Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion ride takes visitors through spooky rooms with holographic paintings, audio-animatronics, and projections. The ride, completed in 1969, is one of the most popular in the Disney franchise. The mansion was inspired by the California Winchester Mystery House, and Walt Disney commissioned Imagineers to design the ride. Urban legends surround the ride, including mysterious music and a haunting tuxedo-clad man. Since 2001, the ride has been transformed each year from October to January to feature characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Haunted Mansion remains popular for its special effects and immersive atmosphere.
“Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion,” says your ghostly host as he invites you into the depths of the eerily quiet mansion that resides at Disneyland’s New Orleans Square. For the brave souls who choose to enter, the ride offers an extraordinary adventure through elongated rooms with no doors, chandeliers that move by themselves, and into a graveyard full of celebrating spectres. Disneyland’s haunted house, completed in 1969, is one of the best-known and best-loved rides in the Disney franchise, happily terrorizing visitors every day.
From the outside, the mansion is a well-kept plantation house, with an eerily large graveyard. As you walk through the queue, notice the humorous puns and inscriptions on nearby gravestones. Upon entering the foyer, you will be greeted by the ghostly voice of your host, directing you to a nearby room. The doors close behind you and you wonder: are the walls really getting longer?
Once you exit the elevator, walk carefully down the dark corridor, filled with holographic paintings and statues that warp and even seem to follow you as you pass. Climb aboard your “Doom Buggy” racing vehicle and allow the ghosts to guide you deeper into the house. The riders are then led through a variety of spooky rooms, enhanced by audio-animatronics, projections, and the occasional axe-bride killer. If you make it out alive, you might certainly be tempted to heed the ghosts’ call to “hurry up…come back, and don’t forget your death certificate!”
Walt Disney envisioned a haunted house ride before Disneyland was even built, inspired by the California Winchester Mystery House. Disney commissioned several of its designers, called Imagineers, to work on creating the designs for the ride. An urban legend that may actually be true involved two top Imagineers tasked with creating a spooky effects display controlled by a motion-sensing switch. When they arrived the next morning, they found a broom in the middle of the floor and an announcement that the janitors would never return.
Originally, the Haunted Mansion was going to have a fully developed storyline, but that idea was scrapped in favor of a hodgepodge of ghosts inhabiting their new home. Throughout the 1960s, construction of the villa continued, although the effects, history and even the name remained in dispute. During construction, it remained unclear whether the ride would be a foot or vehicle ride. Eventually, a compromise was reached, with visitors being able to walk through the garden, atrium and picture corridor before boarding cars for the rest of the journey. Using a combination of magician tricks, audio-animatronic characters, and the engineering experience gained from previous rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, the world of Haunted Mansion came to life and opened to the public in 1969.
Urban legends have always surrounded the Haunted Mansion, from ghostly encounters to actual deaths en route. Stories circulated about mysterious music and drums playing even when the ride was shut down, and a man in a tuxedo haunting the boarding area. Whether or not these stories are true, the mystery surrounding the ride is a tribute to the success of its creators.
Since 2001, the haunted house has been broken into by characters from Tim Burton’s film, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Each year, from October to January, the ride gets a total overlay of the Halloween-Christmas clash, with a visit from Sandy-Claws himself. While regular guests are torn between which version they like best, the holiday overlay is sure to keep the ride fresh for frequent visitors, who can marvel at the new script, characters, and even ghost-supplied songs.
The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland has remained popular for many reasons. The fantastic special effects are believable to even the most cynical of bikers and the atmosphere is completely immersive and thrilling. Along with Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion is one of the last rides Walt Disney worked on, and many believe Walt’s spirit is happily at home with the other 999 ghosts that inhabit the walls of the eerie mansion.
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