A traditional Dune-Buggy Style Dark Ride engineered by Disney Imagineers which opened in August of 1969 at Disney World Hollywood. Guests will walk through the stretching room and encounter spirits and ghosts before boarding the buggy carts and taking a tour around the famous HAUNTED MANSION.
This attraction includes innovative deceptive techniques to fool guests into thinking they are seeing real ghosts. Newly seen effects developed by imagineers make guests feel as if they are stepping into a truly haunted mansion.
The Stretching Room
An elevator designed to be disguised as a holding room that presents "stretching portraits" and frightening commentary that mocks guests as they await the next scene.
This feature created by ride creatives was made for an important reason. On top of the added suspense created by this elevator, it serves to lower guest 18 ft underground to board the creepy attraction. This is due to the large railroad that ran between the Mansion Facade and the rides show building where the track and ride occurs (invisible to guests from all angles).
The elevator is actually one the largest passenger elevators able to carry the weight of over 80 guests at one time. The effect of the portraits on the wall "stretching" is created from the separation of the walls and the ceiling. The ceiling remains stationary as the walls and floor are lowered 18ft which creates the illusion of the pictures stretching. What is really happening is the wallpaper is being revealed as the floor lowers and the angle of the guests make the pictures appear to stretch. Then the lights flicker as the ghost host laughs manically and guests exit through the now very large wooden doors of the elevator.
Ground breaking Iconic Effects and famous Illusions
The Endless Hallway- This illusion makes riders think that they are seeing a hallway that appears to go on forever. However this deceptive trick is created by half the hallway set being a true built set that is accompanied by a large floor to ceiling mirror that sits at the end of the hall. A large angled sheet of glass is placed in front of guests which reflects off of the mirror and when lit correctly, makes it appear as if the hallway goes forever.
Madame Leota- This floating witch head that talks to you as she flies around the room in a small glass ball may seem impossible to pull off. The answer is quite simple. A series of 3 black cables attached to high-voltage motors push and pull the ball around the room. As for the talking head, a small 3D video of the witch's facial expressions are projected onto a blank mold of her face inside of the ball. Some good lighting and speaker work and this effect is complete. This effect is used multiple times in the attraction as seen on the talking busts and the Hatbox Ghost illusion as well.
The Famous Ballroom Scene- This well known and easily the most recognizable illusion in Disney imagineering is the ballroom scene which is the largest example peppers ghost effect to date. This illusion is created with 8 giant panes of glass from the floor to the ceiling of the ballroom cleverly hidden within large columns. Below the balcony which riders are moving along are a series of figures that have been placed on rotational machines with exaggerated face paint to show their emotions. These ghost like figures are placed in a black room and lit from above which reflect them off a large angled mirror placed behind them and appear to be dancing and floating in the large ballroom set visible to riders. Additional ghost figures appear to be floating near the ceiling of the room and are done using the same techniques. This example of the peppers ghost effect is quite impressive now and groundbreaking for the time and almost impossible to spot how it's performed without previous knowledge.
Closing Thoughts and Opinions
This attraction is one of my personal favorites in the Disney parks and is a true demonstration of masterful engineering. It's creative illusions to the winding creepy queue and facade make this ride one that is worth going to every visit. Opening so many years ago, it still remains as an impressive dark ride and has stood the test of time. It has become so successful and popular with guests that many iterations of this ride have been created and continue to run in the Disney parks. This attraction will go down in history as one of Disney's original dark rides that is unique and fascinating for all ages to experience.
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