Episode 77: The Haunted Mansion

our happiest time of the year. It's the most wonderful time of the year because we have jam packed Halloween based episodes for all of you horror babies, which if he is now an honorary horror baby because he was forced to now that he has to watch horror movies. Oh yeah, yeah, Who Shot You? Has put me through too so far, which has both been scary stories to tell in the dark and it chapter two which you know you all had their spooks. The Paul Bunyan really

got me because the teeth were real creepy. They gotta get you some real scary, real scary ones should come over and do that. Uh. Sitting with us today is filmmaker pop culture journalists and our good friends being the Graves. Hey, everyone, I'm excited to be here. Vers Spooktober. You are a very horror baby. Yes, I'm a very horror baby. I like to joke that because I was born in June, I was made during October. You know, you know, kudos for doing the math. Um. Yeah, you you write a

lot about horror for a lot of your pop culture stuff. Um, what is your favorite scary movie? Oh my gosh, that's like right now, right now, my most favorite scary movie. Yeah, so good. If you have not seen that, have you? I think you can hang with it. Uh, Sabina. We've been starting our podcast with what people are seeking out about. What are you getting out about this week? I'm actually geeking out about Hadestown. It's a Broadway musical that is

supremely my jam. It's basically a retelling of the Orpheus and you were to see myth uh if it wasn't like the post apocalyptic dust bowl. And it's a very awesomely diverse cast Under the Shield's Place Hermes you known him from The Whiz and Reeve Carney is the lead in that. He plays Orpheus and it's pretty awesome. Music

is amazing. It was originally a concept album um by an Ace read her last name Mitchell, Yes, and he's Mitchell and it like took years and years for to like, uh you know, be developed into musical and it actually is the only Broadway musical right now that has a female director. And she won the Tony d Also that's kind of sad. Yeah, oh she called it out when she went okay, good, Yeah, I love when they do that.

If you what are you speaking out about? Oh man, Well, you know, it's uh October one and last weekend was Twitch Con, so I'm probably still recovering, reeling from all the fun meeting all the people in my community, uh you know, nerd Fam, Salt Squad, all like who came down to San Diego to turn up and meeting other creators. So that's what I'm speaking out about. Uh, you know, definitely look forward to any recaps that I may be posting or talking about. But yeah, real stoked. Fresh Doc

finale went down without a hitch. I'm sure of it. And now it's you know, now it's time to see what's next going to Hunted House? Well, yeah, yeah I do, because I did see you, uh you know, Chris and Risco, and I was like, oh, I didn't you want to ask a play? Did not ask you? Because I've asked you every Oh, well, you always asked me before my body marinates and gets ready to be scared, you know, like no, I needed to be October to fully let

the scary juices get inside me, you know. Okay, but the free tickets are for September, so I got away from the scary juices. Um. The thing that I'm geeking out about is I got to do a storyboard animation class at six point Harness, which is an animation studio. You will recognize their work. They did hair Love, which was the short that was before that was directed by Matthew Cherry. That was a short that was before Angry Birds. Uh to. They also have done animation for Cartoon Network,

Powerpuff Girls, Peanuts, super Dope. And they had a lot of cool directors come in. They had a lot of cool directors come in, and one of them was Matt Danner who is the director for Muppet Babies. He is also the voice of Little Kermit. It was so cute and he sounds just like them. Um. And they had a lot of cool a lot of cool people there. Noel Raphael l who is a She was a storyboard

artist now a director. UM who has gotten to work on amazing things and Mario Diana who is the director for Bob's Burgers and also working on other things, and so it was really cool. It was so dope. I'm not an animator or I'm like everybody could draw a lot better than me, But I was more just wanted to see the storyboard process as a writer and someone that's going into animation, and so really really cool. Check out their work. They also do you know these workshops

for free? I think like a hundred and fifty people applied. They only they had spots for thirties, so I was really honored to be in there. But follow them on Instagram so that you can pop in and if it's something that you're interested in breaking into. They are a great resource. That's what I'm geeking out about today. We are talking about the Hunted Mansion. That music is so iconic. I feel like that's just I actually have I know

you and I have talked about this. UM. I have a party version that I want to play the sun Spotify. It's under spooky, spooky scary skeletons. Yes, this is me and this is me when I'm getting ready, like in my kitchen. UM that makes it sound like I get changed in my kitchen and the like when I'm getting ready for my morning. Um, Sabina, what is your first

memory of the Hunted Mansion at Disneyland or disney World. Disneyland, for sure, I grew up in l A. So kind of like going to Disneyland every year was a big thing. And honestly, the growing up, I just know that I was scared and I had like my my face covered with my face covered with eyes and my face covered with my hands and trying to like peek through. And it was definitely like a gradual love as I got

older with Haunted Mansion. So definitely like scared, you know, like honestly starting out scared, but then like why hitting the graveyard you know and having all the ghosts come out and being silly and fun, getting comfortable and loving

it and being just completely love. What about you if because you are a former cast member, Yeah, so you know the same way I grew up in l A. Same thing was a little scary when I was younger, but yeah, as especially when I was in cast member, uh the cast member years, when I was going to Disneyland almost once a day, Haunt imagine was like a half like I had to hit it once a day. It's just such a fun especially it's from my era of Disney. Disneyland rides that are like super immersive, like

Pirates of the Caribbean. If you look at Peter Pan Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, like those are dark rides that kind of take you in this world and you kind of escape, and the imagineers just kind of went all out, you know, and it was what was real creepy, even though I think they toned it down now, was that room with

the lady who cut all our husband's head off? Like that was very scary and and uh but and that's that's my big argument that I'm gonna just go ahead off the top, just start is the fact that I do not like that they switch over to the Nightmare before Christmas, because the Nightmare before Christmas is not scary, it's very fun. Also, it's Christmas, it's a Christmas theme were but they keep it up until Chris After, they keep it till New Year's Yeah, I mean it's it's

it's silly. But the reason they do it is because the ride has to be down for almost two weeks to do the transition. So if you think of that if you think of it that way, there's really no way to transition because especially Disney, right after Halloween fully starts to pivot into their holiday stuff, so they have it's the trade off where they're just trying to beg us to uh accept it. Because I've sat down with another like disney Head, and we like talked about how

we both think it's lame. But then I think it was with the podcast the Ride, because we were talking about and I was talking about how I hated it, and then we did uh once once we did get to the fact that, like it has to be down for two weeks, It's like, do you take the two weeks that would have it be before you know, um be be essentially block out Halloween. No, you don't want to do that, or do you take it the first two weeks of November, which, no, you don't want to

do it, even though I think you should. Yeah, yeah, you don't need the first two weeks of November. But I mean, in a perfect world, if the changeover was could be quicker, I would love it if you had it happened the night of of um Halloween, because since the movie starts the night of Halloween, like that would be fun, but that's is impossible just because they have to add so much stuff. I uh, yeah, I guess I'm in a different camp. I love it. And also

I you've made that apparent. What I will say is that, yeah, it's not it's not scary, and the Haunted Mansion Ride itself, I would say, isn't unless you are a young person. I can see someone around the age of like five or six. You know, they're they're starting y you know when you and I think this is why, because you know how something. So if you don't know how the Haunted Mansion ride works, it's in constant motion. It's a

conveyor belt throughout the omni mover. So if you have these people who are not paying attention and they're not getting in the Omni mover at the speed, they have to stop it. And they really do not want to do this because it stops the whole ride. But you will always get in, you know. Sometimes people have you know, a disability or you know, and maybe like an old person, you can't because it does move, It moves out a pace. It definitely isn't like the slowest, but it's it'll stop.

And I remember as a kid being stuck in front of one of the scarier door knobs, and just I was so sure that door was going to open. I was so I think I've had to be like eight or nine, and I was like, this is how a die. I've definitely gone. I get stuck every time I go there. Um. But yeah, so let's just hop right into it. You they're right about it being a conveyor belt. You get into a doom buggy that closes on its own. Uh. And the haunted manner itself has happy haunts, but there's

always room for one more. I'm way too excited about this episode. So the idea for the mansion actually proceeds. Disneyland and W E. D Enterprises to win. Walt Disney hired the first of his imagineers, as if he was saying, uh, those were essentially like research and development people that we're looking into the creation, design, and construction of the Disney parks. So Disney assigned imagineer Ken Anderson to create a story

using uh Disney legend. Harper Job's idea, which was to build a New Orleans theme land in a small transition area between Frontier Land and adventure Land. UH and so New Orleans also has parts of the Caribbean, right, and this old antebellum manner overgrown with weeds, dead trees, you walk through a cemetery. Yeah, originally, Uh, it has always been in different points of development since before Disneyland and

um Walt had basically so many hands touched this project. Honestly, UM they were thinking that it would be at one point a museum of the weird, where you'd go into the mansion and there'd be like alternate route you could exit through, but you'd be going in and experiencing just like a haunted house walk through, and you'd encounter like scary optical illusions or just crazy designs that all of the different team members had planned out. And this was

while while was still alive. I guess, let's just go through the actual mansion. So you get in, UM, and we have the elevator, which if you're a small child or I guess maybe Iffy, maybe you didn't know. I think, like you know, you have the growing portraits, the famed growing portraits, UM, and that is actually an elevator that's taking you below. That's what you know below the actual park. So so all of the haunted mansion is actually underground,

underground and like to the side for sure. Yeah, I know, like after the whole Museum of the Weird thing, it kind of turned into a like they brought in different imagineers who kind of decided to go a more just dark ride um angle for it, and you know you have like the stretching portraits. They brought in Extensio, who is latin X, which really awesome. You know, like one of the early Latino X engineers over at Disney. He

worked on Priors of the Caribbean. He was a lyricist and the scriptwriter for that, and he was also brought on board to write the story for the Haunted Mansion, so he all of his like dialogues, the first stuff that we hear when we go in and meet the ghost hosts like welcome foolish Mortals. Yeah. Can you talk about the Um some of the stories in the mansion, So are there any particular ones behind the growing the

people in the growing Um portraits? So they were all like different characters that were sort of invented as a part of the mythology. There was never a like coherent story to begin with um just because of all those different evolutions and definitely it's one of the reasons why it's such an intriguing place because you go in and there's like, you know, Sally silt Walker, and like, um, who's like the type of lady and he's still Walker.

It's Sally something in my head, I'm like still Walker. Um. You also have you know, like the you have well you have constants, so you see her as an older woman on the gravestone of her husband and she's the bride, so she is still pretty much incorporated throughout the whole right itself. Um, And basically when you're in there, you have this you know, mansion of different spirits, some good,

some maybe a little malevolin um. And you encounter you know, the hat box ghost, who is a recent edition even though um he wasn't been around. He was originally on the ride for a short while, but I guess that people weren't happening with like the effect back then didn't uh work as well as you know now we're able to do it, um with his disappearing head. But yeah,

I know. But but since then, like he was always a part of like a lot of the marketing uh sort of advertisement and became like this cult legend um who finally has found his place back in. Yeah, speaking of people making their place and making their place not back in, I don't know if you have the crow, the little crow around there. If you're on the ride, you'll see like a little crow at different portions of

the of the ride. Originally that was supposed to be the narrator and then that was scrapped and they're like, no talking crow. Um. There's also one thing I always have to mention as an ex cast member. It's imperative that I mentioned this one because you were talking about how this was done where when Walt was still alive. Walt Disney has only ever step foot in Disneyland, which means Disneyland is the only park with Walt spirit inside it.

Walt passed away before disney World was created, so as a as, although it maybe bigger and have all the different parks, doesn't feel the same, doesn't feel the same, It doesn't have a spirit inside of it. I know that because I my friend was in the Disney College program. He was a cast member at and cast member. By the way, if you don't know, is anyone that works at the Disney parks, Um, they're called cast members, and um, he was at Disney World. I can't say what he

did off to tell you off the things. I don't want to get him in trouble because he's one of the characters. But he finally he worked at disney World, and I'm like, dude, you have to go to Disneyland. I love Disneyland. There's just something like extra magical about it. And he went and he was like, I see what you mean. I think it's because all of the care that was put into it. Like I love disney World. Disneyland is like the originals. You know. It's like these

were not replicas, Like this was the original rides. This was the like the down to, like the little painting details in the rides. It's just so Yeah, it has like a more quaint, familial magic to it. Um other speaking of, like a really eerie coincidence that kind of does give Disney or a little bit of Disneyland's heart is that the Hunted mansion at disney World was built at the same time as a haunted mansion at Disneyland. Yeah,

like they kind of have like those at all. Yeah, Disney is real real into that, which is why there's a ride that's just sitting waiting for Galaxy's Edge because they want to make sure that Disney World gets at first. Be a shame if Disneyland had something before Disney World and everything has to be he cool, um Disney as as if as a cast member, Disney really does put

sometimes almost too much thought into everything they do. They're very into the immersion of the idea you're as a cast member, as a former castmer, you're not able to discuss like things that are going on outside of the park. Like I remember I was working during the Super Bowl and they're like, you are to not give any scores.

You can't can't give any scores. You can ask for scores because they and that's why, like if you notice certain portions of the park that will be fake sky, it's because Walt never wanted you to see outside of the park. He wanted you to be fully immersed in Disneyland. And and and that's why I like, you know, and um something that was really pushed on us as cast members. And once you when you work there, you you feel the magic. It's not like it's forced, but it's the

idea of a magical moment. You can create a magical moment for a kid or a family just by doing something sweet that you're trying to create moments that they will remember forever. And that's how you interacted. So and that's why anytime you see these people going viral, you know online of like, oh they did this, is like that's that's that's part of that's you know, it's not to diminish it in any way, but that's part of

the job. As you're looking for those moments, um and when and if you do see something, do not ask, uh, who is the Like, don't say what's the actress that plays X y Z, say who is the friend of that? Yes, because that is the way because like you know, like Danny said, the guest, if you are it's like you don't play Cinderella, you're Cinderella's friend. You're a friend of Cinderella. You're a friend of Belle. That's like the Santa the

mall Santa's So this is kind of cool. Two of the mansion's main designers, Mark Davis and Claude Coats, disagreed on whether the right should be frightening or enjoyable. Um Claude originally was a background artist wanted a scary Adventure in produced renditions of moody surroundings like endless hallways, corridors

of doors, and numerous characterists environments. This is also fascinating because it says that Walt Disney actually visited UM the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, and then inspired him for he never wanted the mansion to be like scary and decrepit on the outside. He was like he loved the aesthetic of like the Winchester Mystery House being like pristine and gorgeous, but once you go into the

haunted mansion, it's the ghosts that kind of take care of. Like, yeah, and just for anyone that doesn't know, the Winchester Mystery House has a bunch of like stairs that lead to nowhere, doors that open two walls. It's we should go ify. I actually never been there, for I was in a pilot for Fangoria where we had to spend the night at haunted places, and that was the next place that we were going to spend the night. Well, we'll hit them up for this podcast. We'll get it sponsored by

the Winchester Mystery House. UM, And so they kind of both got their wish of having it, you know, be silly and full of gags, but also areas that it's super dark. The ride narration was performed by Paul Freeze and the role of our ghost host uh and the Tractions theme song is grim Grinning Ghosts, which was composed

by Buddy Baker, with the lyrics as Sabina said by Extensio. Yes, and one of the cool things are at about exit ten TiAl is that he was saying that like in the midst of everyone kind of like being like should be scarier, it should be funnier. Um, he kind of like helped everyone get real back in because at the end of the day and this is all happening, as

you know, wal was certain to get sick. And you know, Walt's whole thing with it is that he wanted it to be inviting, you know, and something that could be inviting can also still be spooky and fun, you know. And I like how it kind of even harkins too.

You know. What we love about Coco that came out recently is that like ghosts and like life in all of its forms, can be something to not be afraid of and to kind of like accept in, you know, be a part of the Swinging Wake if he um, I know you're not gonna want to hear this, but the first time that I played with Auigi board was for that pilot. We spent the night at Bob Baker's Marionette Theater. I can't remember if I told you this, but we Jamie Loftus, myself and a couple of other hosts.

We use a Luigi board, and I like none of us were moved, like we would not be able to have been answered these questions. It was like, we're like, what's your favorite puppet? And it would like name something that we didn't even know. Um. But one of the things that when we asked it like how about the afterlife? And it just seemed like cool, like everyone was hanging out in the afterlife. So anyways, I just wanted to tell you that, um story, if you ever want to.

I've messed her. I've messed That's what It's like. Everyone's just hanging Yeah. So so uh Before the opening, this is actually real cool to see. They had employee previews of the mansion on August six, seven, and eight, followed by the soft openings on the ninth and tenth, where a limited number of part guests were allowed to ride, uh and then a midnight press event was held on the evening of the eleven. And the reason that this is kind of cool is because that's something they do

till this day. When they did those Star Toars redesign, I was able to uh go on a cast member only you know, night and try it. So it's it's it seems like it's just a tradition held as old a time. But the mansion open to all guests on August twelve, nineteen six nine. So, oh my gosh, we almost it was the we passed the anniversary. Yes, fifty years this year, Yeah, fifty years this year. How they're

celebrating it all year? Oh wow, that's wild. Which speaking of you know, we mentioned earlier the Haunted Mansion holiday, the Gingerbread house that they do every year in the dining room scene. This year is actually the Haunted Mansion for the fiftieth birthday as Yeah, so when they flip it over to holiday times, they also have like it smells like gingerbread in that area. We too have to go to Disney because last time I went was this time last year, and they have all they have so

many different Halloween flavored. I had the pumpkin spice which was solid. They have a sour apple solid. Okay. They one of my favorite people in there's Madam Leota. Do you want to talk a little bit about her, Sabina, Madam Leota is everything? Does she have a story behind her? Her placement there? They had like all these different elements and definitely she was one of those things that you know that you have to have the psychic in there, and like having her be a disembodied head is amazing.

And I think it was the voice of Maleficent, right, who does the voice of Leota? Oh? Really, that's super cool. She also appears, I think in other areas of the mansion. There's a two there's a tombstone of her dear sweet Leota, beloved by all in regions beyond now. But having a ball uh yeah, so her head appears. I always thought that was really super cool in that like seance scene. What is some of your favorite parts of the of

the mansion? Some of my favorite parts of the mansion. Um. I would definitely have to say that the ballroom scene is one of my favorites. I I like to this day, I avoid watching those like behind the scenes videos that tells you how like the magic happens, they don't want to break that illusion even though like a vaguely like sort of no old like Peppers ghost stuff. Um yeah, I just but it's so cool, so cool, like the dueling,

the dueling yeah, ghosts, the dueling ghosts. And it also like during how during the Christmas switch over for Nightmare, it has my favorite room of all time, which is the floating book room. It's like off to the corner, to the left corner. Um, so between the organist and the dining room table, they opened up a curtain and you see floating books and it kind of looks like a Christmas tree. But I, I just I loved that.

Like visual, it's definitely my favorite. What about you? Um, you know, as a dog person, I always love the graveyard digger and his dog. I also always get stuck there for some reason, So I love that. I love that area. What else? I love the singing ghosts. I love the Actually I do love the changing portraits. So you go in, you see the stretch, you're in the stretching room. You have your your host ghost that talks to you. Uh, there is this is a little dark.

There's a hanging that has taking place, has hung themselves um and you hear a scream and a crash, and then you're let out of the elevator. Before you get to your doom buggy, you encounter six changing portraits. One is April December. It's a young lady April who morphs into a decrepit old woman December. The next is the Flying Dutchman. It's a clipper ship which becomes a ghost ship with tattered sales on a stormy sea. Medusa, who's one of my favorites. My mom actually went as her

for Halloween. I have to send it you a picture of it morphying from a young woman into a stony gorgon. The Black Prince, which is a night on horseback named on concept art as the Black Prince, where both horse and the writer morphed into glowing skeletons. The Weird Cat Lady is my favorite. It's a beautiful woman reclining on a sofa and then she transforms into a panther or after the renovation, it was like a white tiger. And then the Aging Man, a handsome nobleman who flashes into

a skeleton in a rotting suit. So those are are I really think those are cool. The um Bus stones, though the bus of the Singing Ghosts are some of my favorites. Yeah, I was the singing ghost is great, but I was even thinking back to UM when you first arrive out of the elevator and you have that one bus that follows you, like those are like the fun illusions and then the ones of like there's the paintings and then the lightning will strike and then it

is a dark version of the painting. So though that's always super, I spend way too much time looking at that anytime I go in, even though I've seen it a million times. Yes, so they have an homage to those singing bus In Hercules during I Don't Say I'm in love Um, the five muses appear as the bush uh and then one of them is broken. Uncle Theodore is the broken one. There was originally planned to be a six female singing bust and lou Krushia I think,

but this was never used, although it should be. It should be, let's add it in. I'm like not opposed

to them making changes, honestly. Yeah, but there, I mean they added in the Hapox ghost once that effect was like actually possible, and at a panel this past summer Midsummer Scream, you know, they're kind of saying that they want to take on the tradition of every year after Haunted Mansion Holiday adding something different to the mansion itself and kind of trying to ease fans into like sort of effects and things that are beloved being changed in updated to allow for a new technology to make it

even more like crazy awesome, And they basically like dropped hints that Madam Leota would be done a lot better with new technology than with the technology that they're cool. I like, but maybe because I remember her from the old one, Like I just remember, you know, I've been around long enough also growing up in southern California, that I remember these things before they were how they are now. I'm very fascinated to hear more about our famous bride

at the Haunted Mansion. But we have to take a really quick break. We'll hop back into that right after this. Okay, so we are back and are bleeding heart bride Constance Hatchaway, can you tell the audience a little bit about her? Yeah. So one of the things a lot of people don't notice when they're on the ride is that every portrait that you pass on the way to her. In the attic scene, she is with a different husband and a

new strand of pearls appears around her neck like seven necklaces. Basically, I thought she was a jilted wouldn't Wasn't she a jilted lover? Like, wasn't she left? I thought that's what happened to her, That that's a phantom manner so in France, which actually sees what I'm saying. So like, so earlier we're talking about like Leota, and I was like trying

to figure out like what her backstory was. But literally recently between a backstory, I've created variety as I have, but also just in general a lot of the Haunted Mansion characters that were just thrown in, you know, like when it was a big mishmash of everyone kind of

adding characters. They all have a lot of backstories that are currently being expanded through books and comic books and like a lot of um rpging components on the Disney play app and um so Leota and like Constance and Sally the Stn't Walker, um they all now have stories that you can kind of like dive into and it's really cool because, Um, if you go back to phantom manner before the recent redo of that storyline, she was a jilted bride and this is a phantom manner in France,

uh Disneyland, Paris. Um. She she was a jilted bride whose father I believe goes on a revenge spree because she gets left at the altar, or it's that her father. Like there's like a like day leaned into the horror for sure with that one, because France did not get doing both scary and funny, so they were like, no,

it has to be a scary thing. And basically I think the storyline for that one was that she thinks she gets left at the altar, but her father murders her husband and it's her just like waiting and mourning and just like becoming old. And it's one of the rids that I wish I had gone on before the refurb But in the new story for a Phantom manner, it kind of has this idea that kind of makes the bride evil again. I would say, so she and her father, I guess team up two like con men

out of their fortunes. Um and yeah, they just added a new bride animatronics, so they updated her similarly to the bride that you remember with like the heart um, and she's now like different and it's a it should be really interesting, Like there's like now a whole book about the phantom manner because that one has a lot of history that also went into it. Yeah. It says that she married several rich men, including bankers, businessman, farmers, and barons, and she was dubbed by the public the

black widow bride. So her husband's were Ambrose Harper. Gosh, these names, the naive but good intentions, son of successful farmers. They married in eighteen sixty nine. Her next husband was Frank Banks. I love that they're just named after Frank Banks, an Eastern banker and community pillar. Married in eighteen seventy two. Oh, she's not taken any time. Seventy two. That's that's no time at all. The Marquis day Doom, a foreign diplomat

with a military pass. They married in eighteen seventy four, two years later. Who's marrying her? Wow, I mean she's she's I mean good for her. Reginald Caine, a celebrated railroad baron gambler in world renowned gormant. I love that

they have this much backstory for her. Married in eighteen seventy five, one year later, and then this year finally George high Tower, a possible relative of the wealthy hotel owner explorer Harrison high Tower, the third They got married in eighteen seventy seven, and that was her final husband, who was one of the main who was one of

the many owners of the mansion. So after murder, after murdering high Tower, Constance decides that she was satisfied with the wealth she has accumulated and settled down in her mansion. She later died of unknown causes, but people think it's old age. And then she became a permanent resident of the mansion's attic, standing up there. And she also the one that says, um come back, carry back. Yeah. Well,

also speaking of the high Tower family. So you know how like Orlando and Anaheim's haunted mansion is like funny spooky Frances is like terrifying Hong Kong, Disneyland has a um haunted mansion that is not actually haunted. It's called Mystic Manner and it's owned by I believe Henry high Tower, who you mentioned as like the relative of the high

tower here that got beheaded. Probably Um, he has this house and a pet monkey who gets into his artifact room and he's like a collector of like crazy artifacts, Indiana Jones style things. And the monkey gets into this box that basically unleashes, um some powers that make the

house really sentient. So like you follow the monkey on like a whimsical adventure through the halls of this mansion, and like certain things that are haunted mansion like happened to like a the armor of a soldier comes to life, a room completely morphs into a fantastical landscape. But it's like a cute little adventure and not scary at all. Uh. And then we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the Haunted Mansion. Two thousand and three American Supernatural

have to if he please take it away? Do we have to talk about this film? Okay, my throat, My throat closed up, you want to talk about? Haunted Mansion is as a two thousand three American supernatural horror comedy film based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name. Directed by Rob Minkoff, The film is written by David Baron Baum and stars ed T Murphy, Terrence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, Marcia Thomason, Jennifer Tilly, and Dina spy Bay.

Film was theatrically released in the United States on November twenty six, of two thousand three, some would say almost twenty six days too late, and is Disney's fifth film based on an attraction at one of its theme parks. The following film UH, the following the television film Tower of Terror, Mission to Mars, The Country Bears, and The Pirates of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The film grossed a hundred and eight one eighty two point three million worldwide on a ninety million budget UH, which means it was a success, but it received negative reviews from critics, citing a lack of scares and humor. Yeah, like it was like, which is which you know, as someone who has seen it on TV, you know, Yeah, you weren't sure if that movie was going to be scary or funny, and then uh, it was neither. That was something because I was so excited after seeing Pirates

of the Caribbean The Curse of the Black Pearl. The best sequence in that film to me is that moment where Elizabeth Swan realizes that the pirate ship she's on is filled with ghosts, like you know, like the whole of your Nightmare's Miss Turner, you're living one scene with Jeffrey Rush who just living one yes, um, Like that was like hilarious and terrifying, and so I thought that was the tone that we were going to get for

the Haunted Mansion movie. And they're so different. They both came out in the same year and they could not be more different. Success Well, it's funny because they took two different approaches. Where Parts of the Caribbean took the

theme of the ride and made its own story. This film very obviously tried to make a story out of different points of the ride, which it's if you've been listening to the podcast Episod to this point is just a hodgepodge, a bunch of stories, so you can't make one cohesive story out of it, like I remember they tried.

They they have the scene with the floating like head in the glass, like it was like no, no, like you you should have did the parts of the Caribbean thing, which is just using those themes and then you can have different knots to the stuff in the ride, but creating its own story. Uh, mostly because and it's and I don't think it's I don't necessarily think it's the

fault of anyone. When you really think of like a big, big budget movie like this and the fact that it's connected to a ride, I can imagine like, you know, probably dealing with the studios being like, this isn't like the ride, but I think, you know, it seems like it's rumored that we're going to get another shot at this. I hope so. And I well, that was supposed to be general do Toro's um would ended up being, um,

what am I thinking of the p Crimson peak? Crimson Peak by the way, if you watch, I literally was like, oh, this is the Haunted Mansion, like you can you don't know, but like the scenery, the decoration, like the wall, people, like everything. I was like, oh, this start this movie started out like they were trying to film the Haunted Mansion. Uh. And then you know, whatever fell through there, I don't know fell through there, um, which was fascinating becomes Crimson peak.

He kept trying to tell people, this is not a horror story, this is a love story, and I think it was. Um, I think it was marketed. Not his fault, but that's typically what they do, is they'll market those stories as like scary, and he just kept trying to tell people this isn't scary, this is like a love story, which fascinating enough. I think they could have done with

the haunted mansion. Uh is have like this, you know, jilted lover or type of haunted love story, background of why the person doesn't leave and yeah, so maybe we'll

get it again. I hope. So. I think, I honestly think that like with shows that are really popular right now, if you think about Hunting on Hill House, or if you think about Stranger Things or Downtown Abbey, even um, if you have it as like a series on Disney Plus that is literally you know, like aesthetically and creepily like Counting of Hill House, but you know, with the scare factor of maybe Stranger Things, you know, to still everyone, I think that you could get away with creating different

seasons in an anthology form where people can bring their own creative ideas and storytelling points of view into it, but also sprinkling, sprinkling all like the Little Crazy nods that people want to see and going back to Gamao

Toro thing. So before he did Crimson Peak and he did that like announcement at Comic Con where he revealed the hat Box Ghost key art that was actually something that Tony Baxter, one of the imagineers, like killed as like a big moment for imagineering that made everyone kind of work on the hat Box Ghost that was put in a ride around that time. Yeah, because he was gone. He was gone for like forty five years. I don't

know how I remember him. Maybe just an art, I guess. Yeah. Um. One thing that we didn't mention was that the design was actually inspired by a real house. It's called the Shipley Leedaker House. It's in Baltimore and it was demolished in nineteen sixty seven, but not before Ken Anderson, who is one of the imagineers, saw an image of it in a book called Decorative Art of Victoria's Era and loved the design. Um, let me see if we can pull this up and see how close it is. Oh yeah,

that's it. Look at this iffy oh Man. That's not inspired. That is literally super cool. We'll have to link that in tweet that out for you all to see. Here's a little known fact. There was almost a water ride version of it. Uh Claude Coats, who again was one of the imagineers, thought of it as to play a boat ride. Now I think that they vetoed that due to uh pirates being right there. But that's actually really creepy. I could see that. You know, it's still in New Orleans,

like being in a swamp kind of territory. That would have been kind of tight. Yes, one of the ideas with like the Museum of the Weird thing is to like literally going with the line of your left to

find a way out. Um they had originally planned like and even in the construction of it itself now like, um so the graveyard area um to the if you're like so between Splash Mountain and the mansion where you exit, that was gonna be its own area with like two different exits you need to like find your way out literally through a labyrinth. And then the other side also

had that originally. So if you look down at where all of the mausoleum sort of places are, there are like different doors there that we're supposed to be a part of that as well. Yeah, so while abandoned, they're not quite completely abandoned. Yeah, this is just some more cool facts. The original organ and that you hear for the grim grinning ghost tune was actually in the nine film adaptation of Leagues under the Sea. A few of the parts, including the headboard, were swapped out, but the

body of the organ is the same. Um. Yeah, gosh, there's some nerdy Disney things about different tunes. Like I think one of the rumors was that the Space Mountain theme is the Haunted Mansion themes sped up. Yeah, but I don't. I don't think that. I think that might have been disproven. But there's like little stuff like like that that I just totally forgot. Oh. I didn't want to bring up a little bit about like awesome imagineering

history there. You know, we hear about like the general players of like the Bob gir and you know, the Claude and stuff. But um, recently, one of the female imagineers who worked on the ride started started to do more appearances at things. Her name is Tania Morris, and

she was the interior designer for the ride. U She had literally come to America and got into work, you know, in antiquing and stuff like that, and like the Disney family, like UM hired her to basically create the interiors for New Orleans Square for the Haunted Mansion in Club thirty three, and she was involved, you know, like in those early days of the early six season, they were doing a lot of extensive research, you know, because they had that

announcement of the Haunted Mansion like on The Wonderful World of Walt Disney, you know the show, and then it

took like basically tanyas to happen. Um. But in those research trips, like Walt would take her and the rest of the team to New Orleans and they would literally just um visit like every little store, look at little nooks and crannies by Like she was like I was paid to like literally grab junk that I can put in the attic and Um, back then, like people didn't put their name on things like whenever they'd like collaborate on it, she was like, I did doodles of the wallpaper,

and when I did do with the wallpaper, it was the same color and everything, but instead of little owls, it was little bats, and like that's like I want to see that design. I also want that design from my wallpaper, So yeah, I know, and like and what was someone who you know, like whenever he'd go on trips with people, if he knew that you came from like a background where you didn't have like that much opportunity and stuff, like, he would help you like kind

of get to know a space. Like she said that like every day they go to a different restaurant and like they tried different foods, and then they would go work on the World's Fair stuff at the same time and go to like New York. And if he knew that you'd never seen New York, he'd have the driver

take different paths to wherever you were going. Yeah, like it was it was crazy y yeah, no, uh and uh something because we keep talking about the imagineers and you know, Danny said, you know, a light kind of done on them. But yeah, imagineers are basically all the engineers of not only just like the rides themselves and the way they work, but like the kind of the atmosphere and the theme of different parts of the parks, and it's like it's it's a very esteemed position there.

It's you know, without trying to blow up in any uh, anyone's spot. A large media company I worked for had someone who wasn't imagine who was an imagineer, and they weren't even able to say that they wasn't that they were an imagineer for the video because it's that like like that kind of esteem where it's like you have to earn I think you kind of have to earn the right to say that you were one. You know.

So that was really cool, you know. Um, and then Club thirty three we talked about, but I definitely have to we have to sidebar. Club thirty three is a super exclusive club. I have not been, uh there. I I used to be like when I was real in the Disney Life. There's a whole I freak at the name of the website, but you know that one where they it used to like it's before the app came out, and you used to get all the weight times from

that website and then they would raffle off people. Members of Club thirty three would raffle off a chance to go to Club thirty three with them. Um. But Club thirty three, uh used to be the only place in Disneyland where you can drink alcohol. It was an exclusive club, hidden club in the New Orleans Square. It has a thirty three on the wall. You like use a special card to get in, and it's a last time I checked the thirty year long waiting list, it's like like

almost ten racks to be even get in there. And yeah you can, and they can give it to if they can bring anyone they want there. But to get to be a card carrying member of Club thirty three, you got to know people, and it's still hard. Um, you know, or be an ABC star. Yeah, even then, I'm pretty sure they get invited because I I know certain uh uh large celebs who weren't able to get in really really bad about Yeah I knew. My friend was really good friends with um Sarah Highland, so in

Vanessa Hudgens, so they all together, you know. If you're a Disney star, yeah, I don't know if they necessarily give them a member. You can go anything, can go any time, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Still my goal is Club thirty three by age thirty three. Oh you haven't been yet. I have not been yet. I mean, like it's it's the weird thing of like knowing but like I know of because because every time I know, it's

because someone for their birthday. Knew whom to ask, and so you have to ask that person and then that person. So I'll get I think I have a few people I can ask to, like get too close to that. Let's go, Danny, let's get with me. We have to take another really quick break. We're gonna hop back into more of the haunted Merchant right after this, and we're back. I did want to So we touched on the ghosts in the ballroom scene, but it's actually created using an

illusion called Pepper's Ghosts. It's name for scientists. Well, actually, do you want to go over it? Do you have it? I don't worry about it. I don't watch the videos. I don't know the truth. So it's name for scientists John Henry Pepper. The illusion actually uses mirrors and likes to create a ghostly visual effect. So as visitors passed through the ballroom scene, they're actually looking through a large you're actually through a large pane of glass reflection. Just so. Yeah,

and then there's also the cemetery we talked about. There's a pet cemetery. Yeah. In the pet cemetery you can find a very famous toad who has a wild ride the thing about that ride if he is that you dye and go to Hell. It's it's wild that nobody that people have complained about so many things, but not that, like that's the end of the ride. You drunk, drive, you die, you go to hell, and then you pull them out and then you just come out on the

other end and that's it. It is the wildest thing that. Yeah, you're right, no one has complained about it, and it's so funny. Yeah, it's jarring. Yeah, that's what makes it such a good ride to it's like, yeah, actions have consequences the end by then don't drink and drive by Yeah, and then and they've never updated it, Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's a solid one. Peter Pan is really good too. Um, just that one part of the ride where you're flying

over London was so good. Yeah. And that's and that's the thing where it's like as much as they try and add new stuff, nothing's going to beat the innovation of like that old school technology of basically building these dioramas. Like even when they made Little Mermaid, that was another

ride I got to cast member trial first. That one was cool because you can tell they were trying to do the same thing, but it just it doesn't hit the same because because there's a lot of things they have the technology to do now that they're just going to lean on versus just the because like that probably took a lot of effort, like to sit there and paint all of those tiny little London houses. No one wants to do that anymore. But it just really does

look so much better for sure. Oh my gosh, I remember that the Little Mermaid ride when it opened, how Ariel had the swirling cone ice cream hair. Do you remember that up? Oh? Yeah, because they're trying to like imitate the water swirling, yet we are not in water. I forgot to mention that one of the bus whose Thorough Ravens. Yeah, he also did the he's a voice of Tony the Tiger. He does the they're great and

he also saying you're a mean one, Mr Grant. You could definitely hear that deep voice, and how the Grinch stole Christmas your main one. And of course we can't leave out our wonderful friends that we take along with us at the end of the ride. It is the hitchhiking ghosts, so that's also used. It's pretty fascinating if you haven't been on the ride, because you get assigned a ghost that sits in the middle of your doom Buggy and then he follows you in each of the

different mirrors. So that's cool to me. That's again using Pepper's ghost illusion or it's a real ghost. In Sabina's mind, it is a real ghost. Although actually in Orlando they now have that sort of digitally. So now the ghosts that appear you see them like a pear, like in the mirrors and it's animated, and they like, I feel like, we, oh, do we not have that? No, Orlando has awesome stuff.

Orlando also has. So the tombstones were updated to reflect the imagineers, so a lot of them are are paying homage to them. They also have, like during their Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, a parade that features um. It features it features the hitchhiking ghosts, and it features most recently Constant Statchaway. She's on this like wicked crazy like vehicle dress kind of spins and it goes quickly. UM. And there's also like grave diggers that like like sparks

on the ground. I call them my children because they have like resting vampire face, but also they have my husband's gray hair. So every time we go we take pictures with them and it's like my children. I'm so proud. Um. And the really cool thing I love about Orlando's that during Halloween time they have improverbs outside of the mansion who are ghost characters and they'll interact with the crowds during the Halloween party nights, and they have really great

set pieces and they create like their own backstories. Like on the fly, there's Carlotta and her servant Broom. He's like this dead faced sort of like, um ah, what was the Adams family Lurch Lurch? Lurch was the servant, right, Yeah, so something similar to that, but more of a speaking role. Yeah. Yeah, there's so much. I'm sure that there's some ghosts that we probably left out. I mean we definitely are at least fifty. Yeah, I was gonna say there's nine hundred.

We left on a hundred and fifty of them. But you know those ones are the ones inside your heart. Where can people find? People can find me? Antissaneyland all the time. Yeah, we are, we are totally there a lot to me And I went the day before Valentine's together and it was rainy, and I was like, perfect, we like we like walked on we yeah, we like specifically went when it rained a good rainy day. Like that's the thing. Just get yourself an umbrella. You're gonna

have the best time at Disneyland on a rainy day. Yeah. Speaking of being at disney On all the time and going to Orlando, my husband and I were inspired by our last trip there, which we went during Halloween. That we started a theme park flog called park Goer and can find that on YouTube on the pop Culture Geek channel. Yeah, so yeah, subscribe to that channel. Yeah, pop culture Geek, and you can also find me on Instagram at that Lady Graves very bady back, very bad. Yeah that one.

Like at first that used to be scary and then I was like, she kind of be sure to bring your death certificate. Yeah she's she's been a little too long on that de sound. But wow, No, this is this is podcast for everybody. If you look, yeah, you can make that head appear and reappear interesting places. Look, this really took a turn. Uh. You can find me at if you wide away on Twitter and Instagram, if d's on Twitch, you know, you know, what I always say,

come through, drop that Twitch Prime sub. If you have Amazon Prime. Guess what, you have a Twitch Prime account. You just need to create a Twitch account, connect to your Amazon account, and you can give me a free sub every month. I'd love your support, and you can just sit around and chat with me. Lots of times. Folks will come in and you know, we'll we'll extend the conversation on there, or you can extend the conversation in the discord that's at discord dot g g slash

Salt Squad. We have a hold a different section. Fleckery is always dropping the footnotes down and Draco was always saying some ridiculous bad take that causes an argument with everyone in the discord. So you know, if like arguing, go go find Drake open there and uh and then tell him how he's wilding. I'm at Miss Danny Fernanez. I'm at New York Comic Con this weekend. I have panels on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Super cool um. I will also be at New York Comedy Club Thursday night

at ten fifteen with my friend Mark Ellis. But yeah, dope panels, come out and see them and then again, if you love the Disney princesses. My panel on Sunday is with a couple of them. It's gonna be really cool. I kind of want to ask them to sing. I don't know if I'm allowed to have that figured out by now. Uh And, like we always say, stay nerdy.