“It’s been discussed for sure,” says Disney’s Michele Hobbs, who managed the Haunted Mansion refurbishment. Recently, there have been calls for removal of a hanging scene in the Haunted Mansion, noting its association with suicide and lynchings.ĭisney has heard those complaints, but for now, the scene will remain unchanged. Splash Mountain, for instance, will be rethemed to “The Princess and the Frog” in an effort to remove its connection to the racist film “Song of the South.” The Jungle Cruise is receiving multiple enhancements to strike its offensive portrayal of Indigenous people. In the last year, Disney has announced multiple changes and upgrades to its rides, many designed to bring the attractions in line with modern cultural sensibilities.
As part of a pre-pandemic plan to tidy up effects and give the Mansion a much needed cleaning, Walt Disney Imagineering - the secretive arm of the company responsible for theme park experiences - has also found a way to squeeze in an extra scene, in a nook just before guests board the ride’s “doombuggies.” Both inside and outside the Mansion, Disney creatives aim to gently deepen the mystery of the ride. Discarded eventually - a raven essentially fills a similar role - the cat, which will now be represented as an elegant statue, stands as a reminder that the Haunted Mansion was once envisioned more as a walk between the hair-raising and the humorous.īeyond the cat figurine, there are many other additions for guests to spot, from floating chairs to puzzling dollhouses. Sometimes we’d see the cat as simply an eye in the darkness other times, there would be allusions that this phantom was on the prowl for a spirit to possess. In a nod to Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Black Cat,” it had just one eyeball, which sat in its socket with all the subtlety of a fire alarm. In Atencio’s concept art, the cat featured elongated, vampire-like fangs and a piercing red eye. This fiendish feline would have followed guests throughout the ride, a creature said to despise living humans and with predatory, possessive instincts. There’s also a not-so sly nod to a demonic, eye-catching cat crafted by another of Disney’s famed animators-turned-theme park architects, Xavier Atencio.
Recently materialized in the attraction are a smattering of new illusions and curiosities a few will be particularly familiar to many of the Haunted Mansion’s borderline-obsessive fan community.Īmong the most prominent: the return of a dynamic portrait dreamed up by Disney master animator-designer Marc Davis of a once-beautiful woman aging less than gracefully. When it returns with upgrades and additions April 30 - the day Disneyland is set to fully reopen in Anaheim - it should prove the old adage that a good idea doesn’t die so much as haunt the universe until it becomes a reality. Check out all of our Haunted Mansion stretching portraits and let me know what you think! And please, share them with friends, through Pinterest, or on your social media with #keikoheartshalloween.Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion has been a source of fan mystique for even longer than its nearly 52 years at the park. All photos and composites are done by me. My dear friend Erin Solari collaborated with my sister and me on the sets, and Bobby, Denny, and Caleb (and myself, naturally) were my models. I still have a couple of treats coming for you, but I’m so excited to share the final portraits with you.
#Haunted mansion portraits series
Instead of doing 13 costumes (as I did last year), I wanted to focus on recreating a series of the Haunted Mansion portraits at Brooklyn Brigade. This Halloween, I wanted to do things a little differently.
The girl with the parasol stretches to reveal that she’s on a fraying tightrope above an alligator, the stately man is standing on a barrel of dynamite, the friendly looking widow is sitting on her husband’s grave, with an axe in his head, and the smug looking guy with his arms crossed? He and his friends are sinking into quicksand. I was always fascinated by the Haunted Mansion portraits - particularly the stretching portraits that greet you at the beginning of the ride. The Haunted Mansion has been one of my favorite rides at Disney World and Disneyland, ever since I was a kid. Is this haunted room actually stretching, or is it your imagination? Watch the video to see them in action. Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion! Our tour begins here in this gallery, where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state.
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