News New Haunted Mansion Grounds Expansion, Retail Shop Coming to Disneyland Resort in 2024

[AJFireman]

I know at universal every attraction has a safety bulletin outside of the entrance. It also has strobe warnings, motion sickness warnings, and describes the nature of the attraction. I wouldn’t be opposed to Disney doing this, and for mansion they could say “Expect horror related imagery that some guests may find disturbing.”

Instead Disneyland describes it as Creepy Fun for the Little Ones. I feel if they admitted to the disturbing scenes then they definitely would work to remove them. I feel if the scene was getting close to being removed there would be more talk on both coast and a Disney Parks blog about it.

Here is the ride description on the Disneyland Website.

 

[LittleBuford]

I know at universal every attraction has a safety bulletin outside of the entrance. It also has strobe warnings, motion sickness warnings, and describes the nature of the attraction. I wouldn’t be opposed to Disney doing this, and for mansion they could say “Expect horror related imagery that some guests may find disturbing.”

I don’t think anyone going on such a ride wouldn’t expect it to have horror-related imagery; that’s the nature of all ghost trains. A suicide depiction, however, is a little less predictable, and I can’t imagine them ever putting up a trigger warning referring specifically to such a topic.

 

[D.Silentu]

I'm a touch apprehensive sticking my head above the trenches here, but it seems to me that the fact that it's a skeleton hanging, rather than a body, introduces a layer of diffusion.

 

[LittleBuford]

I'm a touch apprehensive sticking my head above the trenches here, but it seems to me that the fact that it's a skeleton hanging, rather than a body, introduces a layer of diffusion.

I don’t think it’s an especially clear depiction of anything. It’s very brief and difficult to make out, which I think is why it’s still there.

 

[mickEblu]

I'm a touch apprehensive sticking my head above the trenches here, but it seems to me that the fact that it's a skeleton hanging, rather than a body, introduces a layer of diffusion.

Good point as does the vague dialogue. Not to mention that this person was being tormented by ghosts, starving and dying of thirst in a room with no windows and doors. He wasn’t battling depression. Context should matter as well.

 

[duncedoof]

Good point as does the vague dialogue. Not to mention that this person was being tormented by ghosts, starving and dying of thirst in a room with no windows and doors. He wasn’t battling depression. Context should matter as well.

Correct. However, this appears to be a level of media literacy some individuals in this thread never acquired. I'd suggest they ride the tea cups instead.

 

[LittleBuford]

Lol. Isn’t it ironic though that them removing it would be a more likely cause of someone committing suicide than the hanging skeleton being there?

I don’t think anyone is claiming that the figure’s presence would encourage copycat behaviour. The issue is whether such imagery is appropriate for a family theme park (you of all people should be able to understand that given your views on child-appropriate content in Disney’s films).

 

[mickEblu]

I don’t think anyone is claiming that the figure’s presence would encourage copycat behaviour. The issue is whether such imagery is appropriate for a family theme park (you of all people should be able to understand that given your views on child-appropriate content in Disney’s films).

It’s fine. Like I said before I never made the suicide correlation (unless perhaps on some subconscious level) until well into my adulthood.

 

[_caleb]

Thank you for the thoughtful response, and I can see where you’re coming from on most of these. That being said I would just like to know who it is deeming all of these attractions offensive. Outside of these forums and at the parks with the general public, I have yet to see any of these ‘problems.’ I also believe that you can never make EVERYBODY happy, you just need to make the majority happy enough to turn a profit (in Disney’s case).

Obviously Disney is getting feedback you’re not aware of. And it must be significant, or they wouldn’t spend millions to make these changes, right? I agree they can’t please EVERYBODY, but maybe as many as possible? And if Disney wants to “please” (and I’m not sure that’s the right word to use here, maybe “include?”) certain audiences, I suppose it may come at the expense of something you enjoy.

Once you eventually bend the knee and agree to alter an artistic vision and change something,

Not sure why you’d choose to frame it that way.

especially for the few rather than the many, you enter a dangerous territory where you will never stop having to change and alter the attraction.

Right. It’s Disneyland. It will never be complete and it will always change- with times, with audiences, and with new creative vision.

Because you can’t make everyone happy, you will never stop changing and altering the attraction because if you look hard enough, you will soon find someone who has a problem with every single square foot of an attraction.

Right. But you seem to be saying, “those people who claim to be offended, they’re not really offended and even if they are, they’re not worth accommodating.” Maybe that’s not what you mean.

I do agree with you on the Disney will never be complete statement, I just differ in how it should be gone about. I believe in addition by addition, rather than addition by subtraction. If people speak up and want an attraction that does “___,” then an attraction that does “___” should be built. Disney should not simply work to sacrifice the original message of a preexisting attraction just to make it absolutely everybody’s favorite. One, that will never work because you cannot make everybody happy, and two, it’s ok if someone doesn’t like an attraction.

Why not both? I agree addition is needed. And I dislike as much as anyone when they change something I love.

When a movie is released, the studio does not expect every human being on earth to automatically love it. They don’t ‘unrelease’ the movie and completely rework it (unless we’re talking about the Snyder cut lol) just to make it everybody’s favorite movie. They acknowledge that not everybody will like it, and as long as enough people do to earn a profit, the studio is happy. It is up to the viewer to instead choose a different movie that they enjoy more rather than expect the studio to completely reshoot the movie so that they can now like it.

But there aren’t a finite number of movies like there are rides at Disneyland. And they have lately produced films aimed at “pleasing” some audiences who have traditionally not been their target.

It is not up to Disney to endlessly change and toil with their attractions just to make them everybody’s favorite.

I don’t think they’re trying to make rides everybody’s favorite, maybe just trying to make them accessible to new audiences.

If Disney is receiving high numbers of complaints from certain groups about a failure to support certain needs, then Disney should build a new attraction with a broader audience in mind, and do the same when eventually another group with a different need comes into play. Altering existing attractions is a lose-lose situation. They risk the artistic integrity and enter an endless battle, as you can never make everybody happy!

I think Disneyland’s placemaking, theming, and stories aren’t so delicate that some changes would ruin them. I think Haunted Mansion can endure cutting out the dead body and the addition of HatBox just fine.

Sorry for the ramble, there’s a blizzard where I am so I’m bored and inside lol. Again everybody’s entitled to their own opinion, this is just my hot take!

Thanks for the discussion. I’m afraid I can sometimes come across as debatey, but I’m really just interested in what people think and why.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

I'm generally opposed to making changes based on changing sensibilities, but the more I reflect on this particular topic, the more I am of the mind that this scene should be altered to remove the suicide reference. Make the Ghost Host's "way out" something different, keep the thunderclap and the scream, and keep the dialogue the same.

Families that are trying to get past a suicide of a loved one might go to DL or WDW to help distract themselves, and this would just be an awful thing to see. And it has always been an awful thing to see. I don't think they should have included it in the first place.

Any public display of suicide, especially one that is (jokingly-ish) encouraging it like the Ghost Host, has no place in theme parks.

There are plenty of other things that have no place in theme parks, too, like politically-charged attractions that make statements. The theme parks should be an escape from the dreary realities of the world.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Obviously Disney is getting feedback you’re not aware of. And it must be significant, or they wouldn’t spend millions to make these changes, right?

Disney isn’t some hyper-rational machine that only acts objective based on the best data. There’s still construction going on in the middle of Epcot because pretty much one person wanted to play Mikey and make changes in spite of the data.

 

[celluloid]

I'm generally opposed to making changes based on changing sensibilities, but the more I reflect on this particular topic, the more I am of the mind that this scene should be altered to remove the suicide reference. Make the Ghost Host's "way out" something different, keep the thunderclap and the scream, and keep the dialogue the same.

Families that are trying to get past a suicide of a loved one might go to DL or WDW to help distract themselves, and this would just be an awful thing to see. And it has always been an awful thing to see. I don't think they should have included it in the first place.

Any public display of suicide, especially one that is (jokingly-ish) encouraging it like the Ghost Host, has no place in theme parks.

There are plenty of other things that have no place in theme parks, too, like politically-charged attractions that make statements. The theme parks should be an escape from the dreary realities of the world.

Tough road to go down. My mom was murdered by someone with a firearm.(It was actually a murder-sucicide) I never once felt that reminder when on the Great Movie Ride in either the gangster or cowboy shoot outs, nor on Pirates or on Tom Sawyer's Island. If some aspect of it did, I would not want it removed for all.
Alcoholism and arson is depicted throughout the parks as character traits or conflict.
You have rides that evoke Car Crashes involved in and dodging accidents. Those are certainly a common situation of death for family members.
What about Goofy receiving electrical shocks in multiple attractions?

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Tough road to go down. My mom was murdered by someone with a firearm. I never once felt that reminder when on the Great Movie Ride in either the gangster or cowboy shoot outs, nor on Pirates or on Tom Sawyer's Island. If some aspect of it did, I would not want it removed for all.
You have rides that evoke Car Crashes involved in and dodging accidents. Those are certainly a common situation of death for family members.
What about Goofy receiving electrical shocks in multiple attractions?

I get what you're saying. But none of those examples actually involve someone literally dying. If the animatronics on the Great Movie Ride had keeled over with fake blood spilling out, that would be more of a 1:1 comparison. (I know, I know, the hijacker of the Great Movie Ride ends up as a skeleton, but I don't think anyone has experienced losing a family member who touched a forbidden jewel).

As it is, the Ghost Host is essentially telling you that "your goal of leaving this room could be accomplished if you hang yourself like I did." I don't think that's a message I want anyone to hear, whether they have experience of suicide or not.

 

[Consumer]

I get what you're saying. But none of those examples actually involve someone literally dying. If the animatronics on the Great Movie Ride had keeled over with fake blood spilling out, that would be more of a 1:1 comparison. (I know, I know, the hijacker of the Great Movie Ride ends up as a skeleton, but I don't think anyone has experienced losing a family member who touched a forbidden jewel).

As it is, the Ghost Host is essentially telling you that "your goal of leaving this room could be accomplished if you hang yourself like I did." I don't think that's a message I want anyone to hear, whether they have experience of suicide or not.

How many people on earth do you think have been trapped in a stretching room with no windows and no doors where the only way of escape was suicide?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I'm a touch apprehensive sticking my head above the trenches here, but it seems to me that the fact that it's a skeleton hanging, rather than a body, introduces a layer of diffusion.

Gracey was shown full bodied hanging himself in the first few minutes of the 2003 movie.

The 2023 movie changes the method, but still has the same character commit the act and makes it explicit.

I don't have much sympathy for the idea of changing the ride now that 2 Disney branded movies based on the it have a suicide scene. As others have said, it's less graphic and explicit in the ride and is easily avoided looking at.

 

[celluloid]

I get what you're saying. But none of those examples actually involve someone literally dying. If the animatronics on the Great Movie Ride had keeled over with fake blood spilling out, that would be more of a 1:1 comparison. (I know, I know, the hijacker of the Great Movie Ride ends up as a skeleton, but I don't think anyone has experienced losing a family member who touched a forbidden jewel).

As it is, the Ghost Host is essentially telling you that "your goal of leaving this room could be accomplished if you hang yourself like I did." I don't think that's a message I want anyone to hear, whether they have experience of suicide or not.

Nah, blood is not required.
She still got shot and killed by a gun.

Imagine how many people walked through the queue of Test Track having seen crash test dummies in extreme sitautions of what would break a human neck looping in that environment, knowing their loved ones died in a car accident. A lot of things can evoke.
And other examples do involve death. Mr. Toad has a plot point of getting hit by a train and dying. Still a fairly common event today of tragic death as well as car accidents in general.
Goofy does not expire because he is a cartoon, much like a characterized ghost still talking to you, it is fiction. People sitll get killed by electrocution very often and Disney has this gag in two major attractions.
I did not see my mom die.

You see a skeleton hung. Not someone actively jumping to be hung and telling you to do the same. I don't see why your gun one has to involve the act.

your final point I see as the opposite. Typically, horror gets people to want to live. Visceral celebration of life. He never said it was a good idea and only way. He admits to only doing it to frighten us.

Remember, the Haunted Mansion also features being perpetually shooting each other with guns. One can presume that is how they met their end as well.

None of it is as explicit as gangsters having Pirates or gangsters shooting towards/AT you in the crossfire.
Or actively drowning someone in a well.

Humans are sometimes momentarily reminded of things not directly connected(we are wired to look for patterns and reminders) but are resilient and are typically good about knowing the intent.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

They arguably made the ride more violent by changing the spooky, but ambiguous ride into a serial killer.

And they want you to buy merch of her!

Should she go because victims of serial killers or axe murders would be offended?

(Actually, that may be the way we finally get rid of Constance)

 

[celluloid]

They arguably made the ride more violent by changing the spooky, but ambiguous ride into a serial killer.

And they want you to buy merch of her!

Should she go because victims of serial killers or axe murders would be offended?

(Actually, that may be the way we finally get rid of Constance)

This is a great point, not because I am offended, but it changed the tone of what a grim grinning ghost is completely. The old bride may have been dark and forgotten, but ultimately a mystetry. We know they pretend to scare people plenty of times.

But her backstory is full of a malice ax wielding maniac trope.

 

[LittleBuford]

They arguably made the ride more violent by changing the spooky, but ambiguous ride into a serial killer.

And they want you to buy merch of her!

Should she go because victims of serial killers or axe murders would be offended?

(Actually, that may be the way we finally get rid of Constance)

Violence runs throughout Disney entertainment. Multiple animated classics feature scenes of fighting, assault, murder, etc. Depictions of suicide, by contrast, have not been normalised in the same way. One can debate the reasons why, but the distinction is nevertheless an observable fact.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

They arguably made the ride more violent by changing the spooky, but ambiguous ride into a serial killer.

And they want you to buy merch of her!

Should she go because victims of serial killers or axe murders would be offended?

(Actually, that may be the way we finally get rid of Constance)

I actually hate Constance. How am I supposed to explain her to my extremely inquisitive 7 yr old niece? I wish they would get rid of her.