes of lightning. Portraits hang on the wall to the right, the subject of each transforming into a nightmarish image with each flash of lightning: an airborne Santa and his reindeer become Jack and his skeleton deer; a snowman in the winter melts into a grinning “Pumpkin Man” in the fall; the foreboding Mansion transforms into a snowy, holiday scene; Sally holds a miniature Christmas Tree, only to foresee fire and despair; Jack Skellington changes from his “Pumpkin King” attire to his Sandy Claws suit. At the far end of the hallway, an ominous-looking taxidermy mount of a grizzly bear stands against the wall, knotted up in orange lights and bulbs, and wearing a long, crooked Santa hat. The bear holds an arrow-shaped sign that reads “Free Slay Rides.” The wolf and mountain lion head mounted on either side of the bear also wear Santa hats.

The Mansion’s holiday décor has been swapped from the Victorian style for a different taste altogether - decayed harvest garland lined with purple and black ribbon, thorns, berries, and “Burtonesque” skulls. Strands of orange and purple lights illuminate the eerie shadows that surround our pathway through the Mansion, including this very Portrait Corridor and Grand Staircase that stand before us.

​

An unseen choir and orchestra perform a sorrowful, holiday arrangement as a musical underscore. We approach the “beautifully” appointed Grand Staircase. An enormous picture window at the top of the staircase looks onto a sinister, moonlit landscape illuminated by flashes of lightning. Friendly pumpkin men (a.k.a. Jack-o-lanterns stacked like a snowman) stand on either end at the foot of the staircase, which is draped in skulls and garlands. A horribly decayed and near-rotted Christmas Tree stands at the top of the stairs, surrounded by hideously-colored packages. The Tree has gnashing fangs, branch-like claws, and bulging eyes that look more like hypnotic swirls than eyeballs. The tree-monster munches on the surrounding gifts - quite loudly, too. Two of Jack's "bone-deer" stand on either end of the Tree, attempting to decorate with baubles clutched between their teeth. We board our “black Christmas sleigh” (a Doom Buggy) at the foot of the Grand Staircase.

“Don’t pull down the bar, it will float down with ease. And keep a close watch on all children - please. All good ghouls and boys must sit safe in their seats, and keep in their sleigh all hands, arms, legs or feets.”​

​

Our sleigh travels beneath a landing where various bits of furniture float in mid-air from above, joined now by floating Christmas packages. Scary Teddy, the unofficial mascot of Winter Terrorland, sits on the usual floating bed with a skeletal arm dangling off the side, using a fishing line to lure in victims with a spider holding a gift.

***
​

MORE TO COME

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Anyone still there? Everyone healthy and well?

Continuing on with our tour of Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland...

***

The Hall of Infamy

​

Ever feel like you’re being watched?

The unsettling music carries well into a fluorescent corridor before us, a rather sinister collection of macabre portraits and cobwebs galore. The portraits, however, steal the show with their eerie, glowing eyes that follow our every move. The usual subjects have been replaced with residents of Halloween Town.

​

• The Wolfman lurks from inside an oversized gift box.
• The Mayor reads from a “Naughty or Nice” List.
• The Zombie Band butchers a holiday carol.
• Sally decorates a peculiar Christmas Tree.
• The Harlequin Demon stares down a gift-wrapped snake.
• Dr. Finklestein discovers a festive elixir.
• Undersea Gal decorates a tree of seaweed.
• The Vampire Bros. display vile decorations.
• The Clown holds his favorite fruitcake.
• The Witches stir a cauldron of glowing eggnog.
• Jack stands on a snow-capped Spiral Hill, the only portrait not to follow our every move.

The eyes are cut out of the original portraits and the "half-eyeballs" are set behind the portrait and back-lit, giving the impression that they are following the viewer. The subjects perhaps hint that Jack Skellington didn’t come to the Mansion alone…

“Jack Skellington came here from Halloween Town. You’ll notice his handiwork scattered around. This year he’s decided to play Sandy Claws, but, when Halloween creates Christmas, you might see a few flaws…”​

The Library & Music Room

“Yes, down through the chimney Jack flew like a bat, clutching his magical Sandy Claws sack. He ripped open the sack and, in moments it seems, created a Christmas you have in bad dreams.”

​

The “Hall of Infamy” opens into the Library, which is filled from floor to ceiling by shelves lined with hundreds of books - only ghost stories, of course. Invisible hands pull books from the shelves, and a ladder slides to and fro as an unseen force climbs for some late night reading. And among the shelves, those ubiquitous marble busts follow our every move, each dimly lit by a twinkling strand of orange bulbs and garland. Zero, Jack’s faithful companion, has materialized and began to decorate a spinning “tree” of floating books.

If you were to check out some of the real books used as props (the shelves are actually a realistic mural) from the Disneyland Haunted Mansion's Library, you would find copies of actual ghost stories: Dracula (Bram Stoker), Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson), and The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde). Among the titles of the books that line the dusty shelves are The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells), The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allen Poe), The Phantom of the Opera (Gaston Leroux), and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving).

A harpsichord arrangement of the sorrowful underscore fills the air as our Doom Buggy carries us from the Library and into the dark Music Room. A dusty square piano sits in the center of the room. The piano plays itself - or so it seems… The shadow of the pianist is cast onto the floor through the pale moonlight of a picture window, a desolate forest in the eerie landscape beyond. Other instruments in the room gather dust, perhaps a hint at the musical forces that will later band together in a holiday celebration. The shockingly talented Scary Teddy is perched on a music stand like a raven, conducting the phantom pianist with a tiny conductor's baton. A pathetic little Christmas tree sits atop the piano. A thin strand of orange lights outline the frame of the large picture window.

Our black Christmas sleigh begins an upward ascension into the looming shadow. A ghastly gargoyle crouched on the banister of a rickety staircase leers down at our Doom Buggy as we begin to ascend, appropriately wrapped in rotten harvest garland.

The Spider Nest - Oogie’s Lair​

​

We climb a creaking staircase in near-complete darkness, a short, gloomy ascension in which the glowing eyes of unnatural creatures peer out from the overwhelming shadow that surrounds us. The music has suddenly changed from that of a sorrowful carol to that of “Kidnap the Sandy Claws,” as performed by an invisible orchestra and twisted children’s choir.

Huge cobwebs embroidered with miniature Christmas bulbs have overtaken our surroundings, the nest of huge, rather venomous-looking spiders. A familiar villainous laugh rings out.

​

A harvest moon has replaced the usual skeleton trapped in a web. The silhouette of the bogeyman himself, Oogie Boogie, slithers and dances on the surface of the moon, maniacally laughing as he transforms into a number of different holiday shapes and icons. A few frightened bugs in gift-wrapped cages (addressed to Oogie) tremble at the omnipresent laugh of their approaching predator…

​

The Endless Hallway

​

“More rapid than vultures, the Mansion was changed. All was soon covered, adorned and deranged. And what to your wandering eyes disappears? It’s Jack’s little friend, Zero, the ghost dog-reindeer!”​

The blinking, glowing eyes of the Spider’s Nest have grown clustered in a swarm. The eyes study our Doom Buggy as we pass, blinking in red and green colors, slowly revealing themselves to be coming from behind the demonic faces of the Mansion’s iconic, purple-and-black, demon-patterned wallpaper.

Now arriving on the Mansion’s second-floor, our Doom Buggy rotates slightly to point us down what appears to be an endless hallway of large wooden doors decorated with ribbons and garlands of bones. A familiar bark shatters a chill in the air. Halfway down this corridor to infinity, the cheerful Zero floats gracefully toward his holiday treat - a pile of delicious dog bones tied with a bow. The large armchair has been replaced by a monstrous vase of crooked poinsettias. The haunted suit of armor has been wrapped in flickering lights and given a jack-o-lantern mask. Is this haunted suit of armor actually moving, or is it your imagination?

We feel a blast of appalling cold, which flutters the armor's feathery helmet and explains a billowing curtain across the way. This, as you know, is the traditional manifestation of the supernatural... Two vents hidden on either side of the hallway entrance are responsible for this thrilling, chilling effect. On the other end of the hallway, we hear rattling chains and footsteps in addition to Zero’s playful barking.

The Conservatory

"Nothing here was forgotten, it all looked so pleasant. 'A coffin,' Jack says, 'makes a fine Christmas present!'"

​

Moving onward, we glide into the Conservatory, where a somewhat premature funeral has bloomed into a carnivorous holiday chorale. A large (and gift-wrapped) coffin sits at the side, surrounded by dead poinsettias that have reanimated as venus flytrap-like beasties with googly-eyes and gnashing fangs, singing along to a hectic “Kidnap the Sandy Claws” with their gremlin-like "Fa-la-la-la-la-la's."

Two gnarled hands protrude from within the coffin, desperately trying to pry open the lid and escape with a muffled “Let me outta here!” The cawing raven has been swapped for the vampiric Scary Teddy hammering nails into the casket lid. A coffin-shaped tag on the casket reads “Do not open ‘til Christmas!" The greenhouse-like windows of the conservatory look to a moonlit, fog-enshrouded forest, an appropriately sinister backdrop for such a macabre scene.

The Corridor of Doors

“A man-eating plant makes a wonderful wreath… As long as you don’t get caught in its teeth.”

​

An unsettling red light is cast from the chandeliers above, as if to almost blur the lines between reality and imagination… “Kidnap the Sandy Claws” continues to play, but is joined now by the omnipresent ambiance of a supernatural rumbling - a low “whoosh” sound, if you will. The spirits have grown restless and make their presence known as we turn down into the long Corridor of Doors.

Doorknobs and handles twist and turn every which way, and knockers in the shape of spiked maces bang against their doors - by themselves. Each door is graced with a skull-and-crossbones, a red wreath, and ribbon. Eerie sounds of moaning creatures pounding, knocking, and begging for escape fill the air as we continue onward, and green light pours from behind a door that seems to bend and shake violently at its edges. One door appears to breathe, bulging from the middle as a powerful force acts upon it from within. A painted portrait of a sad gentleman suddenly comes to life - the face of a tortured soul presses against the canvas from behind, horrifically bulging the face outward. Some of the entities aren’t confined to their rooms: countless eyes glare at us from the corridor’s iconic sinister wallpaper.

Disturbing, post-mortem “family photos” line the walls in fancy wooden frames, grotesque foreshadowing of the creatures that might lie ahead. The daguerreotype-images are almost exclusively black-and-white photographs of costumed prop heads that were created from the same molds as the “pop-up ghosts” found later in the attraction. A knitted sampler reads “TOMB SWEET TOMB.” But most frightening of all, we glimpse the sight of a sorrowful female spirit, frantically pounding from behind the glass of an ornate, ribbon-topped mirror, begging for escape.

Noticeably, huge tendril-like vines have overwhelmed the entire hallway from floor-to-ceiling. The singing plants continue their unholy “Fa-La-La-La’s” as we look up into the piercing, blinking gaze of a giant, fanged wreath, the granddaddy of all floral arrangements. The monstrous plant gnashes its fangs and stares in every direction, its claw-like vines enveloping the chandeliers and iconic wallpaper. The small, but menacing flowers continue to sing and chomp threateningly from the bottom of the wreath's jaws, as well as from an overgrown vase on a nearby table.

Having escaped one final door that seems to be snarling like a rabid animal, we creep past an ornate grandfather clock that is perpetually struck on thirteen. The hour and minute hands spin madly around the face. If one peers closely into the darkness, one might discover the top half of the cabinet to be the head of a demon; the clock’s face sitting inside its gaping maw, and the swinging pendulum the demon’s forked tongue… The clock is swept in the wreath's vines and addressed as a gift from Sandy Claws to Madame Leota. A number of odd packages surround the demon clock as the shadow of a claw scrapes by…

“Jack’s holiday vision was unlike no other, so ring out the bells, there’s more cheer to uncover!”

The Séance Circle

​

With the thirteen chimes of the grandfather clock still ringing in the air, we enter the dark Séance Circle, an eerie sanctum in which an age-old holiday ritual is taking place. A mist-filled crystal ball floats high above a table littered with tarot cards and strung in garland. Scary Teddy sits perched atop a chair directly behind the table, gleefully ringing handbells. A possessed, green-skinned nutcracker replaces the usual Necronomicon: Book of the Dead on a nearby bookstand. A festive tree made of candles offers a wintry flare to the otherwise gloomy chamber. Red and green colored lanterns and giant tarot cards replace the normal instruments found soaring through the air.

As we continue our slow circle around the table, we finally meet our medium, the disembodied spirit of Madame Leota, trapped in the levitating crystal ball. Behind her table, Lock, Shock and Barrel press against a large window, simply dying to get in. Leota recites a holiday incantation:

“On the 13th day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me:
13 rings of power, embracing strength that never ends…
12 signs of the zodiac, that rule the future and transcend…
11 candles floating, their scent of mystery in the air…
10 telling tea leaves, that swirled with secrets yet to share…

On the 9th day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me:
9 magic crystals, that sparkled with a force that is pure…
8 balls of knowledge, that answer with a truth that is sure…
7 pearls of wisdom, to keep my love bewitched to me…
6 mystic mirrors, reflecting futures yet to be…

On the 5th day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me:
5 lucky charms, to understand the right from wrong…
4 wheels of fortune, to spin their rich and golden song…
3 lifelines, extending helps to those in need…
2 passion potions, that love and romance may succeed…

On the first day of Christmas, my ghoul love gave to me:
A star! A brilliant star for my fortune card tree!” ​

The giant tarot cards portray characters of Halloween Town who each represent a lyric of Leota’s incantation. Kim Irvine, daughter of the original Madame Leota (Leota Toombs), bears a startling resemblance to her mother. So, Kim performed Madame Leota’s eerie incantations as her mother had done more than fifty years earlier. Now mother and daughter are forever united, working together to create the magic of Madame Leota.

The Grand Hall



“With some treats and some games, you can make a scene merry. Why, even a gingerbread house could seem scary! All at once, happy haunts did materialize, like a nightmarish painting by Currier & Ives.”

​

The Grand Hall is the scene of the ultimate Christmas Party.

A haunted, anthropomorphic gingerbread house - a new design each season - has overtaken the banquet table. An enormous Christmas Tree - dead, as you might expect from Jack Skellington - decorates the middle of the dance floor. The one time evergreen is littered with skulls, jack-o-lanterns, and candles, not to mention spiders that drop down from the branches. Presents and a demon train circle the base of the tree, anxiously awaiting Christmas Day - unless they get hungry and escape before then. Zero hovers near the top of the tree, playing chicken with the pistol-wielding duelists. Brilliant lightning flashes reveal the silhouettes of Jack and Sally from behind a balcony window (presumably with a sprig of mistletoe). Couples waltz the night away as a mad organist plays a demented version of “Carol of the Bells” in a frantic, melancholy waltz and choral arrangement. The pipe organ itself is decked in garland and jack-o-lanterns.

A green fire ignites itself in a lavish fireplace and a not-so-empty rocking chair beside it begins to rock. A group of otherworldly revelers have gathered at the decorated banquet table to celebrate the spirit of the season. The guests slowly fade in and out of sight, seemingly in time with the ghost of honor’s repeated attempts to extinguish the candles on a cake bearing Jack Skellington’s face. Other swinging specters enjoy spirits of a different kind while sitting atop an ornate chandelier high above the room. Hooded wraiths and skeletal “bone-deer” fly in and out of the room through the upper windows as lightning flashes behind them. And a steady stream of merry specters and floating Christmas packages pours in from a hearse crashed just outside the ballroom, eager to join in the jamboree. Snow pours in through the ajar door. A charming “ghostess” stands halfway up the staircase with a candle, greeting guests disembarking from the hearse outside - with her decapitated head.

​

The entire ballroom is decorated in a spectacle of lights and garland. Truly, nothing here was forgotten. Even some twisted stockings have been hung by the chimney with (s)care. The fireplace mantel is covered in grinning jack-o-lanterns, notably one in resemblance of Jack Skellington.

The scene is a direct descendant of the wedding reception once planned in an early Ken Anderson story treatment. The “Great Caesar’s Ghost” character puts in an appearance, as do Antony and Cleopatra, an English King, and the elusive “Pickwick.” A look under the table reveals the legs of another party goer who is resting in peace, and from the mantel above the fireplace, a ghost with his arm around the Jack Skellington-resembling jack-o-lantern. The eerie grandmother in the rocking chair made her first “mortal” appearance in Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress.

​

Contrary to popular belief and urban legend, it is not holograms, sophisticated laser effects, or even real ghosts that populate the Grand Hall. The scene is a true showcase for the art of Audio-Animatronics and illusions, namely “Pepper’s Ghost,” that Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey had been perfecting since 1959. The organ in the Grand Hall scene at Disneyland is one and the same with Captain Nemo’s pipe organ (minus the pipes) from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The instrument was repainted and refitted with a bat-shaped music stand and other ghostly details. The organs in the subsequent Haunted Mansions are exact reproductions of the Disneyland original.

​

Having traversed the length of the lavish Grand Hall, looking down onto the ballroom from the upper-floor, our Doom Buggy creeps past a small end table and coat rack against the wall, as well as one final sinister portrait in the shadow; no transformations, no moving eyes, just horror - a young aristocratic couple locked in an embrace - the woman has stabbed her beloved in the heart with a kitchen knife, her lips curved into a smile, his eyes widened in shock. Turning the corner, our Doom Buggy enters the heart of any good haunted house: the Attic.

*** ​

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Since it’s the holiday version I thought that scene with the couple portrait would be changed to fit with the Nightmare before Christmas overlay.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Alright, and here is the final installment in Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland. I'll be on a hiatus this week, so feedback would be appreciated. Heck, even suggestions or ideas for the Wonders of Earth would be appreciated. @JokersWild, any ideas on how a Wonders of Earth Pavilion could look? @spacemt354, any ideas?

***

The Attic

​

“A bag full of toys Jack had slung on his back… They were strange and bizarre - hmm, hmm - and on the attack!”​

The music and murmur of the Grand Hall behind us, we enter the Mansion’s dusty attic, which is filled with cobwebbed bric-a-brac and long-stored furniture and artifacts from a former lifetime - now overshadowed by colorful Christmas presents and demented toys just dying for Christmas morning to come. Vivid black light permeates the space, and the ominous atmosphere is underscored by frantic screams, evil laughter, and a crazed holiday arrangement of "What's This?" mixed with "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls."

Most of the familiar old junk has been cleared in favor of the creepy gifts and toys. Suddenly, from within an opened box, a giant skull pops upward with a shriek. Then, without warning, a jack-o-lantern-in-the-box from the other side! Then an oversized cat-in-the-box! A fluttery motion catches our attention - bats flit about, flying ‘round and ‘round the dark shadows above. The usual antique dolls and harlequin toys of the Mansion’s Attic still haunt the clutter, including a deliciously disturbed ventriloquist dummy. Jack’s huge Naughty-or-Nice List spans the width of the entire chamber, draped over the boxes. Of course, the names on the list pay tribute to the creative team behind Winter Terrorland...

​

One “pop-up” toy after the next transitions into our encounter with a large, black-and-orange-striped snake chowing down on the aforementioned list. The snake’s tail is coiled into a Christmas Tree on one end of the room, while its head on the other side stands in place of the lonely Bride. Other featured toys include a killer duck bloodied with bullet holes, a monstrous train on tentacle tracks, a basket of lit dynamite, a possessed baby doll, a petrified rocking horse, a tiny Oogie Boogie crashing cymbals, a dolly hung by a noose, and zombified tin soldiers firing their cannon.

​

Another ghostly manifestation appears just outside the Attic on a balcony overlooking the Mansion’s wintry Graveyard.

He’s a cloaked figure with an evil, grinning face. He leans on a cane with his right hand and holds a ribbon-topped hatbox in his left. With a deep, dissolute chortle, the Hatbox Ghost’s deathly pate disappears from his body, reappears in the hatbox, and then returns to his body, leaving the hatbox empty - a head-scratching effect that takes place every few seconds. Of course, in the spirit of tricks and treats, old Hattie dons holly at the rim of his hat.

The Hatbox Ghost stands on an overgrown porch with a snow-covered pergola encrusted with icicles, with wrought-iron railing and uncontrolled plants nearby. Double doors behind him hang partially open, revealing the fanged and red-eyed bats inside… There are hat boxes everywhere, some even stacked on a hand truck, others wearing oversized Santa hats. It seems this Hatbox Ghost is more interested in showing us his collection of disembodied heads, starting with his own.

The Graveyard

​

“Sandy Claws worked his magic, both outside and in, but one final touch made his bony face grin. Now what better gift on my friends to bestow, than a graveyard that’s covered in ghostly white snow!”​

Past the eerie visage of the Hatbox Ghost, our sleigh “falls” out an attic window and down through a grove of terrorizing, snow-capped trees, all under the evil, childlike laughter of Scary Teddy perched in a nearby tree, chewing feverishly on a strand of lights. Snowflakes tumble from the sky where ghosts once rose from their crypts, and orange lights, icicles and paper skeletons adorn the once barren trees.

​

The Graveyard is covered in a sheet of ghostly white snow, where the usual happy haunts are busy making their own unique Christmas trees. The vast boneyard is now home to a re-creation of Halloween Town’s landmark Spiral Hill, one of Tim Burton’s most iconic designs. The frosted formation is covered in grinning jack-o-lanterns that flicker and fade in time with the merry music. A full-size Audio-Animatronics figure of Jack Skellington in his blood-red Sandy Claws suit stands at the cemetery gates in place of the Caretaker and his dog, the loyal Zero floating by his side.

“It’s Christmas! Have you been good this year? Ho, ho, ho! What's this? Can you believe your eyes? I like this Christmas thing. See, Zero! I told you they would like my Christmas! Fruitcake, anyone? Ho, ho, ho! I really outdid myself this time! Look at all the happy faces! Seasons greetings, everyone! Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, hee, hee, hee… It’s Christmas time! Welcome to my Christmas delight! Look, Zero, I think they like our Christmas. Have you been naughty or nice? I have a special present, just for you… Happy holidays, everyone! What’s your name? C’mon, don’t be shy!”​

​

In 2001, the original Haunted Mansion Holiday soundtrack was scored by Gordon Goodwin. In 2002, the Goodwin soundtrack was replaced by an adapted score by John Debney. The new soundtrack was based on themes from the film’s score as composed by Danny Elfman. Since 2005, however, Goodwin’s original music has been reintegrated into several scenes in the attraction, including the Graveyard. To better detail, here is what plays where:

1. The Foyer: Gordon Goodwin
2. The Stretching Room: Gordon Goodwin
3. The Portrait Corridor thru The Music Room: Gordon Goodwin
4. The Spider Nest thru Corridor of Doors: John Debney
5. The Seance Circle: John Debney
6. The Grand Hall: Gordon Goodwin
7. The Attic: John Debney
8. The Graveyard: Gordon Goodwin
9. The Exit Crypt: Gordon Goodwin

We will soon encounter a macabre number of ghosts rising from their graves in a tour de force of Marc Davis character designs and sight gags, with spirits that cross all boundaries of time and space. All are singing and playing along with their hosts for the evening’s festivities, a group of warbling jack-o-lanterns. Madame Leota’s incantations have worked like a charm, and all of the Mansion’s 999 happy haunts have “come out to socialize” for the holiday celebration at last.

The Audio-Animatronics figures in the Graveyard are built translucent and skeletal, without the layer of “skin” common to Disney’s mortal characters, further accented by fluorescent colored paint, props and clothing, all of which glow brightly under the scene’s impressive black light. In addition to these Audio-Animatronics apparitions, a number of frightening “pop-up ghosts” in Santa hats are strategically hidden behind scattered tombstones, effectively shouting "HO! HO! HO!" at the end of each chorus. The Imagineers once again used forced perspective to make the scene appear much larger than it actually is - props and set pieces get smaller the farther away they are placed. Snow dusts every last tombstone, crypt and mausoleum, and some are even wrapped in cheery ribbons and macabre bows. Orange Christmas lights and shimmering icicles stretch across the dead trees and monuments.

​

First, we encounter a band of medieval minstrels in their twisted rendition of “Jolly Old St. Nicholas” mixed with “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” Sally, Jack's longtime love, leans on a headstone not far from the minstrels, longingly staring at Jack through the distant cemetery gate. A gathering of scrawny cats and owls join the revelry and add their own harmonies, while a translucent hellhounds plays tug-o-war with a floating "bone-deer" over a candy cane. Nearby, an English King and Queen balance on a tombstone-teeter-totter. As designed, only the ghost in the top position of the teeter-totter is visible - the ghost in the bottom position disappears. It’s a visual pun of “see-saw”; as they play, we “see” one ghost right after we “saw” the other. A wrapped present in the middle of the teeter-totter slides between the two royals. A regal duchess sips tea from a chair swing in the background.

A trio of American colonial “witch hunters” queue for a mug of green eggnog - two transparent witches (ghost witches, of course) are stirring a black cauldron filled with the bubbling, glowing, green elixir. The witches cackle and hum in time with the music. In the background, fluorescent decaying corpses begin to reanimate in the snow and “dance” along to the music. The jerky-motioned, half-decayed skeletons glow in an ethereal blue-color, and are the most “realistic bones” in the Mansion. The most prominent of the bunch is a jaw-unhinged instrumentalist beating a collection of tiny pumpkins in lieu of a xylophone. Further back, four skeletons perform a “conga line” on a hidden turntable, while one body attempts to help some other body rise from the earth. Another corpse hangs upside-down from a tree, swaying his torso in time with the musical counts.

Of course, the minstrels would be most unimpressive without the frightful vocals of “The Phantom Five,” now a quintet of living jack-o-lanterns. The warbling pumpkins sing a macabre arrangement of “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” “We Wish You a Merry (Scary) Christmas,” and “What’s This?”

​

Victorian aristocrats enjoy a chorus with a game of chess and a spot of tea alongside a hearse crashed in the snow - its deceased occupant now upright and singing along. Huge snow angels with jack-o-lantern heads span the cemetery path, their icicle-claws gripped onto massive trumpets. A skeletal bone-deer hovers close to our path with a tray of teacups, whilst a number of cloaked wraiths riding bicycles chase another bone-deer around a gnarled Christmas tree on the near horizon. A self-levitating teapot trickles tea into the glass of a waiting arm protruding from a stone coffin. Another tree, made from bones and teacups, illuminates the macabre celebration through flickering candles. An Egyptian mummy sits upright in his golden sarcophagi, desperately trying to entertain a ghost-dog and a befuddled old man with an ear-horn.

​

A flapper of the Roaring ‘20s enjoys tea with a ghost laden in chains. A goblin-like man with hair covering his eyes, stirs tea at the foot of the flapper's tombstone. In the open coffin below, a bony arm pours tea into the flapper’s discarded shoe. A former pirate captain raises a pint of grog in toast of the swinging wake, joined by an incredibly short Viking perched atop an equally short tombstone. Their tree is built from ship-oars, pirate flags and buried treasure.

A headless knight and his executioner show there are no hard feelings as they sing “backup” for a pair of opera singers dressed as Vikings, the latter duo madly warbling a chilling refrain. It truly isn’t over 'til the fat lady sings… A short and bearded convict, who will soon attempt to hitch a ride with us, stands nearby, and nearby him - the occupant of a brick tomb attempts to seal himself within his gift-wrapped crypt, too afraid of all the surrounding paranormal activity. A Christmas tree built from executioner tools (namely axes) shimmers brightly under the crisp, night sky.

The Exit Crypt

“As Jack sprang to his sleigh, three hitchhikers he spied… They said, ‘Sandy Claws, may we please have a ride?’ But Jack waved goodbye, for he could not stay - he had much to deliver before Christmas Day!” ​

Scary Teddy puts in one last appearance atop the entrance to a stone crypt, playing the trumpet under the festive lights. The red-eyed raven - the usual Mansion mascot - remains near Teddy atop the giant stone crypt, holding a candy cane in its beak. We then come face-to-face with the Mansion’s most popular characters: the Hitchhiking Ghosts. A festive banner above reads: “We Wish You a Scary Christmas!” Surrounding our beloved hitchhikers are hideous packages, spider-web-snowflakes, and evil toys and packages galore. A sorrowful, almost chant-like version of “We Wish You a Scary Christmas” fills the air.

​

From left to right, Phineas is the large ghost dressed like a horrific Baby New Year (complete with sash); Ezra is the tall, bony ghost tipping his hat dressed in a scarf and cloak similar to Ebenezer Scrooge; Gus is the short ghost with a bushy beard, currently dressed like a tacky Christmas elf. Our sleigh pulls deeper into the Crypt, passing a series of ornate mirrors enveloped in the mouths of fanged wreaths with glowing eyes. We soon learn that one of the three ghosts has hitched a ride and is seated with us.

“May Jack’s ghostly Christmas now follow you home, and stay in your heart where'er you may roam. For now you know what happens when holidays meet - you might get a trick, or a holiday treat… Mwahahaha!”​

A sign urges our return to the “World of the Living.” A scattered snow drift gives even this dark depository a holiday glow, as do the few jack-o-lanterns grinning out from the empty vaults. Since departed from our sleigh, we embark on an uphill climb to an old crypt, but not before we catch glimpse of one final spirit: Sally. Sally beckons for the return of Sandy Claws to the Haunted Mansion, with the silhouette of Jack and his coffin sleigh riding across a miniature full moon. With Jack's maniacal cackle ringing in our ears, we continue out into the relative safety of New Orleans Square.

“Hurry back! Hurry back!
Be sure to bring your Sandy Claws sack!
I’ll be waiting to open my Christmas present…
Hurry back! Hurry back…”

“Merry Christmas, one and all!”

“Thank you, Sandy Claws, for bringing your cheer.
Please hurry back, we can’t wait till next year.
And I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight…”

“This world will not forget my Christmas night! Hahaha!”​

The Exit Crypt transitions into an aged, outdoor mausoleum capped in normal, unsuspecting wreaths. The epitaphs on the walls are almost exclusively humorous. In “Spiritual Remorse,” the interred prove that no one retired to the Haunted Mansion seems to have taken death too seriously…

C.U. Later

Dustin T. Dust

Asher T. Ashes

M.T. Tomb

I.M. Ready

Rustin Peace

Pearl E. Gates

Levi Tation

Bea Witch

Izzy Dead

Hal Lusinashun

Hap A Rition

Manny Festation

Fester N. Rot

Clare Voince

Wee G. Bord

Rigg R. Mortiese

Paul Tergyst

1440
BLUEBEARD

Here Lyeth his Loving Wives

Penelope Died 1434
Abigail 1435
Anastasia 1436
Prudence 1437
Phoebe 1438
Eugenia 1439
Lucretia ????

Seven Winsome Wives
Some Fat, Some Thin.
Six of Them were Faithful
But the Seventh Did Him In. ​

Anxious to leave the dark mysteries and prankish spirits of the Haunted Mansion behind, we briskly depart for the “World of the Living” and rejoin the bustle and life of Disneyland - but not before noticing the silhouette of our Ghost Host, hatchet in hand, glaring at us one final time from an upper-floor window…

***​

 

[DisneyManOne]

Alright, and here is the final installment in Haunted Mansion Winter Terrorland. I'll be on a hiatus this week, so feedback would be appreciated. Heck, even suggestions or ideas for the Wonders of Earth would be appreciated. @JokersWild, any ideas on how a Wonders of Earth Pavilion could look? @spacemt354, any ideas?

I loved Winter Terrorland! Very well done! As for Wonders of Earth, I still think basing it off Tony Baxter's concept for The Land would be the best way to go. Since this is Earth we're talking about, maybe you could even have different attractions to represent the "Earth, Sea and Sky" triptych. Soarin', of course, could represent "Sky", and maybe there could be a show about weather to compliment the "Sky" theme; the biome balloon ride and Living with the Land could represent "Earth" and maybe you could do something similar to The Living Seas to represent "Sea". Maybe a CircleVision show with in-theater effects, implemented with rotating seats?

 

[Evilgidgit]

I loved Winter Terrorland! Very well done! As for Wonders of Earth, I still think basing it off Tony Baxter's concept for The Land would be the best way to go. Since this is Earth we're talking about, maybe you could even have different attractions to represent the "Earth, Sea and Sky" triptych. Soarin', of course, could represent "Sky", and maybe there could be a show about weather to compliment the "Sky" theme; the biome balloon ride and Living with the Land could represent "Earth" and maybe you could do something similar to The Living Seas to represent "Sea". Maybe a CircleVision show with in-theater effects, implemented with rotating seats?

I agree with these ideas. The weather attraction could focus on a specific location(s) with unique or unusual weather, like areas in Africa or Indonesia. David Attenborough would make a hell of a narrator for a movie/theatre show.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

I loved Winter Terrorland! Very well done! As for Wonders of Earth, I still think basing it off Tony Baxter's concept for The Land would be the best way to go. Since this is Earth we're talking about, maybe you could even have different attractions to represent the "Earth, Sea and Sky" triptych. Soarin', of course, could represent "Sky", and maybe there could be a show about weather to compliment the "Sky" theme; the biome balloon ride and Living with the Land could represent "Earth" and maybe you could do something similar to The Living Seas to represent "Sea". Maybe a CircleVision show with in-theater effects, implemented with rotating seats?

Not bad! I think that could work out pretty nicely. I'll flesh out the concept a bit and toy around with some ideas. I think the Tony Baxter Land pavilion is for sure the best way to go.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

Westcot getting the colors of Earth, Sea, and Sky?