Hey gang it's finally Halloween, and I'm exhausted.
Although I didn't participate in the whole official Halloween Countdown thing it sure felt like I did. Sadly I wanted to do one last Haunted Mansion animation for Halloween, but I just didn't have the time. It was going to be my most elaborate one too, but I'm putting it on the back burner for now. Don't worry, I'll have it completed one of these days.
Well I guess I should give you something for your Trick-or-Treat bag... Oh look, I've got a box of Universal Studios Monster Cookies from 1998 for you!
The reason I wanted to animate this unused concept art by Marc Davis was because it features witches, and you won't find witches anywhere in the Haunted Mansion.
Marc Davis drew a couple of early concept sketches with witches in them - before it was decided to strictly stick to the ghosts. Also the ghosts in this sketch look nothing like the ghosts in the Haunted Mansion either.
Although it's interesting that the Caretaker and his dog look virtually the same as they do in the final attraction.
OK here's the animation made to move as if it actually was a scene in the Haunted Mansion...
Additional comments...
There's not much more to say really. I originally wanted to use a little of the theme music to Disney's Wonderful World of Color for when the sketch turns from B&W to color, but it didn't work with the other audio.
I've got a few different brochures from the Stars Hall of Fame in Orlando, Florida, and I promise to post them in their entirety one day soon. But just for Halloween I wanted to spotlight a specific feature of this now defunct wax museum.
This brochure is from 1982, and the Stars Hall of Fame had invested in a $1.2 million expansion. You can see for yourself some of the new offerings this expansion brought, but I think you'll agree the coolest is Vincent Price's Monster Manor.
I had hoped someone out there in Internet Land had posted some pictures of Monster Manor, but the only picture I could find was from a Florida newspaper...
The above artists rendering is from the May 6, 1982 edition of the Ledger, and yeah, Monster Manor did sorta look like that I guess. You see, dear reader, I personally experienced the "magical, mysterious, maze-like Monster Manor."
Unfortunately I was young, and don't remember much about it.
I was reading the brochure description, and I don't remember any of that stuff. I don't remember the Wolfman, talking or moving walls, or ghosts. There were creepy and eerie noises, if you consider a thunderstorm creepy and eerie. It looked like a spooky castle on inside with maybe a dozen horror movie scenes depicted in wax. I remember there was that scene from The Exorcist where Regan's head spins around. As for "Jeckyll becomes Hyde, as if by magic, right before your eyes!", well there might have been some Pepper's ghost illusion I guess. There was a scene (I want to say it was from The Fly ) where an actor (or more accurately a teenager making minimum wage) pretended to be a wax figure, and would suddenly jump at you. It's sad that my clearest memory is of some fat guy tourist near the exit who'd shout "boo" to people as they walked by him. What a jerk. Me and my mother went through the Monster Manor alone (my father had gone through ahead of us. My father was an impatient man, and would walk way ahead of the family all the time), and we didn't need any random weirdos getting in on the action.
If anyone reading this personally experienced Vincent Price's Monster Manor, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear what you remember.
For my last Monster Monday I've departed further from the original drawing than ever before. I don't know if that's a good thing.
I made the drawing above some time in middle school, and I remember I was trying to draw something super scary. This time it was a sinister shrouded ghost with glowing red eyes. Hooded ghosts are a dime a dozen, and even back then I was attempting to make my ghost different. I intentionally stretched the proportions of the neck (maybe I was influenced by E.T.), and gave the ghost an X-ray look with a visible skeleton. I don't think I was very satisfied with what I drew since I didn't complete the drawing. Also the little doodle in the bottom left is sorta mocking the ghost.
For my 2009 update, I wanted to get as far away from the cliche shrouded ghost as possible. So I made the ghost an alien. I liked the stretched out neck of the original, and that works for an alien. The bony appearance works too, and I got to indulge my six pack abs fetish (after countless hours of doing ab exercises, I've only manged to get something like a 2.5 pack in real life unfortunately) by giving my alien an unearthly set of abs. I then thought what's the scariest thing that supposedly "real" aliens do to people... You know what I'm talking about, so I don't need to tell what the device he's holding is used for. The vague S&M leather gear getup I gave my alien works for this aspect as well.
I'm going to do something a little different this time. For my past Haunted Mansion animations I've tried to remain as faithful as possible to the original artist's intentions, but this time I'm going to do my own armchair Imagineering.
You'll notice the above concept art of a woman trapped in a mirror looks rather aged and old. When I discovered this sketch floating in the boundless realm of the Internets I assumed it was from the 1960's. To my surprise, it's from 1995 and is supposedly part of some proposed HM enhancements (thanks again to GRD999 for this info).
This woman/ghost trapped in the mirror gag was to be placed in the Corridor of Doors. For those who don't know, The Corridor of Doors is one of the scarier places in the Mansion. This is the section of the ride where you travel past a series of doors - each with a seemingly very noisy and angry spirit pounding on the other side.
This gag would work similarly to the mirror gag with the Hitchhiking Ghosts. Although I assume the figure of the woman would be a reasonably sophisticated Audio-Animatronic. My guess is she would look like she's pounding on the glass, move her head, eyes and blink. I also think she'd probably talk or scream. There is an up-light lighting her from below. I assume this would dim up and down to reveal the figure.
Although this gag was never installed in the Haunted Mansion, I think it's a good idea.
Now there's a unwritten rule in the Haunted Mansion that says you cannot see the ghosts until you pass Madame Leota, who through her incantations allow the spirits to materialize. I respect that. Therefore if I was in charge of doing a ghost in the mirror gag for the Haunted Mansion I would do it differently.
Having an actual figure behind the glass, while certainly effective, it's probably much too literal. I think you if you show a ghost in the mirror, it must remain blurry and undefined. Also with the advancements in flat panel HD displays, I would probably dress a monitor to look like a mirror. I also think you could have some sort of mirrored glass on the monitor too that would reflect when the ghost is not visible too (I don't know for sure if this practical. I haven't done any R&D on this so don't hold me to it).
So enough with the set-up, here's my animation...
Additional comments...
This effect isn't perfect, but it's very close to how I would do the effect if I was actually designing this for the Haunted Mansion. It's certainly a very good first draft of the proposed effect.
Just in case there's some rabid HM fan out there reading this who wants to debate why this effect is not appropriate, or some other sort of nonsense. Remember I am not an Imagineer, or work for Disney in anyway. This effect is NOT going in the Haunted Mansion. This is just for fun. This is my sandbox to play in, and so if you're upset you can take your Tonka trucks and go home.
It's unfortunate that this retro brochure for Castle Dracula in Niagara Falls, Ontario doesn't use any actual photographs of the attraction. If you Google "Castle Dracula Niagara Falls" use can see it's actually fairly impressive looking (at least from the outside).
Inside
Back
UPDATE: I've just discovered that the artwork for this brochure was lifted from a 1973 issue of the House of Mystery. Check out this post over at The Haunted Closet. Looks like you're busted Castle Dracula people.
The drawing above I made when I was in junior high. It was my attempt to make something extremely scary. I think I was inspired by the film Poltergeist, even though that movie isn't known for its monsters, there is that one scene near the end with the ghostly creature in the hallway.
Poltergeist 1982
My take on this creature this was to make it extra gross looking with rat-like hair and diseased looking skin. Drawing my new version of this monster was sorta a nightmare. I started with a much more dynamic pose, but that was a headache to draw so I changed it at the last minute to look more like the original drawing.
