tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post9087665605760170596..comments2024-03-07T09:25:09.142-08:00Comments on Long-Forgotten: The Haunted Mansion Boat RideHBG2http://www.blogger.com/profile/05073387557562504315noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-41465701730957013522022-12-11T12:25:55.759-08:002022-12-11T12:25:55.759-08:00Well, it IS in fact suddenly very stormy, pouring ...Well, it IS in fact suddenly very stormy, pouring rain just before you board a conveyance…did someone leave the flood idea running? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-15642748263231793712020-09-25T13:33:48.045-07:002020-09-25T13:33:48.045-07:00I wonder if "The Chair" was, somehow, th...I wonder if "The Chair" was, somehow, the Imagineers toying with the notion of Pirates and Mansion being in the same Universe. I know you mentioned above that its probably a holdover from the unused Flooded Mansion concept, but why have a (nearly) floating chair in a decrepit, charred house if not to suggest something supernatural? TheMellowPumpkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17254823575439311431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-26420888147418712622020-08-12T09:14:22.680-07:002020-08-12T09:14:22.680-07:00Great post - can I email you? Great post - can I email you? JPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00187597568755889607noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-23721243606151771042019-01-09T04:38:43.844-08:002019-01-09T04:38:43.844-08:00Fun fact: Six Flags over GA has a Monster Mansion ...Fun fact: Six Flags over GA has a Monster Mansion (previously Plantation) that is a boat ride. I imagine HM as a boat ride would be very similar accept ghosts instead of monsters (and obviously less hokey - ours is suuuuper kid friendly)Laureinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06914581936731134497noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-67111804215639072922016-01-27T10:02:15.742-08:002016-01-27T10:02:15.742-08:00This might be an idea or insperation on my Blog If...This might be an idea or insperation on my Blog If I Ran The Park. Robert H. Orsinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08572384929316351108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-12805003517949101972015-05-11T21:00:01.405-07:002015-05-11T21:00:01.405-07:00The submerged catacombs remind me a lot of descent...The submerged catacombs remind me a lot of descent into the Phantom's lair from The Phantom of the Opera (the silent film one at least).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-84040367391299913472015-03-14T08:36:26.358-07:002015-03-14T08:36:26.358-07:00I know your focus is on the Haunted Mansion, but s...I know your focus is on the Haunted Mansion, but since you mentioned your fixation with the chair and the rotting floor at the conclusion of Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought I would mention the purpose for the debris which hangs overhead. The set decoration which suggests the collapsing interior of a home actually serves as camouflage to hide the bridge structure of the Disneyland Railroad. This is similar to the start of the adventure but with a different theme. As the narrow grotto passage approaches the expansive harbor attack scene, the "ceiling" drops down to a short distance above the guests' heads as the waterway passes between the two Pirates show buildings, but in this case the railroad bridge is disguised as irregular rock formations.Jeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03384184405372060479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-62823592921755410912015-03-06T14:12:36.168-08:002015-03-06T14:12:36.168-08:00Thanks HBG2, this post was great! Really got my h...Thanks HBG2, this post was great! Really got my head spinning with ideas of what a HM boat ride could be like....<br />A couple of ideas I liked:<br /><br />1. I enjoyed your "ride through", but you mentioned that you thought the Mansion exterior would have to be shown in a state of decay surrounded by a swampy landscape. I don't think that's necessary for the idea to work. You could leave the house exterior the same and maybe only allude to a swamp being behind the house/under the current updated grounds the house is built on. Then you could have the ride start out the same as it currently does and say something like the house has a history of flooding (and hint at suspicious drownings), but is now updated safely to sit on top of the swamp. You enter boats from the basement/cellar to tour the oldest part of the house first. As you go through the house then the walls/wallpaper could change from normal/current to water damaged/old with special effects, etc. Then you are forced to stay in the boats as you get pulled into the house and into the past. This would work on the idea that the ghosts make the house return to a former state (perhaps to when they drowned in it). The effects get worse as you move through it until you get flooded out of the attic into the swampy cemetery from the past or something similar. At the end of the ride the ghosts allow you to return to the present up-kept house as you leave. That way we can keep Walt happy :D<br /><br />2. Flipping the ride around: You enter an old plantation gate (the mansion sits across a swamp in this scenario). You go down the elevator in this gate building to load on boats to take you across the swamp to the Mansion. You experience weird things in the swamp (graveyard scenes modified of course), then as you approach the house the floods come pouring down and you're forced to stay in the boats. You are guided through (by ghosts?) the halls of the house in the basement first and as the waters continue to rise you are taken upstairs until finally you fall out the attic and back into the swamp where you entered wondering if any of that really just happened. The effects can be similar to #1 such as the ghosts are causing the flooding, etc. I like the visuals you created of being under parts of the house and seeing multiple levels up above you rotting away in this scenario. <br /><br />Lots of other ideas occur to me now that I wrote out those first 2, but we’ll just leave it here for now. Thanks for the post!Claymationhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16239683245179665187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-2650731395353033232015-01-24T20:15:23.925-08:002015-01-24T20:15:23.925-08:00Just returned from a trip to Disneyland at Christm...Just returned from a trip to Disneyland at Christmas. During POTC I made certain to really study the creaking beams and falling-in-on-us household items. Some of the 'ember' effects seemed to be unlit, so easier to picture a haunted-mansion-esque setting. But I also think the queue location, the Blue Bayou restaurant, and the general idea that this is somehow under a city, whether New Orleans square or the town under attack by pirates. You enter the queue beneath a building, but find yourself outside on a darkened bayou with an outdoor restaurant surrounded by buildings. Then you travel between brick walls and descend beneath a brick arch into a cave, only to emerge into town. Then the transition back to the real world happens beneath buildings, climbing back into that first structure/bayou zone. You exit the Blue-bayou buildings area into a back-alley of New Orleans. It really is a layering of structure transitions and zones. I wonder if it would have been as effective without the drops/climb necessary to duck the tracks? I think it might have been.<br /><br />What I always found creepy about riding Pirates (and Mansion, to a lesser degree) was the way the scenes are extended off into the distance. As a kid (riding at WDW) I wasn't familiar with the ride and so I wasn't sure just how the boat would travel. Looking off into the darkened sky, or down a back alley in the town, the effective use of forced perspective was so well done that I could easily imagine our boat leaving the channel and drifting out to sea.<br /><br />With the HM, there seems to be this idea that once you enter the mansion, you're in, and that's where you'll be until you exit, even if you fall out an attic window into a graveyard and return to the real world via a crypt. But there is this world that exists outside the mansion, only once you're inside. Could you say something about the use of forced perspective and inside/outside ideas? I know you just mentioned the storm effects in the most recent (1/15) post. With POTC, you can believe that you're going somewhere - through a bayou, down under a city, into a Carribean town, and back again. But at the Mansion, that's the one location. And yet, we are asked to suspend our disbelief and accept that somehow the mansion is bigger on the inside, or it is nighttime, etc.Galen Gallimorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272822237546731134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-58826835609508616412015-01-19T09:54:46.095-08:002015-01-19T09:54:46.095-08:00Wow! Great article. To imagine the HM as a boat ri...Wow! Great article. To imagine the HM as a boat ride is certainly intriguing, and I think even more spooky.Snow White Archivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04715594290214114608noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-80081805371780987202015-01-06T14:16:47.013-08:002015-01-06T14:16:47.013-08:00Because you are a bold and courageous person, afra...Because you are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing.Brother Billhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13176233134588988372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-54766654780645601282015-01-01T21:25:09.590-08:002015-01-01T21:25:09.590-08:00Amazingly clever job! both for figuring out how to...Amazingly clever job! both for figuring out how to make the Haunted Mansion a boat ride and the conceptual artwork. Although, I think it would have been pretty hard to convince Disney to "decay" the Mansion to fit the swamp motif. Unfortunately he seemed pretty stubborn that absolutely nothing should appear run-down in Disney Land, even, as in this case, it would have been a major improvement.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18057008253961275339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-53184821310311112302015-01-01T16:28:53.241-08:002015-01-01T16:28:53.241-08:00Don't get me wrong though,,
Boats or rickety ... Don't get me wrong though,,<br />Boats or rickety cars,,<br /> I would have still gone on it.<br /><br /> haunted is HAUNTED ya know.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11699906388651862247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-85953164153988614982014-12-19T13:27:25.838-08:002014-12-19T13:27:25.838-08:00Walt came by "just a little later," but ...<i>Walt came by "just a little later," but when Claude told him about Fred's concept, the boss scuttled the idea immediately: "We've got too many boat rides already."</i><br /><br />A few years back, my sister called Walt Disney World "the Boatiest Place on Earth."<br /><br />(We went there with our oldest friend, who had never been, forgetting that he had survived the boating accident that killed his father back in high school. The boats didn't bother him at all, thank goodness, but we were mortified that we had forgotten until we started looking at the guidebook and every other entry was a boat ride.)Melissahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06169920944565828337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-37316436723710994522014-12-09T20:16:54.726-08:002014-12-09T20:16:54.726-08:00"I imagine the motive for visiting would be t..."I imagine the motive for visiting would be the same as for any other haunted house; i.e., this mansion is reputedly haunted, and you're a curious soul"<br /><br />Agreed...Phantom Manor even had Vincent Price state this in the original narration, 'Welcome, curious souls...you may not believe this, but beauty once lived in this house...'Kevin Karstenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00256575834955440406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-31091402130895914322014-12-09T16:11:20.166-08:002014-12-09T16:11:20.166-08:00I imagine the motive for visiting would be the sam...I imagine the motive for visiting would be the same as for any other haunted house; i.e., this mansion is reputedly haunted, and you're a curious soul, and so in you go. In this case the house is partially sunk in a swamp, so the only way to see some of it is in a boat.HBG2https://www.blogger.com/profile/05073387557562504315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-57614959586133590932014-12-09T14:36:10.962-08:002014-12-09T14:36:10.962-08:00So pleasing to know there's more to come! I a...So pleasing to know there's more to come! I always get a hankerin' for one of these fine posts about this time...<br /><br />So perhaps instead of waters rising, we could have a sinking mansion? Guests float into a tall space, like the ballroom, the whole room sinks, allowing them to float down an upstairs hall. Lather, rinse, repeat, to get from floor to floor, then finally out the attic window, just in time to see the roof sink and the weather vane remain above the surface. Could be quite exciting with the appropriate groaning, creaking, and gurgling effects. The sinking scenes would need to be partitioned or divided with enough space between boats, and enough gags to entertain in each scene, to allow for the effect.<br /><br />Begs the question, why journey through a waterlogged old manse in the first place? In POTC we come seeking adventure and salty old pirates, or treasure, whatever. Why visit a HM in a boat? Ghost hunting? Trying to solve a mystery (a la Scooby Do?) Was there ever any hint as to the motive for that possible themeing other than as a solution to the conveyance problem later solved by the Doom buggies?<br /><br />GalenGalen Gallimorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272822237546731134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-12819136511857117192014-12-08T12:20:23.542-08:002014-12-08T12:20:23.542-08:00Thankee kindly. In the next post you'll find o...Thankee kindly. In the next post you'll find out whence I stole the faces!HBG2https://www.blogger.com/profile/05073387557562504315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-60941437977980952092014-12-08T10:28:44.546-08:002014-12-08T10:28:44.546-08:00I really, really loved this! Especially the colonn...I really, really loved this! Especially the colonnade gargoyle gag.Laotanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-40355416189197527972014-12-01T21:16:56.676-08:002014-12-01T21:16:56.676-08:00I've seen the Grand all referred to as "T...I've seen the Grand all referred to as "THE GREAT BANQUET HALL".<br /> but that was so long ago I don't remember were it was, who it was, or what it was<br /> that said or wrote it.<br /><br /> seems I saw it in writing now that I have put my brain in a vice trying to remember..<br /><br /> But now after reading this flooded house concept,,<br /> I'm just thanking God for the Omni mover.<br /><br /> The boat concept in the POTC was a much more practical use as was the boats in A Small World.<br /><br />I feel the HM would have over played the boat as transportation. though another ride attraction.<br /><br />""Come ON KIDS!<br /><br /><br /> we are gonna ride a boat through a house!""Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11699906388651862247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-36158594123159025842014-12-01T18:10:06.274-08:002014-12-01T18:10:06.274-08:00I agree! What terrific, terrific fun!I agree! What terrific, terrific fun!Eccentric Scholarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14316310165037320995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-47321485136080317522014-12-01T14:08:52.274-08:002014-12-01T14:08:52.274-08:00VERY interesting...one of the most intriguing post...VERY interesting...one of the most intriguing posts you have done, IMHO...LOVED the 'conceptual concept art', you did a great job with that (the 'Hattie' inspired one being my favorite)...I would definitely be a tad more than 'interested' to go through this version of the Haunted Bayou...err, Mansion, if it existed...GREAT post, and many thanks!Kevin Karstenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00256575834955440406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-72037299099850682862014-12-01T11:01:30.500-08:002014-12-01T11:01:30.500-08:00It's called the "Great Hall" in the ...It's called the "Great Hall" in the 1965 souvenir guidebook, underneath one of the red Marc Davis concept paintings.HBG2https://www.blogger.com/profile/05073387557562504315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-18397714404486375032014-12-01T10:01:20.678-08:002014-12-01T10:01:20.678-08:00Amazing – I could have *sworn* you had previously ...Amazing – I could have *sworn* you had previously shown us all a couple of the water-logged Mansion concept drawings. Must be the Redmond painting I'm mis-remembering. <br /><br />I don't think I have never heard of the "Great Hall" referenced anywhere before. I've always heard that hallway referred to as the "Portrait Hall" (and the Stretch Room sometimes as "The Gallery"). Closest to that name was the "Grand Hall", but that was how the record album (and blueprints, I believe) addressed what is more commonly known as the Ballroom.Grinning Ghosthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09431989275349314467noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4444762441887107389.post-80054076635804356482014-12-01T09:46:57.591-08:002014-12-01T09:46:57.591-08:00Ah-ha! Nice to know. I don't suppose we could ...Ah-ha! Nice to know. I don't suppose we could persuade you to scan it and post it?HBG2https://www.blogger.com/profile/05073387557562504315noreply@blogger.com