Let’s Delve Into The Recent Changes at the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland
If you’ve been following along with us here at MickeyBlog you’ll know that prior to Disneyland reopening last month, Disney announced that they had made a few awesome updates to this beloved New Orleans Square attraction. So what exactly does the ride look and feel like these days?
There was an awesome piece that appeared in the OC Register last month that delves into that!
Updates on the Haunted Mansion began in January of 2020 before the pandemic. The end product is what the Register termed a 15-month home improvement project that included new draperies, wallpaper and updated decor on the inside and a clean lick of paint on the exterior.
So what about this attraction makes it so gosh darn endearing to Disney fans? The Register spoke to Walt Disney Imagineer producer Michelle Hobbs who said, “Where we’ve landed today is this awesome, family-friendly, funny, yet surprisingly intriguing piece of art that manages today to be totally relevant and wonderful for our guests.”
The outdoor pet cemetery was the recipient of new landscaping designs to enhance the area and bring life to the outdoor queues.
These details are subtle but wonderful when you take a closer look. For instance, above you’ll see the tombstone for Old Flybait with an epitaph that reads, “He Croaked.” As Imagineers were working on the landscaping for this attraction, they deliberately chose to surround this area with lily pads. Another tombstone for a skunk is surrounded by garlic and a white cat tombstone is surrounded by catnip!
During the year that Disneyland theme park was closed, Imagineers were hard at work looking for ways to revitalize the Haunted Mansion storyline. One way they did this was by unearthing some important Haunted Mansion artefacts and putting them on display once again.
One example is the return of a changing portrait. You’ll find the beauty above in the portrait gallery. The piece as we previously mentioned is called “April to December” and was the creation of Disney Legend Marc Davis that shows a woman aging right before your eyes.
As the OC Register tells us, this portrait was remove some twenty years ago when the shift in perspective didn’t work due to technology upgrades. This was solved when Disney extended the portrait gallery. Hobbs said of the paintings return, “When we’re able to bring it back in an even better way than it was before, which I think we’ve done, it enhances the story so much for us and drives the demand to ride the attraction,” Hobbs said.
A new cat statue was also placed near the “April to December” portrait. This new addition was actually inspired by the concept art of Disney Legend Imagineer X Atencio. One eye of the cat statue occasionally glows red. During the construction of the Haunted Mansion, the cat never came to fruition because Disney deemed it “too scary” instead it was replaced by the all too familiar raven.
As you make your way to the attic, also be on the lookout for a new dollhouse. Hobbs said of this spooky new addition, “The dollhouse is symbolic of the mansion itself,” Hobbs said. “If you get a good look at it, it’s a neat play on the architecture of the mansion itself.”
We’re told that the attic also holds some new trinkets that die-hard Mansion fans will want to be on the lookout for. According to Imagineers these were brought in to enhance bride’s backstory.
A new wicker chair was also added to the seance scene. In addition, Disneyland improved the sightlines in the graveyard scene so that you can see some often overlook details like a mummy holding a teacup. See if you can find him during your next visit!
We love all these new additions to an already spectacular Haunted Mansion. If you’ll be visiting Disneyland in the weeks or months ahead, see how many you can find!
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Source: OC Register