Sunday, September 23, 2007

Jack Has Invaded the Florida Mansion! (Updated)

Greetings Ghost Fans,


This week I have a slightly different way of reporting a post. This post includes a Spoiler Warning.


At the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion, the Imagineers/Property Asset Managers/Set Decorators (or whomever it may have been), has installed a few references to Jack Skellington and the Tim Burton story, The Nightmare Before Christmas. While I am certain that the ones pictured below aren't the only ones in the mansion, they are a few of them. So if you want to go on your very own Jack Skellington scavenger hunt, then read no further. The following Spoiler contains both descriptions and photos of where they are found.



















Alright, you've been warned...
NOTE: All photos in my blog can be clicked on for a larger version. I am making these small as to not spoil it for people passing by to other posts.


One of the first encounters with a Jack reference is in the Library. Below the table with the lamp there is a red book on the floor with a white drawing of Jack on the cover.



Also in the library on the same table is a copy of The Nightmare Before Christmas.



In the attic there is a tiered shelf that contains two champagne flutes and a set of porceline figures (one with the head broken off of course). On the floor to the left of this shelf is another book, similar to the one in the library but with a different drawing of Jack.


Also in the attic is a Jack Snowglobe on a shelf, and where the old bride once stood is a Jack plushie.

These are the ones that have been found so far, but try your hand at finding more!

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Haunted Mansion Re-Haunted Photos

Greetings Ghost Fans,
BPGStudios took a fieldtrip to the park today. He came back with some excellent photos of the Haunted Mansion, reopened.
So, for your viewing pleasure, take a gander! If you don't want anything spoiled, read no further.







Sunday, September 09, 2007

Things change faster than they should...

Greetings Ghost Fans,

Back when the Mansion was in its development stages, the changing portraits had multiple concepts in terms of how they would change. Video loops, multiple slides, etc. For the Disneyland Mansion, the concept eventually went to a simply two stage projection. One lamp would come on and the other extinguished. However, this only allowed for 2 stages. Marc Davis, who created much of the changing portrait concepts, often had many different stages, more than two in most cases. When Walt Disney World opened, its Mansion had the first 6 stage portrait, The Aging Man, or, as he is more widely known now, Master Gracey. One concept was of the Flying Dutchman portrait still seen in Disneyland's Mansion. Many of the stages were released in a 1999, Haunted Mansion 30th Anniversary lenticular. Now, seen here are all of the stages.







In addition, Dan Olson has examined the artwork and, with his vast knowledge, adds the following:

"Did you notice the depiction of "St. Elmo's Fire" in those paintings? An eerie electrical phenomenon. Glowing balls on the ends of masts and yardarms. Even in the last painting there are little white balls on the tips of a couple of them."

For more information on St. Elmo's fire, please refer to the following Wikipedia article: St. Elmo's Fire.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

The Mysterious Mismatched Roofline of Doom

Greetings Ghost Fans,

At the Ghost Relations Dept, I sift through thousands of photos and artwork each week to support my blog posts. However, there is something I have noticed for a long time but never really brought up.


In 1957, Ken Anderson did a preliminary sketch of a house which pretty much became the design plan for the Disneyland Mansion facade we know today. He based this sketch off of a house in Baltimore, MD.


However, there was one slight flaw in his original sketch. The 2nd floor balcony roofline matches greatly one on side of the columns, but on the other side has gone it has gone off kilter. Considering that his sketch was pretty much a copy of the photo of the house, it makes one wonder what was happening here.


Artist Sam McKim took Andersons original sketch and turned it into a concept painting. However, McKim did not change the roofline either. So today, one of the most famous Mansion illustrations has a flaw that has gone mostly unnoticed for over 5 decades.