The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion is a well-known attraction at the Magic Kingdom and the Disneyland theme parks at each of the currently existing resorts around the world, except Hong Kong Disneyland. At Disneyland Paris this attraction is called Phantom Manor. The theme of the attraction is a visit to a haunted house in which the ghostly residents have taken full possession of the premises.

Recent changes

With few exceptions, the Disneyland attraction has remained largely unchanged since its 1969 opening. When the 2004–05 "Haunted Mansion Holiday" overlay was removed, two significant changes were made at the same time. The first was to the portraits in the gallery scene. The portraits were originally backlit and "morphed" from normal to haunted scenes. Today, they are darkened and the morphing occurs in stroboscopic synchronization with the simulated thunderstorm outside. One portrait, that of a young woman who morphs into an old hag, has been replaced by that of an aristocratic gentleman—rumored to be the mansion's owner Master Gracey—who morphs into a zombie, arguably a more frightening change.

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The other change is to the séance room. The disembodied head of fortune teller Madame Leota which spoke from within a crystal ball mounted to the table now hovers and moves around the table still within its ball. The effect was one of the attraction's most sophisticated from the onset and involved a complicated projection system invented and patented by Disney specifically for the Haunted Mansion.

Related Topics:
Séance - Fortune teller - Projection

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